5 Tips for a Better Travel Experience
Posted on: Sun, 2007-03-18 19:38
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5 Tips for a Better Travel Experience
Hitting the road once will change your life forever. Fact. You will become more adaptable and thinking on your feet will become second nature. Confidence and self belief will blossom as you overcome the trials and tribulations engendered by life on the road, and you will evolve. Interaction with others, from all walks of life, will become a daily event. The people you meet and the situations you encounter, both good and bad, will slowly begin to define you. Some days may be magical, others may be tough - but each day will leave its mark, and the cumulative effect is life changing.
Whether you travel for a month, a year, or ten years, you will be in for an experience like no other. But pause for a moment and ask yourself: - could it be even better?
Here are five ways to enhance your travel experience.
Embrace the Weird and Wonderful - Don’t pass up a chance to try something a little out of the ordinary, be it new food, local customs, children’s games, or anything else. Chew betelnut (torrents of red saliva, anyone?) with little old ladies in Borneo, play Trompo (simple spinning tops) with kids in El Salvador, and cough and choke on samples of savage tobacco from Javanese street vendors. Get into the swing of it and make someone’s day.
Learn the Lingo – Even just the basics will lay the foundation for a better experience. A little goes a long way, it demonstrates that you are willing to make the effort and convey respect toward the people you meet. If nothing else it will raise a smile or two, and that’s always a bonus. Still need encouragement to reach for the phrasebook? A little of the local lingo may even secure a better price for transport, accommodation, or the little knick-knacks that you simply can’t pass up.
Go Slow – It’s human nature to not want to ‘miss out’ on anything, but by racing though too many countries in a given time you may miss out on so much more. Not only will you learn less about the places you’ve longed to visit, but one or two nights in each place also spells out buses, trains or boats at least ever other day, and packing/unpacking will almost become a daily event. Tiring? I should say so.
Be a One Bag Wonder – Travel light, travel happy. Less really is more. Less weight to lug between transport and accommodation, less size to be swinging around within the confines of a densely populated bus, and less stress as the smaller your luggage is, the less likely you are to be forcibly separated from it during a journey. In addition, it’s more likely you will be let on an already packed out bus if you have less baggage. This doesn’t ring true in Guatemala however, as you can always fit more people on the bus, no matter how full it is. And that’s it, more or less.
Keep a Journal – If writing isn’t your thing, then rest easy. A journal means many different things to different people. It could be a full scale daily diary or simply a child’s notebook from the market in which you put labels from local beer bottles (possibly with drunken scribblings below) – the choice is yours. For the geeks among us (me included) there is the option to travel blog, and for the lazy geeks among us (again, me included) it’s even easier to cut and paste excerpts from emails to friends and family and keep those as your e-journal. Whatever form your personal creation may take, the end result is the same. Long after your memory has faded there will be this well thumbed Opus, this testimony of your travels, waiting to take you once more through this wonderful chapter of your life.
The full list can be found at www.ubertramp.com
Embrace the Weird and Wonderful - Don’t pass up a chance to try something a little out of the ordinary, be it new food, local customs, children’s games, or anything else.
Yeah, thats what I usually do. However it has given me an upset stomach more than once and a funny experience many times over. In retrospect the "weird and wonderful" is always the most memorable.
Learn the Lingo – Even just the basics will lay the foundation for a better experience.
True. Actually it goes a long way to making friends or gives many opportunities for a chuckle. I have found that most people are very happy if you make an effort to talk to them in their own language (at least the greeting).
Go Slow – It’s human nature to not want to ‘miss out’ on anything, but by racing though too many countries in a given time you may miss out on so much more.
This is something I have to learn. I usually rush through most of the sights far too fast.
Be a One Bag Wonder – Travel light, travel happy. Less really is more.
Are you single?
Keep a Journal – If writing isn’t your thing, then rest easy. A journal means many different things to different people.
Yeah, I keep a photo journal
. For me, telling a story with my photos is the closest thing to a Journal. For Peru I have made a DVD slideshow with narration that many people loved to watch (usually I try not to bother people with this kind of thing, but that was different).
Good list.
Andre
Travel Photos
I don't travel light any more. I lug my laptop with me for one thing. I used to keep a better written journal in more detail than I have since I started my blog. I take amazing numbers of photos, now that I have a digital camera and don't have to pay for film and processing.
What I have noticed is that my memories, my journal entries, and my photos are quite different. I'll have a vivid memory of an event or scene, but have no photos and just a casual mention in my journal or blog. Or I'll look at a photo and wonder, "Why?" I think it really takes multiple media to really record a trip. And recording is one of the things I don't do. I've met travelers who record things like a group on a trip singing around a campfire, or the sounds of monks chanting. I wish I had a recording from Egypt, the group dancing around the fire on a sand bar in the Nile, singing a song the boatmen taught us. We called it the 'La La Song." I really wish I had a record of that one.
It sounds really easy when you say travel light and travel happy. It is really hard for me to do that. It seems like I always over pack. I am so afraid I will need something I didn't pack. I always seem to forget I can always buy what I might need.
I wish I had a recording from Egypt, the group dancing around the fire on a sand bar in the Nile, singing a song the boatmen taught us. We called it the 'La La Song." I really wish I had a record of that one.
I used to videotape a lot, but now I rarely ever take my camera along. Basically I would spent weeks editing the footage on my computer and condense 2h video into a 30 min clip.
If you don't do that, you will just bore the pants off your audience.
I also hate having to look at hundreds of boring vacation shots showing people posing in front of every single interesting point (covering everything)
Andre
Travel Photos
These are all wonderful suggestions and well worth printing out. Keeping a journal would be ideal. Pictures show us the beauty of a place, but words tell us about them in the best possible way. And combined with our own feelings and thoughts, the places you visit will really come alive once again.
Thanks for all the comments so far, andre and everyone else.
in reply to Andre's 'are you single?'
well, i was for quite a while on the road, and then i met my current girlfriend, about a year ago - we now travel together. Part of our last adventure was doing our divemasters together on Utila, Honduras - definitely better to do that together rather than on your own, too! at least i thought so, anyway
I couldn't agree more with your tips in traveling. I just got back from Morocco and I still can't forget the experience - from the amazing sights to the friendly natives. The experience is just bliss. And I even have an 'online journal' for it
Packing light is going to become more and more important with the low baggage weight limits on budget airlines and the changes being made on some of the major carriers.
You're right, Cindy. packing light has never been so important with al the new regs on baggage limits. Also, if you can erally push it to the max and get everything in a bag small enough to pass as 'carry onboard' luggage then you also negate the riskes associated with losing you baggage or having anything planted in it, or run the risk of anyone rifling through it when it is out of view - and neither will you have to wait to collect it at the carousels anymore!
Another added bonus!
I would add don't overplan. Look up what you need to for basic necessities and safety, then keep an open mind and let yourself wander rudderless occasionally. You have more opportunities for discovering authentic experiences and places and you keep your sense of wonder and surprise.
I used to try for carry-on, but I gave it up even before the regulations got so tight. It's OK for a direct flight, but lugging around a relatively heavy and bulky bag during a three hour layover is a pain I'd rather skip. Even this trip, with a fairly big carry-on, containing my laptop and stuff to allow me to survive a 14 hour flight, I found it annoying.
You're right, Cindy - its getting tougher all the time to fit under the carry on amount. I thin kbecause i'm skinny i should be allowed more than a fatty - but thats another (controversial) thead altogether! haha
These are very useful tips but not all of them are always possible.
i do agree with you,mostly on going slow. sometimes we forgot that we are on a vacation, we wanted to see a lot of places but forgets to appreciate the beauty of a certain place because we are rushing. just to say that you've been to that place but never really spent enough time to see the nice scenery.
Very nice tips. If we travel keeping in mind all this, then a travel would modify our personalities and fill our heart with new energy.
nice tips. I do agree mostly on going slow. some travelers rush to places they wanted to visit without appreciating the real beauty of the place.
really nice tips, last year i was on india rajasthan tour, i wish i could have read your tips before.
http://www.magicalrajasthantours.com/
Aaahhh I could never be a "one bag wonder" and I "wonder" at people who can!
I need at least a second bag for my camera and stuff!
Great thread,
I really loved your post, thanks for sharing this useful information.
I recently applied the one bag wonder tip and found it extremely convenient. I simply brought what I needed most then purchased some of the other stuff in my destination. Good tip.
That is a cool way to do it. I have never done it on a big trip, but have on smaller ones...
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