Livin’ the Dream

Vacation, Traveling and Tourism

So we are officially on day 26 of our world adventure and I figure
that with all of this blogging and emailing it would be useful to
define a few terms. Ironically, vacation travelling and tourism are
used almost interchangeably when in reality, as we have learned they
lead to wildly different experiences.

Let me start with Vacation: we all are intimately aware of vacation at
our first job we are dutifully dolled out 15 precious days of PTO
which we accrue at a snails pace and then hoard away with the
diligence of a miser until we can take it no more and jet off for a
precious 4 day weekend or in a wild splurge take “gasp” a whole week
off. We plan carefully making sure to leave on a Friday afternoon
return late Sunday night so as to squeeze almost a full 9 days vacation
out of 5 precious working days off.

So what is the vacation that we so carefully calculate for? Vacation is
the hunt for the most elusive of sentiments … relaxation. Vacation at
it’s ultimate is a beautiful secluded beach a hammock and with an umbrella, oh yes and maybe a
cabana boy. Vacation comes in many colors but the goal is always the
same a few moments to escape from the stress and madness of the
everyday.

On the contrary traveling is none of these things. Though you may come
across the occasional exceptional fruity cocktail there are no cabana
boys in traveling and relaxation is as elusive as in the office.

Yes traveling is something completely different. Traveling is the quest
to roam the world like a primitive nomad. It is a journey were toilets
are little more than vial holes in the ground, where touching the soap
seems more dangerous than not washing your hands, where youth hostels
become a luxury, and where brushing your teeth in public seems
acceptable. This my friends is traveling.

Why do we travel? I’m still looking for the answer. It seems to be a
deep seated need in human nature perhaps left over from the time when
we depended on the land and were constantly looking for the new
resources maybe it is to challenges the limits of our own horizons to
push ourselves to the limits and see how we do. Maybe it is to marvel
at the greatness of our own species. I’m really not sure but without
fail after 4 months of staying at home the bug hits and if I’m not
gone by 6 months I feel as though I will lose my mind. So we travel.

By far the most curios of these experiences is tourism. Perhaps it is
companies attempt to blend travel with vacation, to allow people who
really want a vacations to do a little exploring without any of the
stress normally associated with it. But in my experience tourism is
really the unique scenario of paying incredible amounts of money to
have the unique experience of feeling like cattle. It is the moment
when after shelling over your hard earned dollars you are expected to
shuffle onto a bus at the crack of dawn to then be herded around a
variety of site or excursions with 20-40 of your fellow tourists. You
are told when to apply sunscreen, where to stand for your picture, and
the exact number of steps it will take you to make it to the top of
that temple, where you can commune with your fellow tourist pals.

The best example tourism was when Steve and I took a horse back ride
to a waterfall in Mexico (actually one of the best trips ever). After
being picked up and placed in a saddle we were led tail to nose up
hill through the jungle single file with 20 other tourists. We swam in
the pool and had an endless supply of beer (I love Mexico) then the
vaqueros literally herded – yes think cattle drive – our horses with
us till on it through a river back to the ranch. I pity cows.

Tags: Australia, Travel

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.