Voyagner

As travelers one of the biggest changes many of us will see in ourselves is in how we see the world, travel, particularly to developing or third world countries gives us a new perspective on life, politics, poverty and more. We are given a whole new yardstick with which to measure our priorities personally and as a society.

I ask myself why did Australians donate more to the recent bush fires than to the Tsunami, Cyclone Nargis, Shechuan Earthquake or even Katrina. The Bush fires we comparatively a minor event in lives lost and people left homeless to these other events. Is it an idea of having to look after our “own”? As a traveler I now often feel like my home is not Australia, in fact I have an increasingly hard time understanding Australians. I now see my country as overly conservative and given how developed it is, also somewhat backward and even racist.

Why were the child stars of the mega smash hit movie Slumdog Millionaire still living in the slums only when their slum are being torn down around them do they receive help for the filmmakers. Lets not even mention the pathetic payments they and actors from The Kite Runner received. It seems while Hollywood loves to put on a good concert in the name of ending poverty when there is a chance and a real reason to lift someone out of poverty and get something in return for themselves, they would rather selfishly pay them a pittance and hope no one notices. We feel sorry for the homeless in our cities but when we see poverty in the third and developing worlds we realize it is in a whole other league. The comparisons you might end up making take on a whole new meaning to you.

We begin to see that while we can be so different we can also be so much alike.

Seeing things peculiar to your own culture can really open your eyes to new ideas. We are ignorant to so much when we only stay in one little part of the world. We hear of customs and that don’t make sense but when go and see for ourselves, we see it makes complete sense, maybe even better than what we always thought was the only way to do it.

You find that the biggest culture shock doesn’t come from arriving in an unfamiliar place with an unfamiliar culture but when returning to your home. It’s like seeing your country through someone else’s eyes, because you are someone else. You’ve changed, you may not understand the world any better, you may find it even more confusing but you know that your spirit is better for it. Back home everything looks the same, but it feels completely different, maybe even as ironic as it sounds, things appear foreign.

Maybe it’s simply that now when we step out into the world, we don’t just see what is within our own borders, we see outside as well, the potential and the effects of the choices we make at home can reach far further than we ever considered before becoming a traveler.

It’s why we travel

The more you see the more you develop a philosophy, you realize that while many travel and try to live like a local and hope to one day be considered one, others are happy to just be themselves, they are not a Canadian living in Chile they are just themselves living in Chile. Is travel about finding ourselves or simply finding a way, the Tao of Travel. You find that the destination we try to conceive when we consider we have to ‘go somewhere in life’ is not a destination at all, in life we can only hope we choose the right path, maybe only in death will we find if the path we choose leads to an end.

Brave New Traveler sums it up well in The Tao of Vagabond Travel, particularly in the Awakened Vagabond section, we can find ourselves searching for a successful travel experience, we always hear of people claiming to have authentic travel experiences, fitting in like a local or by whatever other measure they deem to be a success. This misses the point, travel is a journey where nothing is forced, it allows you to follow your intuition and just let thing be what they are, to enjoy them and to enjoy life.

Life as a traveler allows you to see the world and your self in a comsmological sense, it’s with this understanding that you take on the perspective of a true traveler.