I have realized after reading a few of my old entries that I sound a bit like a travel agent. Come to Hong Kong, it’s a great city! Come to Bali, the people here are amazing! Come to Iguazzu Falls, and see this wonder for yourself!
In a way, this is how I feel… maybe not a travel agent, but more a connection that people can travel through. I want readers to realize if we can do it, so can they.
I also want people not to be afraid to travel. There are wonderful places with dark pasts. Countless people have said, “are you sure you want to go to Bali/Thailand/Nicaragua/insert country here with a scarred reputation? Isn’t it dangerous there?”
Think about it, Bali had bombings in 2002 and 2005, and their tourism is in the toilet right now because of the bombers’ execution and subsequent warning from the Aussie government (they lost 88 Aussies). London and Spain have had bombings too, but no one asks if we are sure we want to go there. Why is that? There are no US government warnings for the UK, Spain, OR Indonesia. I am hoping to dispel some of the fear the media can create when we see sound bites on the news.
Now obviously I am not advocating travel in areas that the US Government has warnings on so if you want to go to Somalia, go ahead, I will opt out. But I hope our blog makes you want to travel someplace that makes you a bit uncomfortable. I am not talking safety uncomfortable, you should never do that. I am talking about language, distance, food, places that are unlike anywhere you have been. I hope through this blog places that were once unfamiliar to you now seem more familiar.
When I was a kid we did not travel. We had no money to do much of anything, let alone take a vacation. When my parents divorced, my father moved to Florida and we started visiting twice a year. I remember asking a teacher if there was a time difference in Florida before we went for the first time, and being disappointed there was none. I remember using the American Airlines automated flight schedule on the phone, putting together exotic destinations, like San Diego, with connections in places I thought I would never see, like Santa Fe, and writing them down in a notebook. I remember taking my first spring break to Florida when I was in Grad School, thinking a road trip must be the greatest thing on earth. I got in the car in Pennsylvania, and ended up somewhere totally different.
I still never really road tripped the US until my last year in Grad School, when I did an internship in Florida (safe) and California (exotic). I was hooked. I could be somewhere else, even if only temporary, and live life differently. I loved it. But I missed out on 6 weeks in Europe with Grad School friends because no one told me that overseas travel did not have to be expensive, that I could do it. I thought it better to start working right away and although I put a dent in that student loan, I regret now that I did not go. I did not know then overseas does not have to equal expensive. Ah, and the dollar was so much stronger then, too.
My first real overseas trip was to Greece (not counting Mexico) with WS, my friend Caterina and her husband Michael. I had the worst jet lag imaginable. I was so tired I was crying, but her grandfather taught me how to clean a fish. Her family cooked us Greek food. Her cousins walked with us all over town. The only Greek I spoke was “thank you, yes, and no”. Life was different, the people were kind even if we could not understand each other, and I loved it.
Travel is not always full of ups. If you are a regular reader, you know there are downs, too. You get sick, the unexpected happens, the toilets are unfamiliar, the language is different, and you can be uncomfortable. But that is what it is all about. The learning, the growing, the connection with someone from another country, realizing that we all want pretty much the same things out of life, even if we speak differently and eat differently (I apologize again for being left handed) and have different toilets.
I want you to travel. I know the economy is in the toilet back home (I keep mentioning toilets in this post, why is that?), but I want you to realize that the same cost for a 7 day cruise for you and your family can equal a whole month in Thailand or Indonesia. A vacation is not the same as travel.
WS and I did not win the lottery or inherit a fortune to do this trip, we saved our money as travel was a priority for us. If something is a priority to you, you make it happen, like a new TV you want or your child’s tuition that needs to be paid. You find a way to make it happen. Travel can happen, whether it is a 2 week vacation, or an around the world dream come true, it CAN happen if you want it. Whether you are a family of four, a single person with a nomadic soul , or a thirty-something couple with a house, a car and a cat back home , it can be done.
And so I write. Not so that I get more readers, or that someone buys something off of our Amazon links (I won’t mind if you do!), or that you stumble this article and I become internet famous. I write because I love it out here, and I hope that I make you curious enough to want to see if you love it out here, too.
