1: Out of thin air, he appeared on my left. A boy about eight with large brown eyes. He said nothing. But he raised his hand, waving fingers frantically in his mouth. I stopped. Stared. Then he vanished. It took only seconds for my mind to process his gesture. The child was hungry. He was asking for food. In a vain effort at redemption, I looked around for him. He was gone. The boy in Nicaragua still haunts me.
2: “Spider,” he whispers, “big one.” He points to an open drawer. I gasp. Tarantula! Two of its black hairy legs hang over the edge, poised as if ready to jump.
3: It’s no secret it’s open season on the farang (a person of white race) male here. But he knows he is hunted and as long as both know the unwritten rules, it’s a game as old as prostitution. Online stories reveal ‘sad, sleazy, desperate men paying for love with Thai girls’ detailing the lonely lives of wealthy British, American, European and Asian males who pay well for a romance tour to Bangkok. Apparently, such tours are also popular in Colombia and the Ukraine.
4: Spread your wings and imagination and come along with us now to Tunisia located on the Mediterranean Sea and site of the first Arab Spring...As soon as the taxi driver dropped us off at the Souk (market) in Sousse, he instantly appears by our side. I recognize you from the hotel, he says. I work there. My name is Ali. What are you looking for? Let me help you. You are very lucky. This is the final day of a three-day fair and prices are very good...I can take you to a special place for leather….”
5: Twice as many elephants work in Thailand’s tourism industry as the rest of Asia combined, with the vast majority kept in severely inadequate conditions…. When not giving rides or performing, the elephants are typically chained day and night, most of the time to chains less than three meters long. They are also fed poor diets, given limited appropriate veterinary care and frequently kept on concrete floors in stressful locations.
These travel blog excerpts hopefully identify me as a slightly adventurous woman with an inquisitive mind and growing awareness of what makes our world tick. My personal growth has exploded because of embracing off-beat locales, foreign customs, friendly people and weird food. Few know I was once a scaredy-cat wimp, terrified of leaving home and hearth for far-flung destinations.
Fast forward now to another awareness: our damaged environment.
A longtime close friend shared a column that is causing me second thoughts. In it, the writer shares her ‘aha’ moment on extreme climate changes as she questions the wisdom of flying. To far-away places.
Although environmentally conscious, I have managed to turn a blind eye to flying and its effect on our environment. Because I want to continue to experience other countries, religions, people, food, customs in different parts of the world. I want to continue to learn. Like I learned about the secret war in Laos. I want to grow more. I want to know more.
But when one of our sons writes: “We humans need to seriously think about and deal with the rift with our Natural World. We are out of sync….” then it’s time to study and reflect on our delicate world climate.
To travel or not to travel...that is the question.
Fast forward now to another awareness: our damaged environment.
A longtime close friend shared a column that is causing me second thoughts. In it, the writer shares her ‘aha’ moment on extreme climate changes as she questions the wisdom of flying. To far-away places.
Although environmentally conscious, I have managed to turn a blind eye to flying and its effect on our environment. Because I want to continue to experience other countries, religions, people, food, customs in different parts of the world. I want to continue to learn. Like I learned about the secret war in Laos. I want to grow more. I want to know more.
But when one of our sons writes: “We humans need to seriously think about and deal with the rift with our Natural World. We are out of sync….” then it’s time to study and reflect on our delicate world climate.
To travel or not to travel...that is the question.
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