January_18

Hello world!       "Travel Lessons Learned from the Road"

We are in northern Thailand in a place called Pai. This may be our favorite place in Thailand thus far. It is a great place to hang out and let life go by at slow pace. Since we are in the Golden Triangle there are a few too many people who embibe in the opium and may never leave. We rented a moto and drove to a waterfall. As we got deeper into the hills, people flag you down to see if you want to buy drugs. We passed. We have made friends with a teacher in a village primary school and Jen has created a class project we are going to give to the teacher. We also purchased a bunch of school supplies to give to them. It has been a great experience! But we will write more about later and put pictures up of Jen playing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" with them.

The purpose of this entry is to talk about "Travel lessons learned from the road". We have learned alot about ourselves and alot about traveling. These are lessons that apply to us, but they might apply to you as well. We hope you find what we have learned interesting.

1.   GO NOW!
      Do not hesitate and make plans now. The world is changing at an alarming rate.
      Soon you will be unable to explore and see ancient cultures. We are buying
     "hilltribe" weavings from people wearing Nike hats. We buy the clothes that they
      used to wear and they buy the west's second hand or outdated fashions. If you
      make the effort to go somewhere once, you will find that you can not wait to go
      again. It will be a great gift to yourselves, your family and your friends. It has been
      all of that, and more, for us.

2.   At least once, travel for a long period of time.
      Travel long enough that you forget about your life back home. Travel long enough
       so that you forget about your work. We have become too attatched to what we do.
      The rest of the world is not nearly as obsessed with gaining a sense of identity
       through their work. They are more concerned with being a good, kind person.

3.   Travel simply and cheaply.
      For one thing, this way allows you to travel longer, but you also see life at its most
      basic. If you leave your posh hotel and get into a cab to go to a "western"
      restaruant, your missing the whole reason for being in a foreign place. Instead,
      enjoy the squat toilet, cold shower, weird food, cramped bus, etc. Even if you do
      this, you still are far from experiencing the local way of life, but a least you are bit
      closer. It will make appreciate things more when you get home and hopefully
      help you realize you can live much more cheaply and simply as well.

4.   Travel with a loose itinery.
      You can't plan everything and if you try, you will miss out on the spirit of the
      adventure. People tell you about great places and you may want to see something
      you had not planned on. Or world events may happen that cause you to make
      adjustments. Instead of being dissapointed, you can find a new treasure. Plan a
      little not a lot.

5.   Travel to be with people versus to see the sights.
      Every one of our most cherished experiences comes from interactions with people.
      Whether is a local person, or someone from another country, we never get tired of
      sharing stories.

6.   Go somewhere easy at first.
      This gets the ball rolling. Thailand is an easy place to be, yet is more rugged than
       being home. If we had gone directly to Cambodia, we would have found the
      traveling unbearable. Basically you want to step out of your comfort zone, but not
      too far.

7.   Travel slowly.
      If you are too busy moving and doing, you miss out on the nuances of every day
      life. Stop and be. Be a human being instead of a human doing. You will be
      surprised what you see that those who keep moving miss out on. We heard a
      woman say "I have two weeks in Vietnam...that should be enough time to see the
      neccesary sites". What are the necessary sites? and who decided on what they
      are? We spent 5 weeks in Vietnam and I do not think 5 years is enough
      time to experience the culture and people of Vietnam.

8.   Travel by yourself, with your brother/sister, with you kids, your parents
      your grandparents, with your spouse.......
      We have seem all these combinations and more. There are no limits. People told
      us to go now because when you have family you won't go. Now we know we
      will travel with our children to help them learn about the world.

9.   Do something hard.
      Once you have started somewhere easy and got the ball rolling, ask yourself where
      you would really like to go, but never thought you could. Challenge yourself to
      learn and grow by stepping further out of your comfort zone.

10. Bring a journal and a camera.
     These will be your cheapest and most cherished momentos. You do not have to be
     a photographer or bring great equipment, in fact it just ends up being something
     that could be stolen, so bring a simple, lightweight camera. Write in journal at least
     once a week. When you go back and read it, you will be amazed to see yourself grow
     right before you eyes. Write about facts, fears, sights, friends...what ever you want!

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