Comments on: Top 10 Things I Miss About Traveling (But Hated At The Time)

By: Meadow

Meadow — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:09:38 +0000

This is a really great article! I think you should get out there again!

By: Emily

Emily — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 08:47:44 +0000

I thoroughly enjoyed this article! Hopefully, I’ll become a travel journalist one day and the dry humor is actually insightful. Thanks for sharing.

(Report comment)

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:59:04 +0000

On a recent trip to Mexico City, my travel partner and kept using the refrain, “Travel Sucks!” in reference to the numerous small travel maladies that one usually encounters on the road. Just small things, the door creaking in the hostel, a massive rainstorm that inundated Mexico City and nearly made us miss our flight, things like this.

Someone once told me that the fun of travel was 50% in the planning and 50% in the remembering it when you got back. A lot of truth in that.

(Report comment)

By: Leah

Leah — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:42:14 +0000

I’ve just come home from a year of traveling, and these points are just starting to hit me. All very true, and part of the reason I cant wait to pickup my backpack again to once again hit the dusty trail!

(Report comment)

By: Ms Traveling Pants

Ms Traveling Pants — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:34:04 +0000

The one that hit home with me the most was #4 abt boredom. In a worldwith tweets, multiple cell phones, emails, & wifi everywhere, it is hard to find the relaxation or boredom.

(Report comment)

By: mike

mike — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:49:53 +0000

there’s travelling and living out of a backpack (ick), and there’s travelling properly. i could never travel and look like a bum.

(Report comment)

By: Kerry

Kerry — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:16:11 +0000

I have to put in a word for the southern US in regard to point 10 — there really are a a lot of places, still, where the people in the store will ask how you are and care about the answers — and get inot a long conversation about it….

really agree with #1 and #5.

thanks for a good and funny article.

(Report comment)

By: Michael Razeeq

Michael Razeeq — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:06:39 +0000

All of these are sooooo true…

(Report comment)

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:57:18 +0000

Yeah, this was a fun article to read. It definitely reminded of life as a backpacker. I especially loved the comment about an overstuffed, hot, and heavy backpack. One of my greatest pleasures as a traveler is to laugh in my head at backpackers (the majority of them) who do not know how to pack. I always carry less than 20 lbs (about 9kg) in a small pack. When I was younger I used to carry a huge pack and hardly used some of the things I brought, if at all. Now I am carry-on and mobile. Plus, it makes hitchhiking and time crunches less stressful.

And I miss the tuk-tuks. Especially after a night of drinking and you get the fun drivers who know your state of mind and pull of wheelies and tight turns. Damn soybean daredevils!

(Report comment)

By: ramble_on

ramble_on — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:08:54 +0000

I really appreciated this article, having just finished up a big trip in West Africa and now being back in Europe, a couple things came to mind while reading this. I miss a lot of nuances about being there – like #10 for example, being in a place where everyone loves you and is curious about you and you are always the most popular person in the neighborhood, lol. This can be both a blessing and a curse though, because sometimes it can be very hard to find a moment of privacy when you really need one, or make an sly action that goes un-noticed, take a candid and natural photo of a street scene without people seeing you and posing, and people freaking out everytime you leave the house/hotel and go outside – these things can also get quite tiring. I suppose I learned what life would be like as a superstar.

After spending some time in the desert I must say that #9 is something that I definitely don’t miss at all – and the availability of a wide variety of local fruits and vegetables (even if they come from a supermarket and are covered with pesticides) is something that I always took for granted. Before going on this trip I used to like rice – but after eating it twice a day (usually combined with meat or dried fish) for way too long was overkill. At a certain point during my trip I started to have dreams about the red, ripe juicy tomatoes that I used to eat in Italy. And #8 is another good one – it was nice being able to walk around in tom-boy clothes that were ripped and stained with some holes here and there, with my hair uncombed and greasy, and with some dirt on my face and arms and not be made to feel ashamed or embarrassed.

And then #6 – sometimes you can feel a little bit ridiculous haggling over what would be the equivalent of .30 cents in your country….but it’s not the money that is important, it’s the principal that you have to haggle over. So what if you are white and “rich”!

Thanks for this post!

(Report comment)