A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu
I would like to start my travel blog this way as a way to help me remember this thought. I have been steadfast in my refusal to over-plan my trip. I expect to depart Seattle with a flight and a hostel bed for the first few nights; with my passport, a guidebook, the proper immunizations, and a well packed bag.
I am flying to Cairo as an ice-breaker. I chose this as my jumping off point for two reasons. Firstly, it is a tourist town - meaning that speaking English will be easy and getting my bearings will be less trying. I'm vaguely familiar with the area, history, culture, and tourist attractive sites. Secondly, it is a tourist town - meaning that there are swindles, scams, tricks, traps, and a nearly constant banter by hundreds of locals looking to get a buck. I expect to shed naivete almost visibly. It will hopefully fall off in chunks like a snake shedding skin.
The point of this is to allow me to be a better traveller later. To have the awareness and confidence to take calculated risks and have a deeper experience abroad.
So let me take a moment to remind myself for yet another time, that the journey IS the destination. The travel is the point.
2 comments:
I haven't checked lately, but I'm guessing the kitchen is finished...
Going on a hike with the dogs... Will bring my phone and start to read at the midway point... Let the pups frolic around whilst I sit on a rock or a felled tree and read your yummy words...
~ k ~
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