This is my philosophical answer to two questions we are repeatedly asked.
(feel free to hit the delete button now. While we are on that, I you do not wish to receive the travelogue or any of my diatribe, just let me know and I will take you off the list.)
1. Ken, why to you to leave your home all the time? This is usually from someone who has been in the same place all their lives. I usually I start with the easy explanation. If you lived an the same house all your life and never went outside, got all your information about the outside of you house from TV and newspaper, and they told you your house was pink and the neighborhood was dangerous, then that is what you believed. Then one day you adventured out and found that your house is really blue and the neighborhood is very friendly. That is what leaving my home is about. Until you can get out and see the rest of the world, you really can not understand how your neighborhood looks and compares to the rest of the world. Some times that explanitation works, some times it doesn't. Some people don't care. The problem with a lot people is they are scared. If you do not look like me, talk like me, eat like me and believe like me then you are not comfortable and can actually be scared or intimidated by something different. I find that more Americans fall in this category than the rest of the world as the rest of the world is not as isolated from "different" people as we are. People are afraid that they may "get me", or laugh at me, or I will embarrass myself. These are the barriers that you have to break through to really enjoy the rest of America and the world. Yes they laugh at you, yes they talk about you and yes you can not understand. But it is not in malaise and I have never had a situation where some one did not try and help. I know a guy who have traveled by local bus, you know the ones you see on the Nat Geo channels with chickens and stuff, through back roads of Syria, of all places, and no one was ever mean or threatening. In fact, the more rural the place, the more people wanted to talk to him. He said no one believed he was an American traveling alone through Syria. So, if you are so inclined, break through the barriers, climb on the bus and travel. There is no right answer or wrong. Just because you are not like us and want to stay home is the reason you are my friend, because you are different from me !!
2. What do you do all day and don't you get bored? (the 2 in one question) This is the one I get from my Momma the most and all this wonder lust is her fault. She is the one that dragged me back and forth across the ocean starting when I was just 6 months old. I will answer the easy part first. Yes, we get bored. But, I get bored at home and probably so do you. In fact I am more bored at home than traveling. Now the hard part. First you have to realize our adventures are not "vacations" as most Americans think of anything that takes them away from home. Travel is a life event for us. We go some place and try to stay long periods to understand the people and the culture just a little bit. We do not feel you can do this by seeing 15 cities in 10 days. In fact, we try to avoid the high spots and look for the more normal things. As you know from the travelogues, some days we take trips to big cities and touristy places, but just as often we find small things to go and see them.
So here was a typical day in St. Raphael, France:
I get up a 6 am'ish, watch a little of French news on the channel that has the news "crawl" across the bottom. What I don't get listening a french, I pick up a little more understanding from the crawl. I make a cup of tea and read or study until it is light, then I go out and clean up all the olives and grapes that have fallen over night and feed the fish. Around 8am most days, I walk down to water front, turn right and head for the next town of Frejus and the Palmerias Hotel's side walk cafe with internet connection. There I visit with the owner and waitress and occasionally a guest or two and do all the computer stuff and send you these diatribes. After a stroll back along the beach front, I go by my favorite baker and get the daily baguette. I get home about 9:30. Vicki and I visit and talk about her dreams that she has almost every night and decide what to do. Today we are off to the military cemetery for the soldiers from South East Asia. To get there we walk for a little over an hour taking roads we have not walked before. There is always something to see that is new, flowers, birds, dogs, houses, people, etc. You have to open your eyes and look and never be in a hurry. At the cemetery we set on the bench and take it all in. It has a lovely garden. The French lost only a little over 3,000 soldiers from 1914, I think, until 1957 compared to our 50,000+ from '61 to '75. Lots of interesting things to note while we are here...many Vietnamese and North Africans are buried here. About an hour later we head into the town of Frejus, about a 45 minute walk. Once again there are things that are to us interesting along the way, Budist monestary, roman ruins, monuments, etc. In Frejust we go to the Vietnamese restaurant, keeping with the theme of the day. It is a little more than a hole in the wall on a small small alley off the main small street in old town. The owner, a non-english speaker, is very helpful. He shows a new way to eat springs rolls, the small Vietnamese/Thai type, not those big honkin' Chinese things. You wrap lettuce around the spring role. It was excellent as was the main course. This is accompanied with beer and espresso afterward as is required by law. We stroll through old Frejus looking at art and some of the shops. Then we head for the water front and walk back home, about an hour and ten minutes. After a rest of about an hour, Vicki goes to the market to get fresh things for dinner. We set on the patio under the grape vines looking out at the flowers and fruit and olive trees and have glass of wine. After dinner we read or plan the next day or write emails or sort photo's or watch "mon oncle charlie" ("my uncle charlie" or as you know it "2 and half men"). And that is an average day.
Now, if we were at home it would probably go like this: Get up at 6, make coffee and do the internet, get in the car and drive to the cemetery, have lunch, stop at Publix's and then home. All of that would probably take 2 hours. There are just as interesting things to do in the States, just that in the States we and many others do not take the time. We need the instant everything. Most of the rest of the world moves at a much slower pace and you really, really get to see more. But you have to hurry because it is changing.
Again, this type of travel or travel at all, is not for everyone. Each person in the world is different. And that is why we enjoy meeting them so much !!
3. Yea, but I don't have time or money? That question is for another day.
Ken Wilson, traveler
"Certainly, travel is more than seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."
