A TRUE STORY OF LETTING GO
Jam Jam!
A woman's life-changing solo journey around South-East Asia.
At forty, Nicki Chandler sold the car, let go of the house, and packed a life into a loft. What was left fit in a rucksack — and took her further than she ever imagined.
"Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
— Mark Twain, the line that started it all
THE BOOK
Jam Jam!
An honest, unpolished account of throwing off the safety net and booking a one-way ticket to the Far East — with only a vague idea of where the road might lead.
From the Tibetan Autonomous Region to trekking the Nepalese Himalayas, from tribal villages in Laos and Myanmar to coral reef conservation in the Philippines, Nicki recounts the highs and lows with warmth, honesty, and a healthy sense of humour.
Off the beaten track and among indigenous communities, she found a way of living in closer harmony with people and place — a feeling only deepened by a romance with a Nepalese man, and the quiet friction between East and West.
Tibet
Nepal
Laos
Myanmar
Philippines
Reef Conservation
LETTING GO
Everything she owned fit in a loft. Everything she needed fit in a rucksack.
Six weeks in India ended early, with a bad chest and a worse feeling of failure. It took a false start, a full year, and one more trip to Nepal before the decision finally stuck.
The house was let. The Mini Cooper was sold. The direct debits were cancelled one by one — each cancellation, she writes, "like a weight being lifted."
"Things you own, end up owning you."
— borrowed from Fight Club, felt in the bones
What remained wasn't a plan. It was an open door — and a decision to walk through it.
THE ROUTE HERE
She was collecting the world
long before she left it all behind.
Four childhood journeys that planted the wanderlust — and the decades it took to finally follow it.
A childhood spent in the hills above Lisbon, befriending village neighbours who gave freely of milk, bread and babysitting — the first lesson in what really matters.
Rio, the Iguaçu Falls, a jungle lodge on stilts — and a first real glimpse of poverty on the roadside that no eight-year-old forgets.
A thatched rondavel, a working diamond mine, and a long drive through the townships that taught her to look past the postcard.
Job offers in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong came and went. Life, as it does, got in the way — until it didn't anymore.
On Poon Hill, watching dawn break over the Himalayas, she decided — that very evening — that she would go travelling. Properly. Alone. For good.
The Author
Nicki Chandler
Nicki has lived in Portugal, France, Greece and the United Kingdom. After Portugal as a small child, she trained as an architect, working in London and Hampshire, before stepping sideways into a career in interior design — one she came, at last, to love.
Jam Jam! is the story of the solo travels she embarked on at forty, and how they changed her life in far more ways than she expected.
Four years after returning to the UK she met her husband Brendan, who shares her passion for travel, walking and diving; together they've visited Zanzibar, Tonga, the Ionian Islands and Morocco. They spent seven years in South-West France, restoring an ancient watermill turned home, and currently live in a remote part of mainland Greece — 1.2 hectares of olive grove and orchard above the Aegean, fed by natural spring water, heated sustainably by wood from their land, and powered increasingly by the sun.
What readers say
Words that take flight
"Nicki writes with such honesty about the fear of letting go that I found myself cheering her on through every chapter. This isn't a polished travel brochure — it's real, funny, and moving in equal measure."
— Sarah M., Goodreads reviewer
"I'd been putting off a career break for years. Reading about her false start, the panic, and then finally going anyway gave me the push I needed. Three months later I was on a plane myself."
— David R., verified reader
"What struck me most wasn't the places — though they're beautifully described — it was her honesty about what she was really running from, and running toward. A brave, generous book."