I love to travel and get out to experience wherever I am. There is nothing I despise more when traveling than being stuck at the tourist destinations that are essentially the same around the world. It is always some attraction that has been set up so that people can be easily shuttled to it to take the same pictures that numerous professional photographers have taken countless times already, and can be found with much greater quality with a quick search online. Like my cheap camera is going to do any better than National Geographic.
I am just being negative, I have done this exact thing multiple times, it just seems obligatory. Nonetheless, I try to spend as little time as possible at the touristy areas, and try to blend into the local culture. Usually it is the experience with the people or land I remember, rather than the time spent taking pictures of something. I also do not like to make many plans when traveling, many times purchasing the airline ticket is all the planning I do beforehand. It seems like this would be setting myself up for failure going to a destination I will likely never return to, but those trips always seem to be the most memorable.
One of my first trips out of the United States was to Thailand, I had a new friend who wanted to go somewhere, and we found cheap tickets to both Thailand and the Philippines. We only had the time and money to go to one, and we decided on Thailand because we knew less about it. With no planning whatsoever, we ended up landing 2 days before Songkran (Thai New Year). Turns out it was a popular time to travel there, and hotels were difficult to find. We ended up making friends with some of the locals working at a hotel, and stayed with them. We celebrated the New Year, and were taken to the places they liked to hang out on their time off. Otherwise, we would have probably stayed at some hotel that was full of the same people we just left. However, I do a lot of outdoor activities, and if I am traveling somewhere like the Arctic, to do a week long winter camping trip, I will definitely be doing some planning. Anyway, here are some of my favorite quotes about traveling, adventures, and safety. Enjoy!
"If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal."
Paulo Coelho
"The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless."
Alan Watts
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Helen Keller
"The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see."
Gilbert K. Chesterton
"A place that doesn't welcome tourists, that's really difficult and off the map is a place I want to see."
Paul Theroux
"When you try to control everything, you enjoy nothing. Relax, breathe, let go, and just live."
Unknown
"I always wonder why birds stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the Earth. Then I ask myself the same question."
Harun Yahya
"Life's risky, it can kill you."
Joel Salitan
"The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety."
Goethe
"The simpler you make things, the richer the experience becomes."
Steve House
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
Henry David Thoreau
"We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness."
Aldo Leopold
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