I love the idea of traveling or commuting by train but the reality in the UK is that it’s just too expensive.
The trains are overcrowded during rush hour so it’s generally standing room only. Assuming you can get a seat, and if you do, you rarely get a table or enough space to work, or peace to read or even think. And the price of a ticket? Scandalous. Absolute rip-off. Yet somehow despite these high prices trains are still cancelled, or are never on time are uncomfortable and not very clean.
Travel to other countries though and trains run smoothly, are on time, cost a lot less, and are very comfortable and clean.
I do enjoy travelling by train, but the only time I really get to do it is in another country.
Category: travel
Adventure is calling
Looking out to sea watching the cargo ships come and go I think back to the many ships I have sailed on. Travelling from port to port enjoying both the journey and the anticipation of the destination. With each new country came sights and sounds, places to explore, culture and communities to immerse yourself in, food and drink to savour, new people to meet.
The thrill of adventure. Never knowing what’s around the corner or over the next hill. Castles and historic houses, kingdoms of old, deserts, mountains, rivers, and beautiful beaches. Music, laughter, walks, exploring. Sleeping under the stars, swimming in lagoons, sailing through swamps and bayous.
Adventure is calling.
Travelling without a phone
I used to travel without a phone. I couldn’t imagine that today. Being totally disconnected from everyone digitally. If I wanted to phone home I would have to go purchase phone cards and find a public phone box. Are they still around today? For email I’d have to go to an internet cafe and pay for computer access by the hour. Do they still exist?
These days our smart phones can do everything and work in most countries. Or you could just purchase a pay-as-you-go SIM card for each country you travel through if you wish to avoid roaming charges.
The point is that technology and communications move on and when I first started to travel the world there was a greater feeling of disconnect. These days everyone is just a smart phone away from one another.
Could you travel without your phone?
The world around and in you
There are many different ways of looking at the world. All come from within. Your perceptions and how you interpret and react to the world around you determines how you view it and your enjoyment of it.
There’s an example I like to use to illustrate this based on two people I met on my travels.
The first was a lady I met in New Zealand. She was on a package holiday whereas I was winging it going in whatever direction I felt next. We ran into each other on a Maori farm on the north island in an area known as the bay of plenty.
She told me that she had broken her (non dominant) wrist in a sporting accident and couldn’t wait to get home. She was going through the motions living each remaining day of her holiday but enjoying none of it. She hated this country, the people, the food, everything. She just wanted to get back home.
This wasn’t how she had felt before the accident, she was having the time of her life. That all changed however since the accident.
The second was a young man I met in a youth hostel in Sydney Australia. He was on the phone to his mum when we met. She was crying. Afterwards he explained how he and his mates came out here, bought a cheap van, surfboards, and the gear they needed and just travelled the coast surfing and partying. Then that very morning someone had stolen the van and all his possessions including his passport. He told me that everyone couldn’t have been more helpful and he has papers to get back home. He was as happy as can be. “I loved every minute dude” he told me. “It’s been a blast, an amazing holiday”. “Ok so all my stuff is gone and all my photos but they can’t take what’s up here” he said pointing to his head. His mum was upset for him but this guy was so chilled.
Both fellow travellers had suffered a major setback, a traumatic event. Yet while the first had chosen to view everything negatively, the second had chosen the opposite, to remember the fun times. After all it’s just stuff and that can be replaced. He did not let life get him down and he was a better person because of it.
Only you can control how the world around you affects you.