Wednesday, October 19, 2005

nO shiTtiNg iN tHe ToiLeT!

Dear jess,

Im thirsting for travel books and looking into the reality of other people dreams whilst mine remains on hold for savings and preparations. On my right, an inspiring book of solo female travels, on my left, Peter Moore, who comes up with a travel guide, called no shitting in the toilet.

My purchase was based on the fact that i burst out laughing in the midst of MPH from a man whose traveled 90 countries and sees this sign in a toilet in China, equipped with crude drawings of a squatting man, and lets just say more!

He's going to be up there with my Coehlo ;)

Chapter One. WHY?
I need a holiday isnt that reason enough?

Travel is not about relaxing or taking a break. Its about throwing yourself in the deep end and hoping like crazy that you don't drown. The word 'travel' for example comes from the latin word 'travail' - meaning spending ridiculous amounts of money to be miserable, homesick and frightened.

No seriously. I just want to stay in a five - star hotel and be waited on hand and foot.

That's not travelling. That's just transplanting your current lifestyle- or a projected image of how you want your lifestyle to be- to another country. If that's all you want out of your trip, why not use the money you'd spend travelling to put in a jacuzzi out the back and hire an out-of-work actor to bring you drinks?

OK. I want to live dangerously. Hows that for a reason?

Travel will certainly provide ample opportunity for you to do that. And the good news is that you dont have to travel to world's trouble spots to do it. Every time you climb into a tuk-tuk in Bangkok, eat from a roadside stall in Egypt or wander the streets of a major American city, you are taking your life into your own hands.

Ive been thinking alot about what traveling means and 'should' be. My standing would go as far out as to say that traveling on a tour is not travelling at all? That there is no sense in having someone tell me what to do and how versus me doing it by myself and at the end of the day if i got lost, didnt see any sights and came home a loser, i would have still gained more than the chap next to me who has had his escort shown him all the seven wonders of the world, and he is now satisfied with all the 'must sees' in the world.

I flipped through another book, and this man who sails said this. He wrote a book as a collection for his daughter, that when she has read it she too would be inspired to search out her own adventures. He then says, but be warned, once you've begun, you wont want to stop, and there is no antidote to want to stop travelling.

Now, back to sinking into my travel guide book.

yours giggling,
jess

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