Since the dawn of time, men....ok...people have always had that urge to settle down in some damp cave, eating a mastodon part and just off the cuff decides to pack up and move. The male will say, "Come on Maureen, let's head on down to over yonder hills and see what we'll find." That's because even though they didn't speak English, they thought it! And it was fine with Maureen since she has come to the point where if she saw another mastodon part, she was going to poke both her eyes with mastodon bones! So off they went, with no planning or map or destination and immediately gets chomped up by T-Rex from Jurassic Park!
But little setbacks like that never put us off. So ever since the dawn of time, we have been traipsing the globe searching for new places to explore, new cultures to hate, introduce new bacteria and food to damage our digestive system, new service staff to treat us badly, new tacky souvenirs to buy which will break the moment we get home, learn new words for "bleeding" and "hospitals", new ways to be conned and all other travel adventures that would make us want to French-kiss our doormats when we finally get home.
HAHA! I am of coz just kidding! I am a big fan of holidaying even though my choices have changed over the years. During our teenage years, our choices pretty much depended on our budget and hence we almost always chose to head out into nature, camping, back packing or just some budget hostel. It was also a good time to impress the girls with your woodland skills. This is why I didn't get any girls when I was budgetly-challenged since my woodland skills was limited to finding a spider and then jumping on my best friend and screaming like a little girl. Oh and my best friend is a girl.
At this juncture of my life, I have lost the need to "connect" with nature and have woodland insects crawl all over me sucking my blood or laying tiny eggs on my head and then hatching to millions of baby insects using my head as their buffet line! I am also very used to certain luxuries like running water, a working WC, air conditioning and toilet paper. I am not particularly interested in taking a dump in a hole in the ground or using leaves to wipe after or even using toilet paper that can deflect bullets from small calibre guns!
So when we have decided to embrace our primal need to travel, what do we need to look out for? I can give you some advice:-
1) Planning
You have to plan! This is non-negotiable. I know there are people who are carefree and will just get up, pack and head out the door, thumb sticking out and hitch hiking into the adventurous and unknown. These people are now passing through the digestive tracts of wolves and other woodland "creatures". Plan where you want to go, for how long and who are you going with. Best go with someone rich or at least plan to meet such person on the trip.
2) Travel Budget
This is by far the most crucial part seeing that even if you are going to Tibet to cleanse your soul for the greater good, you still need money! The confusing thing though is the forex. The exchange rates was design by people who hate seeing you having a good time or just hate people in general. You can never tell the actual amount you are exchanging especially in countries where the smallest denomination is in the thousands!! You to to Indonesia or one of the Indochinese nations and you may leave a tip that will allow the waiter to retire and maybe even buy a mansion or a total of 20 cents! Who can say? So decide what your budget will be and how much you want to take with you. Factor in incidental expenses like for bribing.
3) Accommodations
You may want to spend a bit more on this one. I am not keen to be cheap in accommodations by staying in a roach infested hostel or the Norman Bates motel where you are sharing a communal bathroom with the whole village. It doesn't have to be a Shangri-La or a 5-star hotel but attached bathroom, clean sheets (I will settle for no visible stains or moving live creatures), fan (at least) and TV (I don't even know how it is legal not to have TV) are essentials.
4) Car rental
Depending on how big a group, you want to ensure that you have a vehicle that is not breaking the law but I think bending it is ok. Once when were in Australia, we had to take a station wagon for 6 even though there were 3 adults since the 2 kids need a seat of their own, by law. My 3 year old son was playing in the back of the station wagon and threw up so that our car was smelling as if a pack of rats died in it for 3 weeks with its bowels open. We had to drive like dogs, with our heads hanging out. If we bent the rules and took the 5-seater car, there would have been NO throwing up.
5) Travel agent
You will need one to help you since you have not been there. Ironically neither has most travel agents. I am very lucky that my cousin KLY's wife, Caryn is an excellent planner. She can be anal but we can always rest assured that she would have had everything thought out, compared, negotiated, fought over (although she denies she never argues or scolds anyone. Since she can put me on the wings of the plane when we travel, who am I to argue) and time measured so that it will all fall in place. I can introduce her to you but for a fee!
6) Language
It is important that you go to a place where they can at least understand one language you can speak. Otherwise, do learn some phrases that will be useful like "Where is the toilet?", "Where is the police station?", "Where can I find a doctor?", "Does this food have any intestinal parts in it?", etc.
So traveling can be fun when you plan, leave room for a some spontaneity and most of all find someone else to pay. Have fun and remember the famous 13th century tourist called Marco Polo who, having managed against all odds to cross the deserts of the middle east and Persia, the plateau of Pamir, the forbidden regions of Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, the mountainous Kashmir, braving the hot, dry and perilous Taklamakan and Gobi Deserts and finally reaching the Great Kublai Khan's palace in Shang Tu China uttered the words that has been our credo and basis of travelers ever since "What do you mean you don't have my reservations???".
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