I have spent most of this evening reading through various travel blogs (www.travelblog.org, if you're interested. I highly recommend it, and then I recommend extensive travel of your own). Some are fantastic, some are so-so, and some horrify me. Much of my reaction depends on my perception of the author's motivation -- from serious travel, to tourism, and, regrettably, those who travel from country to country looking for the next party. Most recently, I've been reading "SEA08", two of my close friends experiencing two months in Southeast Asia, and "two4deRoad", which is a couple of people I do not know from somewhere in the Caribbean sea. They are traveling (literally) around the world on a shoestring budget. I admire them.
Last year, I myself went on a brief, 44-day long journey from Hong Kong to London, with limited stops in between. I have to say that it was easily one of the greatest experiences in my life, and now that I've been able to see the backroads of the world, I'd like to go on some more serious journeys myself (preferably with a special companion ... my Buddy ...). Reading all of these travel blogs has inflicted me with a serious case of wanderlust.
In between honest-to-goodness blogs, I read a few articles about the "call to travel." The articles spoke of boredom with Western life, a desire for new experiences, an instinct to see and do more than anyone else around you. And it got me wondering: Why don't Americans travel more? Most of us get two weeks of paid vacation time, and most of us don't take them. Americans are even loathe to call in sick when in the grips of a serious flu. Why don't we take more time off for travel?
I'm not even suggesting that all Americans experience floating villages in Cambodia, the 3 million motorcycles of Saigon, fashion excess in Tokyo, history in the UK, or wine in Austria. What I am suggesting is that we need more than two weeks, and we need to do more with that time than hang out in our backyards. There's something that I think is rather foolish in our American work ethic. We work more hours, for less pay, less vacation, less health care, and less retirement funding. In Australia, not only do the locals have four-weeks PTO (paid time-off), but they earn 117% of their regular wages on the notion that "you need more spending money when you're on vacation." Our economy is in the doldrums, and while Australia isn't in a state of unprecedented prosperity, it's doing no worse -- and maybe even a little bit better.
I also want to know why Americans scoff at the idea of vacating their lives for a few weeks and going somewhere completely different. On the road last year, I met tons of Aussies, Kiwis, Japanese, Koreans, Brits, Swedes, and Continentals. I came across far fewer Americans. (Note that this was a year ago -- before the US credit crunch, before oil prices skyrocketed, and before the dollar slumped. Point is, we had wealth.) Why not? Especially since we're known for being ignorant of the world around us? Even more so when our nation leads the international community in international aid, and international conflict? Forget what's outside our borders -- people in Chicago barely even know what's happening in Houston.
Maybe it's because I'm afflicted with wanderlust, and maybe because I'm pinned up against the post-college "real world", and maybe both factors are compounded by 100-hour work weeks ahead, but I'm starting to really wonder where are priorities are. Wealthy, stable, powerful -- these are the words Americans strive to be. There's nothing inherently wrong in that, but what if we just loosened our grip little bit?
Last year, I myself went on a brief, 44-day long journey from Hong Kong to London, with limited stops in between. I have to say that it was easily one of the greatest experiences in my life, and now that I've been able to see the backroads of the world, I'd like to go on some more serious journeys myself (preferably with a special companion ... my Buddy ...). Reading all of these travel blogs has inflicted me with a serious case of wanderlust.
In between honest-to-goodness blogs, I read a few articles about the "call to travel." The articles spoke of boredom with Western life, a desire for new experiences, an instinct to see and do more than anyone else around you. And it got me wondering: Why don't Americans travel more? Most of us get two weeks of paid vacation time, and most of us don't take them. Americans are even loathe to call in sick when in the grips of a serious flu. Why don't we take more time off for travel?
I'm not even suggesting that all Americans experience floating villages in Cambodia, the 3 million motorcycles of Saigon, fashion excess in Tokyo, history in the UK, or wine in Austria. What I am suggesting is that we need more than two weeks, and we need to do more with that time than hang out in our backyards. There's something that I think is rather foolish in our American work ethic. We work more hours, for less pay, less vacation, less health care, and less retirement funding. In Australia, not only do the locals have four-weeks PTO (paid time-off), but they earn 117% of their regular wages on the notion that "you need more spending money when you're on vacation." Our economy is in the doldrums, and while Australia isn't in a state of unprecedented prosperity, it's doing no worse -- and maybe even a little bit better.
I also want to know why Americans scoff at the idea of vacating their lives for a few weeks and going somewhere completely different. On the road last year, I met tons of Aussies, Kiwis, Japanese, Koreans, Brits, Swedes, and Continentals. I came across far fewer Americans. (Note that this was a year ago -- before the US credit crunch, before oil prices skyrocketed, and before the dollar slumped. Point is, we had wealth.) Why not? Especially since we're known for being ignorant of the world around us? Even more so when our nation leads the international community in international aid, and international conflict? Forget what's outside our borders -- people in Chicago barely even know what's happening in Houston.
Maybe it's because I'm afflicted with wanderlust, and maybe because I'm pinned up against the post-college "real world", and maybe both factors are compounded by 100-hour work weeks ahead, but I'm starting to really wonder where are priorities are. Wealthy, stable, powerful -- these are the words Americans strive to be. There's nothing inherently wrong in that, but what if we just loosened our grip little bit?
