Nearly two years away from the US, and now, after stints in the Bay Area and NYC, here I am back in North Carolina.
Even though it’s been great re-learning America and relaxing in familiar settings, it’s also been a pretty busy time for me running around catching up with old friends. As such, I’m going to cut this entry short and make it an open forum for traveler related issues. If you have any questions or comments at all–travelling tips, preparation, culture shock or reshock–whatever you’re thinking, don’t hesitate to bring it up.
My final TND entry (for the time being at least) should be up sometime next week. In the meantime, I leave you with some of my favorite traveling quotes:
“[The traveller] may feel assured, he will meet with no difficulties or dangers, excepting in rare cases, nearly so bad as he beforehand anticipates. In a moral point of view, the effect ought to be, to teach him good-humoured patience, freedom from selfishness, the habit of acting for himself, and of making the best of every occurrence. . . Travelling ought also to teach him distrust; but at the same time he will discover, how many truly kind-hearted people there are, with whom he never before had, or ever again will have any further communication, who yet are ready to offer him the most disinterested assistance.” -Charles Darwin
“Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe.” -Anatole France
“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost” -J. R. R. Tolkien “Lord of the Rings”
“It’s good to have an end to journey forward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” –Ursala K. LeGuin
“Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.” -The Dhammapada
“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain
“A traveller must have the back of an ass to bear all, a tongue like the tail of a dog to flatter all, the mouth of a hog to eat what is set before him, the ear of a merchant to hear all and say nothing.” -Thomas Nashe (1567-1601)
“All of the animals except man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it.” -Anonymous
“For the born traveller, travelling is a besetting vice. Like other vices, it is imperious, demanding its victim’s time, money, energy and the sacrifice of comfort.” -Aldous Huxley - “Along the Road”
“It’s not how much we have but how much we enjoy that makes us happy.” -Anonymous
“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.”-Dagobert D. Runes, US writer
3 Responses to “Back…home?”
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March 8th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Whoa! You have lost a lot of weight!
March 16th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Tim…question for the board….did you have have any travel problems in terms of missing flights or losing your bag or anything?
Let us know…
March 29th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Yea, I had quite a few traveler mishaps, but none as severe as I anticipated before leaving for this trip. You see, I was expecting the worst case scenario–you really need to on a trip of this duration–but whenever any issue popped up, it miraculously always seemed to work itself out.
I never missed any flights, but I did hop on a bus in which my rucksack was going on another one in the opposite direction. It managed to work its way out though after a full day of jumping from bus to bus to retrieve my bag.
After eating anything and everything on the street stalls, I didn’t have any sickness issues. That is, until one of the rare instances when I ate Western food at a German party in Cambodia…
I left behind my wallet and/or credit card throughout all my trip as many times as fingers I can use to count on one hand, but each time it was returned to me with everything in tact. The one time when my wallet was actually stolen from me, however, was during my last week in Asia, in Singapore of all places–one of the safest cities in the entire world. Usually I never carry more than $30-40 in my wallet, but being fooled by the illusion of comfort and safety, I kept a few hundred that day when it was snatched (Normally, I keep everything of value stored in my money belt). Worse than that, though, was that in my wallet was my old student ID from Barcelona which depicted a photo of me when I was about 50 Lbs. heavier. That was always fun to show people.
As I certainly feel very greatful to the benevolent whims of Lady luck on this trip, nonetheless, even if a problem of greater magnitude had sprung up I believe that it would have also worked itself out. A healthy detachement (i.e. don’t bring with anything that you can’t bare to loose) and a proactive ‘make the best out of any situation’ mentality is all one needs to deal with just about any traveling related drama. Oh yea, and as an addendum: not being a jackass usually helps also!