Journey or Destination

Dalat, Vietnam

I haven’t seen the crazy house yet.

Yesterday I recovered from the street food I'd eaten the night before. And while I'd do it again, it was delicious, it threw of my plans for my time in Dalat. Not that I have a schedule, but the first day I settle into a place I figure out what it is I want to do so that I can calculate how long I'm staying.

Sometimes I overestimate – like in Mui Ne; sometimes I underestimate and have to add days.

The thing is, I always seem to coordinate the amount of time with stuff to do. And part of this journey I'm on is to rest. To write. To think. It is difficult to get into any kind of rhythm when every few days I'm in transit and even when I'm still, I create an agenda full of things to see.

I think my habit of cramming everything in comes from a vacation mentality. When I’m working I get three or four weeks of vacation. So little time for me to travel to a new country and experience it in any meaningful way.

At the forefront of my mind is the understanding that I probably won’t be back and so I need to experience whatever it is I can while I'm there. That leads to a sort of frenzy. Moving hundreds of miles within the borders of the place I’ve already traveled thousands of miles to get to, so that anything that strikes my interest can be experienced.

That strategy has allowed me to experience a great many thing. But that isn’t all there is. Travel isn’t simply about a checklist waiting to be completed.

I know this.

And yet, the world is so full of amazing things to see. Things that only exist in certain geographical locations, or with certain groups of people. I want to see it all; experience it all.

Time is another consideration. Not simply the idea that a lantern festival or slow food festival or religious holiday is specific to a date or time...but that this year I’ve taken to travel, is significant. When in life will I have another opportunity to sit with zero expectations on my time and energy. When else will I get to decide that one day is a day only for meditation and another for writing?

My initial plan, if you can call my noncommittal musings about my year of travel, was to rest for three weeks someplace near water. Rejuvenate my mind and body and perspective on the world. Instead I jumped into travel mode, as much a habit as going to work every day….it is simply what I’ve done the last seven years. Travel was the gift I gave myself so I had to take advantage of it.

How do you break a habit you didn’t realize you had?

Part of my desire for this experience I’m having was to stay put for a little bit. Learn a place beyond the tourist pursuits. To consider a place as more than its sparkly parts. To talk to strangers. To minimize the “destination” mentality and instead, focus on the journey.