HUMANITARIAN adventurer Kerys Williams is taking a cruise around the world on a love boat with a difference.

The 29-years-old teacher, a former Leigh and Wigan ambassadress in France, will board a Peace Boat in Japan in April for its 45th educational voyage to spread the message of harmony around the globe.

The trip will be a new experience for Kerys who has a catalogue of solo travel journeys behind her.

While working in Japan she made a snap decision to apply for a voluntary teaching position on the Peace Boat and went for an interview, never thinking she would be successful.

Last week she learned she would be teaching English and yoga on the cruise ship which will carry 600 fare-paying, mainly Japanese, passengers.

The ship sails from Tokyo on April 4 and returns on July 11 after circumnavigating the globe and passing through the Suez and Panama Canals.

It will take in Vietnam, Singapore, India, Kenya, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, Italy, France Spain, Miami, Jamaica, Panama, Guatemala, Canada, and Alaska.

Every year the Peace Boat organises several educational peace voyages with the aim of promoting international peace, human rights and friendship at grass roots level.

One year on from the US led attacks on Iraq, Kerys' voyage will set sail under the theme that the world's only superpower besides the US government is the power of civil society.

The ship's first ever call to Jordan will create the opportunity for travellers to study and visit Palestine refugee camps as well as taking an on-board programme focusing on hopes for a lasting peace for Palestine and Israel and the future of the Middle East.

Kerys, of Tiverton Avenue, Leigh, has amazed her family and friends with her wanderlust.

After leaving St Paul's CE School, Leigh, she moved to Westleigh High then Wigan and Leigh College before gaining an English degree at Manchester University.

From there she went to Huddersfield to complete a course in teaching English to foreign students and joined the Bell Language School from where she received her first posting.

She left England for a two-year stay in Thailand and fell head over heels in love with Asia.

She has taken Thai massage courses and has visited Vietnam, Laos, Tibet, Cambodia and visited the Bridge on the River Kwai.

She has also lived in China and India where she studied yoga.

One of five, Kerys has a gift with children and loves teaching Asian youngsters who she finds so respectful to their elders.

Globetrotter Kerys, who speaks five languages, left for Thailand again last week after paying mum and dad Sylvia and Ken and her two brothers and two sisters a surprise visit.

Sylvia said: "I don't know where she caught the travel bug, but she is not ready to settle down yet. She is a very independent person and we do worry about her sometimes. We always have to wait for her to ring us."

Sylvia proudly tells of the time her caring daughter was visiting hill tribes in Thailand and encountered a small boy with a very painful, swollen mouth.

She befriended him and his family, who had no money, and decided she wanted to help.

After meditating she decided to take him to Bangkok where she paid £200 "the equivalent of millions to his family" for treatment.

Sylvia said: "Although she has little money herself she decided it was a small price to pay for someone's happiness."

Kerys is expecting to revisit her little patient on this latest trip along with many of the other hill children she has befriended.

Though the good experiences far outweigh the bad, Kerys has been robbed in India and set on fire during Diwali.

Sylvia said: "She thought she was being mugged again when two men jumped on her, but they were putting flames out after a candle set her clothes on fire during the religious celebrations."

Kerys, who was Wigan's ambassadress in the borough's twin town Angers during the year 1996-7, has also visited Australia, but finds it too European.

She is now hoping to add the Portuguese language to her repertoire. She speaks French, German, Italian and Thai fluently and can get by in Chinese and Dutch.

As for the world trip Kerys can hardly wait to board to join the dynamic team which will organise guest speakers, lectures and language classes as well as peace education workshops, salsa dancing, movies and deck soccer.