More Ruminations On Travel - What Is Realistic And What Is Not

After getting responses both as blog comments and via other means related to the strains of our return flight despite all of our planning, I reflected. 

I reflected on all the detail and tradeoffs I'd discussed previously related to travel planning. Was I making light of the issues one would encounter. Then I did deeper reflection. I went into what does it meant to 'travel' and to be 'a traveler'. And here is what I have concluded. 

There is a deep seeded need in some people to travel. Whether you were Herodotus in ancient Greece, Ibn Battuta in medieval Islam, or Henry Swinburne in 18th century Europe, there has been a desire to go out and see, experience, learn. 

Travel by its very nature of taking one out of a settled, predictable life pattern, will put one into situations where is uncomfortable. Travel (as I have written earlier) is not 'taking a vacation'. It is not going to a place where one can relax and let their worries go. It is about seeking new experiences, or delving deeper into places one has already seen.

If one wants to 'look like one is traveling' but have all the uncertainty taken out, you have your cruise or tour. You will definitely see things. But they will be the curated things that cruise or tour organizer has arranged for you. They will be homogenized, safe, and require little effort or discomfort on your part. To me, personally, this is not travel. 

When you travel, you know you are going to have your good days and your bad days. Not everything you plan will pan out. You may run into a temple celebration you totally knew nothing about. Even your negatives may have a positive such as my getting stuck in the mud and all the Spaniards working to get me out! And you will have a voyage where things don't go quite as planned and you get tired and sick. 

I realize all this is subjective and there are many levels and nuances. One might say if you are not trekking, traveling with minimal creature comforts you are not really traveling. They would look at what Wife and I do with skepticism and I accept that. 

But I do accept that the possibility of things not going smoothly is a part of the true travel experience just as travelers have done for centuries and centuries.