Tuesday, October 26, 2010

When Traveling, Take the Road Less Traveled

Have you ever thought about taking a trip? I'm not talking about one or two week vacations that people take to explore a different place

when you try to break from their normal activities. I say a long trip: two or three months, maybe half a year! Opportunity to experience

a new area and really "leave" your life as you know it.

Why would anyone want to finish their work, pull the kids out of school (assuming you still have children at home), leave everything

and everyone you know about life in the unknown? Well, life has a way to become a routine and somewhat predictable. There is no

comfort that the boredom of routine and predictability, but also narrow mindedness. Taking time away from your life is a way to

overcome inertia, to create opportunities to open your mind and see things from another perspective. This gives you a chance to move

away from everyday life and living is different from live. Extended trip forces you to stretch himself and gives an amazing opportunity

for development.

At the other end is the opportunity to live in another culture. When you spend more time in the city, especially small, you are no

longer a tourist, you are a resident part-time. You can become a familiar face to the community and have the time to see and do

things beyond the typical "tourist" activities. Our hotel is located in the community long enough to rent an apartment, to promote the

opportunity to experience life as a resident than as a tourist.

Over the years, my family traveled to seventeen countries, usually for two to three weeks in each location. Over and over we have had

incredible experiences and adventures that had nothing to do with being a tourist. Horseback riding through vineyards, dunes and

craters, picnics in the parks with local people, visits to food shops to buy our food and talk with our new found 'friends' cooking

classes, Chinese calligraphy classes, foreign language classes, cycling in the countryside. Our fondest memories during the year are

the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal and Sydney Opera House. Although all views were amazing, the memories close to our heart is about

the everyday things that we have done and people they encountered while doing them. This can be achieved only when committed to

long-term travel.

More and more people are choosing to do this extended part of the journey of their lives: empty nesters ready to stop putting life on

hold for their children and begin to live your dream, individuals annual leave, those from one job to deal with the possibility of see more

of the world, at the end of life of parents (like me) who realized that the time on the other side of the parents may not be the healthiest

time of our lives. People have more options than ever thanks to the flexibility in their lives and realize that now is the time to exercise

those options.

Thus the picture of life, where you do not have a timetable up to date, the date on which need not be everywhere at the moment. No

phone, answering machine, doorbell, telephone, television or mail delivery. You have almost no domestic responsibilities and has no

car to maintain. Although not realistic that you can live the rest of his life in this way can be experienced through long-term travel and

after returning home, they can simply say that the way he lived his life before it is not the way will be chosen to live in the future.

Lisa Shusterman is the author, the arbitrator, his mother and world traveler. She planned and executed one year after the trip around

the world for myself, my husband and two daughters. She continued to write, speak and blog on topics related to travel. She has also

encouraged them to manifest their dreams, as she her.

No comments:

Post a Comment