Stay a while (3/3)

Why not try the opposite approach – settle in somewhere for a bit, and force yourself to slow down. Of course, most people with solid jobs can’t afford the luxury of six months spent away from their normal lives. But even if you only have two weeks, choose a country, or even better, choose a region within a country that intrigues you, and stay put. Explore it. Rent a room by the week. Find out where the tourists go, and walk in the other direction.

Meet the locals. You’ll be surprised to find how many people are proud to share their stories and local foods. And the curiosity is mutual. People all over the world are obsessed with U.S. culture and want to know equally as much about you.

It’s when you learn bits of the native language that you actually tap into the culture. It’s when the kids in the street drag you home to grandma who winds up teaching you how to make tortillas and demands you stay for dinner. It's when you force yourself to eat a lard sandwich just because it pleases your host so much to feed you. It’s when you realize that you really aren't in a hurry to go anywhere maybe for the first time in your life. It's when you stay for just one more drink because, once you’ve agreed, the look of satisfaction on the old guy’s face is priceless.

Language barriers can definitely make communication challenging, but the less pressure you put on yourself to hurry through, the more you'll enjoy the ride. If you're truly looking for an exotic travel adventure, take off your coat and stay a while. That's how you'll find it.

Around the world in 14 days (2/3)

This year, you want to do things differently. You would like to believe you’re still young and reckless so you decide to go to an exotic country. You’re prepared for unbridled adventure. You're going to live it up, do it right. Get feral. Who knows, you may even go skinny dipping if the opportunity presents itself. You’re going to be totally carefree...except for, well, a couple of considerations.

You have a budget to stick to, time constraints to follow, safety precautions to think of, vaccinations to plan for, medications to remember, water quality to take into account, and your travel partner’s interests to cater to. On top of all that, you have the pressure to actually have a good time. In the end, if the trip turns crap, you’re a grand poorer at the very least and your only vacation time this year was spent being sick, miserable or both. Despite the logistics, you're determined to make it happen.

Ready, here comes the villain in disguise. You only have two weeks; how much can you fit in? You probably won’t choose Western Europe next year, so you've just got to see as much as possible. This is a problem we’ve all come across. Raise your hand if you've ever found yourself thinking something like, “It would be a shame to go to Italy and not hit Venice on the way out.” Or maybe, “Couldn’t we stop by Paris, just for the weekend?” But wait, London-Amsterdam-Paris-Rome-Madrid and then home in two weeks? How many times have you heard someone say he'd done Europe, when he actually spent less than a month traveling there? Do you suppose he remembers any one city from another?

Don’t get mad at me now, you promised! But what is the point? Did you do it just to say you did? And how shallow is that? Come on, wake up and smell the spotted dick-gouda-baguette-spaghetti-paella, how could you possibly swallow all that in just a couple weeks and come home to say you’ve officially done Europe? Instead you're more likely to say something like, “What was that sad singing they did again, Fazo...Fabo...? Where did we see that?” You can’t remember. For shame! As tempted as you were to stop at that restaurant where you heard the lady singing, you didn't. Instead, you were running to hop back on the Eurail to Seville to catch a glimpse of flamenco dress before jumping on a plane to the next place....

One metropolitan city is the same as the next when you only have a day or two to see it, not to mention the sheer stress of high-velocity travel in a country where you speak little or none of the native language. The anxiety is enough to force you to drink Starbucks, eat at McDonalds, and get your souvenir T-shirt at Zara just because you know it’s safe. In the end, you’ve missed out on what’s unique about the food, and when you think back, you realize you met more tourists than locals.

To be continued...

Take off your coat and stay a while (1/3)

World travel, for me, means setting up camp in one country until I can make enough cash to move on to the next. Trying to find a reason to justify that method, maybe a reason slightly more romantic than admitting I can’t afford it any other way, I started thinking about what differentiates the experiences of poor travelers from those of the rich, and why it is that people choose to travel to exotic countries in the first place.

Traveling to an exotic country means going where you don’t speak the language: you’ve practiced donde esta el baño one hundred times, but your heart still pounds out of your chest to ask. The climate is like none you’ve ever known: your coffee gets cold in two minutes and you’re wearing flip flops in the rain. Everyone looks at you funny: you’ve started dressing according to custom, even dyed your hair, and somehow you still can’t hide.

Just a sample of the torture inevitably linked to exotic travel explains that your desire to experience it can’t be for vacation. Not the relaxing sort anyway, unless you are planning to remain within the confines of the resort, where the locals serve all the comforts of home, not to exclude your whole wheat bagel and latte, oversized towels in your private bathroom, plush linens, and a fresh copy of the New York Times. So tell me again, why was it that you chose to travel to the Mexico Hyatt instead of the Manhattan Hyatt?

Before I make you feel too guilty, or you begin to write me off as overly pretentious, let me assure you that I’m not innocent either. I never have and never will turn down an invitation to a fancy hotel in any country, just for the sake of traveling the right way. I may be stubborn, but I’m not stupid. But just humor me for a bit.

To be continued...