Introduction.... And The Tale Of The Traveler
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 4:54PM Have you ever wondered what you need, and where to stay, when you backpack across cities and countries? Have you ever wondered whose traveled, how far they've gone, what they've seen, and what they've done? This blog answers all of these questions and much more, with the intention to inform and aid those who have a love for travel.
Although, I haven't traveled as much as I would like yet, and I do stress the word "yet", it is something that has been a passion of mine ever sense I was little. I've wanted to travel the world ever sense I can remember. However, just because I haven't done a lot of traveling as of now doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of others who have, and there is one traveler whom I admire a lot. His name is Steve James, and he spent a year traveling through: Japan, China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, America, and Canada.
On his website, James has posted a journal in which he gives a day by day account of the year that he spent traveling from country to country. In it, he describes the different parts of his journey; for example, the cultures that he saw, and the activities that he took part in. One such activity that he did, which I would love to do someday, was in New Zealand, where he went sky diving. In the three page journal entry, he describes the feeling of being pushed out of a plane twelve thousand feet in the air, and how it felt to free fall with the wind whipping in his face.
For the other side of his journey, he describes the cultural landmarks and festivities that he saw, and took part in. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, he partook in the Songkran Festival, which is a five day all-out water fight, in the streets, that is practiced countrywide to bring in the Thai New Years. A piece of culture that he visited was the "luscious architechture and tree-swamped" temples of the lost city of Angkor in Cambodia, which was the main part of the Khmer empire, who reigned over South East Asia around one thousand years ago.
One last thing before I say goodbye, for now, is that reading James' journal, and picturing all that he got to see, and do, has just given me one more reason why I can't wait to take off and travel the world, so I too can have my own adventures and see what he and many others have gotten to see.
Cultures, Festivities in Blog
Reader Comments (2)
Nice first blog entry, Stephanie. It's obvious that you are inspired to travel by others, and you offer good examples of people who are doing it and sharing their experiences as you would like to do.
I am glad someone is writing a blog travel. Reading this makes think of the little bit of traveling I've done. When I was India with my cousin we really tried to do a lot of different things, from the touristy stuff like sightseeing, hiking and hitting the local festivals where we could, to exploring more of the roads less traveled, such as volunteering at schools. I think that doing a variety of things like that is really the best way to get a sense of the culture. This Steve James sounds interesting - I will have to check him out.