Lessons from the road

Be generous with your gratitude, stingy with your expectations.  Travel is a gift that life offers you, so accept it with both hands and don’t be greedy.  Failed expectations, in travel as in life, lead to anger and grief.

Don’t be an a**hole.  Remain courteous, calm, and kind at all times.  Especially when encountering challenges at checkpoints, check-ins, delays.  Respect queues, even when others don’t, because you are not an animal.  Have your paperwork ready.

Tiananmen Square, Beijing

Learn how to say “hello,” “please,” and “thank you” in whatever place you visit.  And if you can’t express yourself in words, do your best with a smile and hand gestures.  If there is some important information you may need to share, (e.g. health issues, dietary restrictions, smoking preference) have a resident write the local translation on a card to carry with you.  Make sure you include the English translation so you know what you are pointing to.

Yangon Traffic

Walk the world like a VVIP (very, very important person).   I coined this term based on an experience I had at the Livingstone Zambia airport.  As the flight schedule would have it, my four seater plane was the only one on the runway.  I was the lone passenger in the newly constructed terminal.  My guide met me on the tarmac, expedited me through immigration, escorted me to the waiting driver, who took me to the lodge, where I was greeted by the enthusiastic staff with a cool towel and fruity drink.  I felt like a rock star.  Confidence is power, deters shenanigans, and makes people want to help you.  The corollary is treat everyone else like a VVIP, even if they don’t see themselves as one.  We are all rock stars.

Never travel with more than you can carry.  Don’t expect others to lift your load.  A porter is a gift, not a right.  A heavy bag creates a heavy mood.  That being said, there are some things you need to pack: 

a)    Headlight or flashlight.  Electricity is an unpredictable thing.  The light can function as a streetlight and a reading light. Indispensable in a tent. And illuminates caves.

b)   Toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Always. Water is precious and rare.

c)    Water bottle.  Because the world is drowning in plastic and you can drink boiled tap water.  Stay hydrated.

d)   Silk sleeping sac. A touch of luxury that packs small but makes you feel big.  Because you never know how clean those sheets are.  A barrier against bedbugs, mosquitoes, and low thread counts.

e)    Flip flops. For the beach. For going to dinner. For a break from hiking boots. For they are easy to remove at temples. For the floor is sticky and the shower is funky.

f)     Wear clothes you can wash in the sink and dry overnight.

g)    Carry a wrap of some sort than can function as a shawl, skirt, head covering, or scarf.  Useful on airplanes, in places of worship, in a desert storm.  A bandana is also helpful, although covers less.

h)    Sunscreen, lip balm, sunglasses, wide brimmed hat. Your older self will thank you.

i)      Instant coffee and/or tea bags.  Just add boiling water and you have instant comfort and hydration.

j)     Swiss Army knife, but only if you are checking your bag. Can serve as a bottle opener, corkscrew, knife, nail clipper, screwdriver, scissor, etc.

k)    Garbage bag. Acts as bag liner in the rain, keeper of dirty laundry and shoes, emergency poncho.

l)      Journal. So you can document and recollect all the wonders.

m)  Kindle. So you never run out of reading material.

n)    Cell phone.  Acts as address book, alarm clock, camera, stereo. With Wi-Fi can serve as map, newspaper, email carrier, weatherman, compass.  And if it is SIM card enabled, it can even be a phone.

o)    Cords and adapters, so you can recharge your Kindle and cellphone.

p)   Cash. In crisp, new (post 2009) American bills.  ATMs don’t exist everywhere.  And your bank or credit card will invariably be declined during an emergency.

Ask many questions. Listen to everyone’s story.  Appreciate that while we live in different places and circumstances, we are all the same.  We want the same things—freedom from want and suffering, health and happiness for our friends and family, the chance to be useful in this world, the opportunity to improve our lives. 

Barkhor Square, Lhasa

Give yourself time for silence.  Gaze out the window, walk the city streets, sit at a restaurant and observe the passersby.  Rest at a monastery, listen to the monks chanting.  Stand on a bridge and contemplate the traffic, the lake, the smoggy sky.  Smile to yourself that you have been given such a gift, to be here, at this time, at this place.