Archive for the ‘travel’ Category

i didn’t spend the whole weekend on an island, but yesterday i did go to nami island for a look around. actually, i’m surprised that i’d never heard of nami island before. it’s become quite famous amongst koreans, partly because of the drama that was filmed there called ‘winter sonata’. anyway, it’s a small island in the middle of the river near cheun cheon. there’s not very much to do, but i did enjoy walking around the island (took about an hour) and taking photos … however, i forgot to take my leica out of my bag, so i have no b&w shots!

after nami island, i headed to another near by area and stayed the night. the next morning i went to a place called ‘morning calm’. it was quite calm … but actually it was just a big flower and botanical garden. some of the features were nice and it was fun to walk around, but i didn’t really get many shots i liked. i headed back to seoul this afternoon.

nami island was pretty cool, and i’ve decided to go back there in winter. when there is some snow on the ground, i think the island would be quite beautiful. so i’m keen to have another crack at photographing it.

i’m looking forward to a much needed rest day tomorrow. my stomach has been playing up on me, and after eating spicy chicken yesterday, i’ve not been feeling the best.

i haven’t done a travel update in a while, however i have been thinking about the travels … constantly.

i was actually reading an interesting article about how some of the ’stan’ countries are very interesting and very safe. particularly, uzbekistan’s capital tashkent. so i got to looking at my map (again) and discovered that i could change one part of my route to workin at least 3 more countries. from delhi i planned to go to lahore and on to karachi. i can cross pakistan’s border there into southern iran and follow the trade route all the way to tehran.

however, if i go from delhi into lahore, i could head north to islamabad. then i can probably get a train north into tajikistan. i may have to pass through far western afghanistan, but i don’t think it would be too problematic. after reaching dushanbe, i could keep going west to tashkent, then south into turkmenistan all the way to ashgabat. that’s very close to the iran border and not too far at all from tehran. whilst in iran, i might venture south to a few areas of interest, then circle back to the north east and exit to turkey.

although it might be more complex, i think it could be a lot more fun. from my understanding, none of those countries are dangerous and i should have no trouble moving around and getting trains from place to place. it’s a much more interesting route than skirting the bottom of pakistan into iran.

some people are sanctimonious prats, desperate for column inches … an article by adele horin (which somehow got published by the sydney morning herald) suggests that aussies travel too much and that our carbon footprint is too big. she says that aussies are hypocrits because we claim to be environmentally concerned yet spend lots of time flying (which produces enormous co2 emissions). her diatribe was the result of some kind of ‘awakening’ after she listened to richard begbie on abc radio, denouncing air travel as the last environmental taboo.

wired magazine posted something of a rebuttal to her statements here.

my opinion on this is that it’s easy to denounce plane travel, especially after you’ve been doing it for a while and suddenly decide that it’s wrong. very convenient when you’re no longer a regular traveler. my other problem with her rant is that it’s also easy to be critical without being constructive.

as discussed, australia is an isolated country. so there are numerous arguments in support of our need for plane travel. the simple practicalities are that we have no other feasible way of getting places away from our big, far flung continent. it’s a different case for america, england and europe. most people in the northern hemisphere can travel by land or sea … or short plane trips, such as from new york to london. so i completely agree that plane travel is not a necessary form of transportation when other alternatives do exist.

the second problem is that australia has a very small population. 19 million ockers pales in comparison to america’s 300 million, the uk’s 70 million and a few hundred million spread across europe. such large populations makes it easier for mass transport to be profitable. travel anywhere within australia is expensive, because of the massive distances and lack of infrastructure to support it. i remember flying from london to amsterdam for 50 quid. that would never be possible in australia. it cost me nearly as much to catch a train from rockhamption to the gold coast.

that leads to my point, that air travel (despite its huge co2 emissions) isn’t the big problem. two hundred million cars driving around the world on a daily basis is one of the biggest co2 problems we have. the daily waste of oil and the daily pollution of the atmosphere is a more serious issue. currently, america is reluctant to increase emission standards and other companies are increasing standards only in the face of growing criticism. where air travel is necessary for australians, cars are not necessary for 50% of drivers around the world who live in cities with very good public transport systems; seoul, tokyo, new york and paris are good examples.

developing countries are also bigger problems. china is outpacing america and will continue to grow … further, as many chinese become richer, the lure of foreign travel is going to result in more planes in the sky. put 2% of china’s population in the air and that represents 25 million air travelers … more than my country’s population. africa and india are developing too, which adds another 2 billion to the number of people who are increasing their co2 usage … so while rich countries are decreasing their usage, 4 times more people are increasing their usage.

the polution that is created on a daily basis (vehicles, factories, etc) is a far more immediate problem. air travel too, while being a problem, is one that cannot be overcome so easily. all experts agree that there are no readily available alternatives … especially for countries like australia and new zealand which are so remote. air travel can definitely be reduced. people can travel by land and sea where possible. video lectures and conferencing is also a reasonable alternative for people who travel on business.

another alternative is for the australian government to support australians who want to travel, by helping aussies get abroad without using planes. it may sound ridiculous, but traveling to darwin by train, then a boat to singapore would put aussies in the heart of asia. from there it’s a train ride to bangkok or a flight to europe. the travel time would be over a week, but the emissions would be cut dramatically. for travelers and retirees, the extra travel time is not a problem. the costs are higher, sure, but the government can offset such costs by providing tax exemptions to companies who offer cross-continental travel options.

bali is also close to australia, and is one of our favourite travel destinations. i don’t see any reasons why it cannot be reached by train (to north queensland or darwin) and ship.

i never said that these solutions were practical … i said they were alternatives.

aussies do have a traveling spirit, so i don’t see why we should be punished when the rest of the world decides that air travel is wrong. sure, it is wrong for most, but for a few it’s very necessary. nobody needs to fly from london to paris, or from new york to miami. but to escape the great southern land, there aren’t many choices … short of spending a month on a boat.

next year i start my world travels and i plan on taking as few planes as possible … my estimate is 3 or 4 plane trips in 18 months and 50 countries … it can be done.

where there’s a will, there’s a way … so stop picking on a few fair dinkum travelers, when the other problems are far far greater.

owie!

i went to the public health centre this morning and got my first of 3 hepatitis B injections. i need to go back in one month for jab #2 and again at the end of january for jab #3. the best part, aside from the pain, is the fact that each injection is only costing me 3,400 won ($3.40).

unfortunately, hepatitis A is not provided at the government health centres, so i have to go to a regular hospital or clinic for that (read: it’ll be much more expensive).

fortunately, my yellow fever injection can be had at a public health centre too.

unfortunately, the local centres don’t have it, i have to go to the national health centre in dongdaemun.

fortunately, they also have frozen yoghurt … unfortunately, the frogurt is cursed.

none the less, i’m quite pleased with this morning’s discovery. now i just need to sort out hep A.

been doing some shopping research … and have come up with a few things that i want to buy in the next 6-7 months.

1. olympus 1030 sw digital camera.  having a 3rd camera in my bag may seem nuts, but there are going to be advantages to having a point and shoot. firstly, i can make short movies. second, people don’t react to pocket cameras like they do to big slr and dslr cameras. third, this camera is waterproof to 10 meters, shockproof and works in all temperatures.
2. i’ve decided on a 70 litre backpack. there are 3 contenders: Lowe Alpine TFX Summit 75+20, osprey aether 70 and gregory baltoro 70 hiking pack. the lowe alpine is on the top of the list. but the osprey would be a good second choice. the 20 litre day pack seals the deal … it’s just a matter of whether i can find the bag in korea.
3. northface baltoro boots. i want to buy these about a month or 8 weeks before i leave, so that i have time to break them in. i’ll only be taking one pair of shoes (as well as a pair of sandals) so i need to invest in solid footwear.

those are the 3 most important items. most other stuff i already have or is much smaller. i did have a waterproof camera, however it’s quite old and not very flexible. i already sold it for what i paid … so i didn’t lose any money on the camera!! lol … the olympus is about the size of a deck of cards, so it’s definitely a good pocket camera.

well, my plans have been thrown into complete disarray, with the realisation that i’d made a mistake regarding the cost of my masters course in china. initially, i thought that the course would only cost me a few thousand dollars. this is actually true, for uk citizens. for me, the course will cost $12k. that’s a huge difference … and it’s an amount i’m not willing to pay.

as a result, my two year plan has undergone a crucial change. instead of study then travel, i plan to begin my travels immediately after leaving korea. so, come march next year, i’ll pack my bag and hit the road with the intention of circumnavigating the globe for 12-18 months.

this has put me in a bit of a panic.  i thought that i’d have 20 months to prepare for the trip … now i only have 9 months. i’ve already done most of my basic planning, but there’s still a lot to be done. as well, the new plan has changed my spending habits. i wont need any of the things i thought i would have to buy for china (work clothes, new shoes, etc). instead, i’ll be buying things i need for the road; backpack, hiking shoes, and stuff.

i have a few ideas, but with only 9 months to put them together, the ideas may not pan out … so it looks like i’ll just be traveling alone and taking photos along the way. i’m still going to send out a few emails to see if any of my ideas can come into fruition, but i don’t expect it.

aussieabroad.org is going to become the new home for my travel diary. i’m looking at setting up a site which i can use for my travels. hopefully it’ll include a small forum where people can contact me or post ideas on where to travel, or if they’re willing to offer accomodation along the way.

details aside, i’ve got to get off my arse and start organising myself … without china to cushion my plans, i have to really put this together quickly.

even though i’ll have access to power in most places, the geek in me wants to carry solar panels while i travel … for fun and emergencies.

enter the portable solar power charger. this little baby is a tad pricey ($90) but able to charge most device batteries (ie camera batteries and storage device lithium batteries) in a few hours. it directly transfers the power from solar panels into the device, with no need for batteries or storage between the two. it also comes with numerous adapters.i’m concerned about my travels, because it’s unavoidable that i’ll carry electronic devices with me. as well as the nikon, i’ll have a portable storage device (for photos), a pocket point and shoot camera, and my cowon pmp. it’s highly unlikely that i’ll ever be without power to charge devices, but it’d also be nice to have the ability to go bush for a week (cambodia, thailand, india, africa, south america, rapa nui, etc) without having to worry about batteries.

i remember when craig went mountain biking in laos, he headed north to villages which had no power or amenities. i really hope to go to similar places and don’t want to be tied down by reliance on electricity … in another 18 months, this technology will have advanced further, and it’ll be a handy option to carry with me.

the best part is the ‘ooooh’ factor of carrying my own solar factory … i guess i can try and call myself a ‘green’ traveler.

What is photography?

I first picked up a camera in the 1980s when my dad gave me his Pentax K1000 SLR camera. It was a simple manual camera with a 50mm lens. I bought a roll of film and taught myself how to use the camera. I learned everything from metering to manual focus, all through trial and error. In my senior years of high school, I joined a photography class and learned the fine art of processing and developing negatives. During those years, I spent more time under the red darkroom light, than I did in natural sunlight.

My favorite memory is of standing on the beach with a high school friend. We bought some fish, sliced into pieces and my friend fed the fish to pelicans while I photographed their big eyes and gaping mouths. I processed, developed and printed the shots, and I was absolutely in love with photography and the amazing things I could achieve with a camera, film and chemicals.

I still have the negatives buried in a box somewhere. One day I’ll dig them out and remember how much fun I had back then.

For me, photography is about capturing the world through a lens. I consider myself a traveler and, like most photographers, I love to photograph the things around me. Sometimes I experiment with other styles. I like street photography, or I’ll try some studio photography. But travel photography is my passion – people and places, landscapes, nature and the thirst quenching colors that can only be found in foreign, exotic cultures.

Not everyone approaches photography the way I do though. Some people believe that photography is an expression of art or emotion. Some photographers see photography as a way to document events that shape human kind. Either way, to every photographer, our art is a way to capture moments in time that may never be repeated.

The best photographers always capture those moments in ways that inspire us and make us think about life for a moment, a kind of inner reflection. It’s a moment where you’re stunned by the wonder and beauty of life, or sometimes its horrific tragedy.

Without doubt, photography has played a huge part in modern history. Famous photographs have shaped the world and stayed with us forever. They brought us images of war, hope, courage, death and triumph. A picture tells a thousand words and award winning photographs tell a thousand stories.

I think everyone remembers shocking photos of the Vietnam War, the lone student defying tanks in Tiananmen Square, the WTC attacks on 9/11. But there are also the inspiring photos of the Wright brothers’ first flight, the first photo of the Earth from space, the Beatles walking across Abbey Road; did you ever notice that Paul was barefoot?

Steve McCurry’s ‘Afghan Girl’ which graced the cover of National Geographic, is an example of a very modern photo that made international fame. He photographed a Muslim girl in 1984 and her photo appeared on the cover of National Geographic in 1985.  She became so famous that McCurry tracked her down in 1992. It’s National Geographic’s most famous cover.

Technology

Despite the changes in technology, and the emergence of video, photography remains as popular as ever. Even though most photographers have made the transition to digital, photography has lost none of its beauty. On the contrary, digital photography has brought with it a revolution. Every mobile phone has a digital camera. Pocket cameras are ubiquitous and digital SLR cameras are within financial reach of novice photographers.

Photography is no longer a lofty ‘art’ for people who know what ‘Velvia’ means. Photography is now the medium of the people. This has been proved by images that came out of Burma during the Junta’s crackdown on protesting monks, and photos of riots against the Chinese government in Tibet. Digital photos, which are really just computerized zeros and ones, are easily smuggled across borders and splashed on the front page of today’s newspapers.

Technology has also brought with it new techniques. HDR (High Dynamic Range) images didn’t exist before digital. Electronic cameras have broken down shutter speed barriers and flash memory means that images can be stored in their thousands on small portable cards.

But not all change has been good for photography. These days, photographers are often suspects and menaced by police or security personnel. In the United Kingdom, advertising billboards warn people to ‘beware of suspicious persons holding a camera’. It’s a sure sign that photography in public is becoming a security threat. Photographers are potential terrorists.

People are also more aware of the exploitative nature of digital technology. An image can be easily modified or changed to tell a different story. People can be grafted into or out of a picture with amazing ease. Recently, a Chinese publication used an image of deer grazing near the controversial railway linking Beijing to Lhasa. The Chinese government proclaimed it a massive success, until the photo was discovered to be completely fake; a composite of two images.

There’s also a third change to photography; one that particularly saddens me. This year, Polaroid announced that it would cease production of its famous Polaroid film and cameras. Gone are the days of instant film photographs. My grandmother loved her Polaroid camera. She’d take my photo, pull the film out of the front of the camera, wave it in the air until it developed, and stick it to the refrigerator with all her other photos.  I just don’t think a digital photo will have the same feel to it.

Film is dying but I don’t think it will become extinct. Digital ‘point and shoot’ cameras are killing the film developing industry. Most of the processing stores are gone. It’s harder to buy good film stock. Developing has become more expensive. But what photography has lost, it has made up for with other gains.

Film has always been ‘art’. It will remain the photography fanatic’s greatest prize and digital will become the mainstream medium; a little like vinyl records and CDs.

Repetition

This week, Seoul Photo Club’s challenge was “Repetition”. In photography, repetition is the use of a repeated shape or image within a shot. It’s an echo of a shape that creates an instant composition. When done well, repetition is an amazing technique and can inspire the ‘wow’ factor, thanks to its simple, but striking image style. Repetition within an image is visually strong.

 I confess that when the challenge started, I thought that it wouldn’t be well received. However, I was honestly amazed but the number of entries. The quality was outstanding and my job of picking a winner became an extremely unenviable task.

How do I choose one good shot?

This has always been the biggest issue within photography – objectivity. The simple answer is that there’s no true objectivity. People’s tastes and opinions are completely subjective. Opinions about what makes a good composition differ from person to person. However, this is a fair premise. Photography, like all other art, relies on its subjectivity. Ask museum curators which is better, Picasso or Matisse, and they’ll fight for days.

Ansel Adams, a famous landscape photographer, would certainly pick a different image than I would choose. Is his opinion any more valid than mine? Is he more ‘right’? No. Definitely not. This is the beauty of photography; everyone’s taste and opinions are equally valid.

That’s why I love websites like flickr.com, and photographic communities like trekearth.com and dpchallenge.com. It doesn’t matter how good your photos are, or how much you know about photography, people appreciate your work and help you learn more about how to make your photographs better.  In the era of blogs, photoblogs, web forums, and social networking, everyone can upload and share their photos with friends, family and complete strangers. Entire industries are devoted to image editing (Photoshop and Gimp) while other industries are dedicating themselves to digital equipment, online storage, and photographic communities.

Photography has changed a lot since I first started taking photos with my Pentax K1000. Now I own a Nikon D200. But I still own a film camera, a Leica, because I think that the old ways are worth remembering.  I’ll still shoot film for fun, but the majority of my photographs will be digital. I love editing in Photoshop then uploading photos to my gallery, or my blog, or tending to my flickr group. I also love talking about photography in forums and message boards. Photography has grown up and is embracing the digital age.

So despite the demise of film, photography is definitely moving in the right direction. Film will no longer be an easily accessible medium, but those who are fanatical about photography can learn it and love it. In fact, when I buy a house later in life, I’ll probably build a darkroom in the basement. For everyone else, digital is the way of the future.

One thing’s for sure, there’s no point trying to fight progress.

I guess I’ll just have to buy my grandmother a digital photo frame. I’ll glue it to the front of the fridge and teach her how to upload images via USB. It’ll never be the same as her wonderful Polaroids, but I’m sure she’ll learn to love it.

Send David a message at davidsmeaton [at] gmail [dot] com or visit his website at www.davidsmeaton.com. If you want to be a part of the weekly Photo Challenge, join the “Seoul Photo Club” group at flickr (flickr.com/groups/seoulphotoclub).

i bought myself a little mp3/pmp player yesterday. it’s a cowon d2. my ipod has just about shit itself and i wanted something small and convenient, preferably with video. i decided not to go with another ipod because i’m sick and tired of reorganising my fucking library every time i want to find songs (fuck you i-tunes). so now i can keep my library organised independently, and stored on my external 80gig hard drive.

the cowon d2 has 4gig of memory and i got a 4gig sd card, giving me 8gig in total. i’ve started throwing some music on it and i’ve put some movies in the sd card. the simpsons movie is there, animatrix, and some southpark episodes. i also put napoleon dynamite on it … i’ve been wanting to watch it again.

the reason i picked the cowon d2 (it’s korean made) is because of the subset of features. it has a voice recorder, organiser, notepad, full korean/english and english/english dictionary, calculator, alarms, etc. it’s also got a mini flash player, so i added a flash subway map to the player, so i can find where i’m going on the train.

i’ve stuck some photos on it too.

the only downside is that i need to convert movie files into a smaller format. but it’s not really an inconvenience, however it does take a while.

the upshot is that the player will be very useful beyond korea. since it plays mp3s and videos, all i need to do is keep a few sd cards and i’ll have plenty of music and stuff to keep me occupied.

plan ‘a’ is to use a spare sd card (2gig) and fill it with audiobooks … i’m really becoming addicted to listening to audiobooks while i’m on the subway.

1. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” - Mark Twain

2. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St. Augustine

3. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

4. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” - Samuel Johnson

5. “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” - Paul Fussell

6. “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” - Jack Kerouac

7. “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” - Moorish proverb

8. “People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” - Dagobert D. Runes

9. “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” - John Steinbeck

10. “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” - Lin Yutang

11. “Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty-his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.” - Aldous Huxley

12. “All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.” - Samuel Johnson

13. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” - Robert Louis Stevenson

14. “Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things - air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.” - Cesare Pavese

15. “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller

16. “A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.” - Moslih Eddin Saadi

17. “When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things will happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in.” - D. H. Lawrence

18. “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” - Freya Stark

19. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

20. “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” - Miriam Beard

21. “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” - Martin Buber

22. “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” - Jawaharial Nehru

23. “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” - Paul Theroux

24. “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” - Bill Bryson

25. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

26. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” - Robert Frost

27. “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

28. “There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” - Charles Dudley Warner

29. “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” - Lao Tzu

30. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” - James Michener

31. “The journey not the arrival matters.” - T. S. Eliot

32. “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” - Tim Cahill

33. “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” - Mark Twain

34. “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” - Pat Conroy

35. “Not all those who wander are lost.” - J. R. R. Tolkien36. “Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” - Benjamin Disraeli

37. “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” - Maya Angelou

38. “Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation.” - Elizabeth Drew

39. “Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe”……Anatole France

40. “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” - Seneca

41. “What you’ve done becomes the judge of what you’re going to do - especially in other people’s minds. When you’re traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don’t have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road.” - William Least Heat Moon

42. “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” - Lillian Smith

43. “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” - Aldous Huxley

44. “Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” - Freya Stark

45. “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” - Rudyard Kipling

46. “Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” - Paul Theroux

47. “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” - G. K. Chesterton

48. “When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable.” - Clifton Fadiman

49. “A wise traveler never despises his own country.” - Carlo Goldoni

50. “Adventure is a path. Real adventure — self-determined, self-motivated, often risky — forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind — and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” - Mark Jenkins