Travelling Differently

When i read this, i said 'wow! I agree with this and this hmm not this one'...Let's see some of the travelling-differently-lessons from Paulo's Like The Flowing River.

1. Avoid museums
If you are in a foreign city, what is more interesting, searching the present or the past? Obviously, museums are important but they require time and objectivity - you need to know what you want to see, otherwise you'll thought that you've seen important things, but actually you can't remember what they were.

Comments: I still go to museum, but i prefer zoo hmmm espc. unique-looking ones. Still, these 2 will be last resorts in any travelling plan. But what's interesting to visit is the Killing Field Museum in Phnom Penh. Let's do it pengulu gang!

2. Hang out in bars
Bars are the places where life in the city reveals itself, not in museums. By bars, i don't mean discotheques, but the places where ordinary ppl go have a drink, ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. Buy a newspaper. If someone strikes up a conversation, however silly, join in! You cannot judge the beauty of a particular path just by looking at the gate.

Comments: Bar? Hah, always!

3. Be open
The best tour guide is someone who lives in the place, knows everything about it, proud of her/his city but does not work for any agency.
Comments: Cautious as well for con-man/woman oh and those who you met in bars and actually work there.

4. Try to travel alone or - if you're married-with your spouse
It will be harder, no one will be there taking care of u but only in this way can you truly leave your country behind. Travelling with a group is a way of being in a foreign country while speaking your mother tongue, doing whatever the leader of the group tells u to do and more interested in group gossip than in the place you're visiting.
Comments: I've thought about travelling alone or with my partner, i'm sure it'll be so much mixed feelings of fun, panic, cautious and proud (in a good way).

5. Don't compare
Don't compare anything - prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not travelling in order to prove that you have a better life than other ppl. Your aim is to find out how other ppl live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary.
Comments: I once met with 2 ladies from UK who've been assigned by their boss to go to a very remote spot in Kalimantan for work - 3 nights plus 4 days travelling to and fro by 4WD and boat. We met up for dinner and all the way dinner, they complaint, and i could not believe my ears when they compared Kalimantan with UK! They even compared Asian breakfast and English's. What the hell was that? So a'ah no no compare.

6. Understand that everyone understands you.
Even if you don't speak the language, don't be afraid. Some ppl think that if they travel alone, they will be lost and be lost forever. Just make sure you got the hotel card with you. If worst comes to the worst - flag down a taxi and show the card to the driver.
Comments: If you stay in backpackers lodge, they dont have hotel card. So get the exact address.

7. Dont buy too much
Spend your money on things you wont need to carry - tickets to a good play or match, restaurants, trips. Nowadays, with global economy and the internet, you can buy almost anything without having to pay excess baggage.
Comments: I agree but still i buy stuffs..lol. This caused me a frustrating 'poket belubang' experience till i can't do what i so much want to do - watch a live Muay Thai boxing match. Hukhuk..

8. Dont try to see the world in a month
It's far better to stay in a city for 4 or 5 days than to visit 5 cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time to be seduced and to reveal herself completely.
Comments: Visited 4 cities in 12 days in 2005, punya men panat! Yeah don't do this, it's stupid.

9. A journey is an adventure
Henry Miller used to say that it's far more important to discover a church that no one else has ever heard of, than going to Rome and feel obliged to visit Sistine Chapel with 200,000 other tourists yelling in your ear. By all means, go to Sistine Chapel, but wander the streets too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking something - quite you dont know, but if you find it, will, you can be sure, change your life.
Comments: My close friend, Joni, treat her holiday as an adventure. Whenever she tells a story of her journey, it's something unfamiliar but it never fail to amaze me. Got the priviledge to join her in the adventure and yeah i enjoyed myself so much! Let's do it again Jons.