There seems to be no lack of pithy sentences promising you the world if only you travel. One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time. A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. The journey is the reward. Travel makes you modest. Focus on the journey, not the destination. Nothing is as tedious as a journey. No two journeys are the same. The beauty of a journey is that it’s unpredictable. If you are 22, I urge you to travel. Wisdom comes with age. Travel teaches tolerance. Travel long enough, and you forget your passwords. Travel stretches the mind. Tourists don’t know where they’ve been. Amazing how much stuff gets done the day before you leave. I have seen more than I remember. To understand a foreign country, smell it. Go see for yourself. There’s no foreign land, it’s the traveller who is foreign.
The truth is travel is tedious, and not always comfortable. You only have to eavesdrop on two backpackers chatting to figure out how expensive, inconvenient, and downright unhealthy travel can be. I’ve found more disconcerting things about my hometown by overhearing conversations between backpackers than by reading newspapers or doomscrolling. If travelling has taught me anything, it is that it is far more comfortable to stay at home, drinking a tea or a beer as the mood takes you, eating food that you like, and generally being in an environment that you have grown used to.
I learnt that on a freezing winter’s day in Hamburg you should not take a ferry ride through the harbour, or take long walks with a camera in hand. Much better to do what locals do, and stay inside a shopping arcade or sit in a warm restaurant. Better still, go to Hamburg in a different season.
Do not look for the telling detail in Rome. Better to step back and take a long shot of the piazza. It would be even better if you just step back into the crowd, find a table to site down at, and order something to drink. i had more fun drinking a coffee and eating a cake at Piazza Navona that I had taking photos of the fountains.
Do not go off the tourist map. Do not follow the white rabbit. There is no wonderland waiting for you in Goa. Remain where the tourists are, in the places marked out for you. Enjoy the inauthenticity of a big tourist destination. Remember that Alice did not have a great time in wonderland. The world is full of people trying to make a living. Most of them do not have the money to travel.


Bhutan may or may not be the happiest country in the world. But it is not the world’s richest. The always photographable gho and kira which people are required to wear in public are not cheap. The result is that most people only have a small number of outfits, and they cannot always dress for work or leisure appropriately. Do not assume that everyone treats work as a such a joyful activity that they dress their best to work.

Life in a small small village is not carefree. It is often boring and pointless, much like our own, no matter where we come from. If you look different, then you are as much of an attraction for them as they are for you. Even better, you give them an opportunity to forgo dangerous travel to broaden their mind. Also, be sure that any local politician worth his salt will tell his constituents that he has worked hard to make sure that the village is the most attractive in the world, which is why people come from far to see it.
It is not travel which broadens the mind, it is thinking about what you have seen. Anthony Bourdain probably never said that, but Mark Twain may have. Maybe travel has taught me that. Intercontinental flights are boring enough that I get a lot of reading done on trips.
That’s why I like to move to a new place every few months.
I have a new home, cozy and comfortable, yet I am in a new environment and get to know new people. It’s not a bad combination of travel and home.
(Moving to Bad Mergentheim in two weeks and then to Leipzig for the summer. After that, I don’t know yet.)
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It sounds like the best of both. Or perhaps the worst. Could depend on the place
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When it’s a bad place, I relish in the thought that I’ll be gone in a few months. And stay in bed and read.
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I love this wry post. Increasingly these days I avoid the ‘must sees’ because it will be crowded with tourists. A coffee in a back-street square is much more fun. And air travel? Avoid, avoid, avoid!
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Yes, the little cafes and eateries which are terribly out of fashion are the best.
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Very well done.
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Thanks
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Yes, travel is less comfortable than staying home. But comfort isn’t everything as you show anyone able to read between your lines š And there’s a balance to be struck as you point out. Sitting in a Rome cafe with a coffee is pretty comfortable, it’s only the getting there that might be tough!
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But then you have to speak a language that my not roll comfortably off your tongue š
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š¤£š¤£
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Thank you for your excellent commentary
I could not agree more. Speaking candidly, I do not like the many photographers who boastfully post photos from far-flung travels or exotic locations that cost literally thousands of $$ to reach. They are showing off their affluence, which is a distasteful way to cross something off their bucket list.
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Thanks. To be fair, not everyone’s travel is expensive or full of luxuries. Though tickets cost money, the destination is sometimes much cheaper than your home.
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You’re welcome and I agree. What I find distasteful are the posts that are boastful. Not all are like that indeed, but some are. Anyway I always enjoy your own writings. Thanks.
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Thank you again
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Well said about travel, IJ. I enjoy reading your thoughts. I agree, travel is not all that comfortable and can be risky sometimes. Love the photos especially the village people.
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Thanks. That was an interesting experience, we just stopped to have a tea at a roadside stall.
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HA ha ha ha! PERFECT, I.J.!!! Very, very, very well expressed, not only on the vagaries of travel for some 1.4 BILLION tourist arrivals pre-pandemic (down to 400 million after, a precipitous drop), but also on the fact that many, many more are struggling with daily tasks in agricultural fields, rice paddies, herding goats on Asian steppes perhaps, sweatshop factories, etc etc., without a glimmer of hope (or interest?) in getting a photo of the Eiffel Tower on a 20-day, 20-city whirlwind tour.
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Thanks
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“It is not travel which broadens the mind, it is thinking about what you have seen.” Comments on your interesting post seem to reflect the minds of the readers. But I guess that is always so. I didn’t know what to think, so I focused on the quote above.
The older we get, the slower we go. I tell myself this is because it is the journey that counts, not the destination. But it may be that I just move slower.
On the other hand, I drive when I can and sleep when I can, and I almost always sleep on a plane. That is by choice. There was a time, when I considered a plane to be a refuge from my business activities [in an era before there were laptops and Internet connections]. Now it is just a means to an end, a way to get to where I begin my travel. And then, I take back roads so I can drive slowly and see and think about what I am seeing.
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Now that the pandemic has forced us into quick weekend travel, I find myself nostalgic for when you could spend a week exploring a landscape. I have a better appreciation of your kind of slow travel.
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Your post has me thinking, IJ. I love that. True. Travel can be miserable, exhausting and bad for your health. It’s definitely not a list a places to check off. “Been there. Done that.” It can be so much more. A chance to open our minds. To meet and get to know others. That’s travel in the best sense. I agree that it doesn’t always happen that way. The drudgery of travel during covid takes away a lot of the excitement and fun…that’s for sure.
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Thank you. The pandemic has certainly added to the list of administrative processes to be followed for travel.
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Oh my, you are disenchanted with travel. It is my greatest joy and planning a trip is the love of my life. Work is a hardship, the daily grind,slogging till I can scrounge enough money to go on a vacation and explore.
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Well good luck. I hope your enchantment never wears off
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amazing pictures here and a great blog. thanks for sharing from ireland! James
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Thank you. Glad you like it
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Oh my god! I realised how often we talk about inauthenticity! How we brag about offbeat destination. This post is like a brick that hit my head. Kickass post!
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Thanks. I hope it didn’t hurt š
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Haha. No. I realised how some travelers ( including me) over emphasise āoffbeaten ā place
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I have found that travel takes you far out of your comfort zone. It often seems to go against the rose-tinted description so many people place on it. But it pushes your comfort zone to new levels and can be wonderful. I have loved it and hated it all at the same time. I loved this post and think more pieces need to be written like this.
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Thank you. I love travel, but that’s after years of pushing my tolerance level. I wanted to write about its downside at least once.
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wonderful
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Thanks
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Wonderful post ,IJ !I have been to Tawang/AP as well as the north east & loved šthe places!
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Thank you. Yes, wonderful places indeed
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I agree. Most travel descriptions focus on the wonderful, the amazing, the charming… but travel can be frustrating, boring, lonely and bloody hard work. The main pleasure is not to be there, but to have been.
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Your last line is a good summary
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OMG š„ this is dope. keep sharing
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Thanks
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I love to travel. Spain this Friday
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All the best
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