The Philosophy of Travelling.

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Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to travel to many different countries and experience different cultures. I'm not sure if I would call myself a "traveller" because those sort of people have stories like .. "yeah .... I remember the time I crossed the Slobakastani border and I didn't have a visa so I bribed the guards with the bottle of whiskey I bought in Boozebekistan and everything worked out just fine ..... until they started shooting at us." But, on the other hand, I am against the Japanese travel philosophy of "When in Rome, let's do as we do at home and travel in tour groups, stay at Japanese Hotels, eat Japanese food at Japanese restaurants and buy Japanese gifts from Japanese department stores". (This is what sometimes happens when Japanese visit Australia). I would say that I want to be somewhat adventurous when travelling but at the same time I don't think I would like to live in the middle of nowhere with an African nomadic tribe for 6 months eating paste made from cockroach eggs. My idea of travelling is to go to a country and live there for a year or so because it takes that long to get some idea of the culture and the people. I have lived in Texas, Bangkok and Nagasaki, Japan for more than a year each and learnt a lot just by living in a different culture. Having said that, I have nothing against going somewhere for just a few days if that is all time permits. I have been to Indonesia and Mexico for just a day and although it was short I still got a glimpse of what it is like in those countries - I didn't see a lot but it was better than not going at all.

One day I would like to have visited a hundred countries but that is in the distant future. I once travelled up a river on a barge in Lao with a 72 year old woman from New York City that had been to nearly every country in the world. She had many fantastic stories to tell about where she had been and what she had done. I know that travelling won't necessarily make you into an interesting person or give you all the wisdom in the world but I believe that it does give you an opportunity to broaden your mind and learn more about yourself, which in turn allows you to accept others for who they are and better relate to people around you. And for me it gives me a sense of purpose. If I travel or if I live in a foreign country I feel like I am doing something constructive with my life rather than getting into the "go to work, go home" routine of everyday life.