Having travelled for four months this fall and before I set out again in February, I wanted to reflect on the trip. Some of these observations will prove to be more universal than others. Some may just be wrong. The order is random.
Travel blogs need to be taken with a grain of salt. When I started planning, I relied on travel blogs quite a bit, thinking that they would lead me to interesting off the beaten path places. What I found was that most blogs consisted of lists of the “Top xx things to do in YYYY.” These invariably included the same sites that every other travel blog included.
There are no research standards or ethics requirements for blogs. This basically means that they can publish whatever they want and get paid by whoever they want. Some of the information you get could be good and helpful, but that’s just a coincidence.
Don’t give or take restaurant recommendations. Particularly if you are in a large city. Particularly if you’re eating local. Particularly if you are going downscale. I’m always amused at people that proclaim that the best pad thai in Bangkok is at XXXX or the best pizza in Naples is at YYYY. Has anyone tried all, or even a statistically valid sample of the pad thai restaurants in Bangkok to offer a considered opinion? Now, if I am looking for a high end restaurant, where there are only a few, sure I will consult some reviews. If I’m looking for the best Mexican restaurant in Bangkok, I would love to hear your opinion. How many could there possibly be and they are probably all terrible. Best of a local delicacy, I will handle that one on my own.
Eat local. In a lot of places the best restaurants don’t have names, or at least I never look to see what they are. It’s only logical that the best Thai food in the world is in Thailand, and the best Israeli food is in Israel. You’re not going to find it better or cheaper anywhere else.
Look for short menus — not long lines. I have received the advice many times to look for places with long lines to eat in. That means the food is good and it turns over, so it hasn’t been setting under a heat lamp all day. I don’t follow this advice, partly because I hate lines. I tend to look for places with only one or two items on the menu. I had amazing falafel in the muslim quarter of Jerusalem. You ordered by quantity because there was nothing else on the menu.
History and archeology are all about rich people. The Tombs of Kings archaeological site in Cyprus is not a burial site at all, but a wealthy neighborhood on the beachfront. The homes consisted of rather primitive caves. Absent from the site were residences for the less wealthy, the people who likely dug the caves for the wealthy homeowners. I suspect that once construction was complete the builders, or diggers, were probably never in the caves again. The poor were likely huddled under a tree or pile of thatch to stay warm. There is no record of their lives. This is a scene that is repeated throughout the world.
Americans are not the worst tourists. They don’t travel enough. I have run across tourists from around the world. Tour groups are the worst tourists. They take up lots of space, are pushy and lack self awareness. Solo travellers or couples are as varied as the countries they come from with some being unobtrusive and others are difficult. If you’re wanting, the worst solo or couples, they are on Ryan Air.
Travel is just transport — don’t romanticize it. Some like the idea of taking a train across a country or continent, others like the idea of travelling by sea. I have nothing against either of these, but I am more interested in being places. My preferred mode of transportation is some combination of low price and shortness of travel. Increasingly, this meant flying a discount airline such as Ryan, Wow!, EasyJet, SCAT or TigerAir. I exact no pleasure from sitting on a train. I don’t hate it, I just want to get somewhere. I do kind of hate long distance buses and will always try and avoid them.
In Central Asia, the Caucasus and Turkey, street dogs and cats abound. The dogs are periodically collected and vaccinated, the set free again. These strays are fed by locals and tend to be unobtrusive. I took comfort in seeing these animals as I walked around these areas. This seems more humane than animal shelters.
The best way to get around is on foot. On this recent trip, I walked an average of 8.14 miles +/- 3.07 a day, 17,933 steps +/- 6,788, and 16 floors +/- 15. THe means were 8.1, 17624, and 12, respectively. You notice things on foot that you miss otherwise.
Take public transit where available and walking isn’t feasible. It saves time and often money. It also builds a valuable life skill and makes one more at ease with the area.
Travelling for an extended period in my 50s didn’t change my world view much. I have long distrusted capitalism and believed that, if the world is going to survive, we have to find a better way to keep score. That’s not only necessary from a standpoint of climate change, but a growth based model of existence is not sustainable. We cannot keep adding people and gadgets to the earth and expect things to continue as they always have.
People in different cultures essentially want the same things, they just may not know it. Certainly in the less touristed countries you stand out more and are more of a novelty. This tends to make people curious and welcoming. From a standpoint of religion, I felt most comfortable in Islamic countries and least so in Buddhist countries. Muslims, as a tenet of their faith are welcoming and interested in learning and seem to not be that interested in money. Buddhists seemed to live in the mind and are not that interested in the outside world. However, they send their priests out to beg. Sorry for the gross generalizations.
Jet lag is mostly in the mind. That’s easy for me to say because I never seem to really be affected by jet lag. It seems that the people who have the most trouble with jet lag are the ones with the most elaborate plans to deal with jet lag. My strategy for dealing with jet lag is, while on the plane, read until I’m tired, then sleep. Eat something and drink something when offered. Repeat. If the flight gets in during the daytime, do daytime things. If it gets in at night, sleep. Pretty simple.
In today’s world loneliness is not a big problem. Telephones can be used cheaply from just about anywhere, social media is good for staying in touch. I think technology has made trips like this and long separations easier. Don’t get too hung up or curmudgeonly about technology destroying the world. Embrace it where it makes things better and set it aside where it doesn’t.
The value of travel is perspective, or seeing the world different angles. Having too narrow a worldview is harmful. If more Americans traveled more, it might put to bed the concept of American Exceptionalism.
The US image abroad seems to be a mixed bag. I spoke to some Kurdish merchants in Turkey about a week before Trump pulled out of Syria. They loved the US because the US always supported them, I am not sure what they would think now. Overall, I think our image is worse than it once was, but other countries have elected their own despotic dipshits lately and that obscures our own.
The world is fascinating and not scary except in isolated situations.
Travel doesn’t have to be as expensive as one thinks. Staying in hostels, guesthouses and AirBnBs greatly reduce the cost as does eating from street vendors. Flexibility can reduce transportation costs significantly.
Adaptability is a valuable trait. Not every meal is going to be great. Sometimes you have to eat something not understanding fully what you are ordering. If you don’t like it, it’s not likely to make you sick, it’s just not to your liking. Be open to new experiences and embrace surprise.