Traveling Can Make You Appreciate Your Life

There are times, when you travel to certain locations, when you realize how lucky you really are. Sure, on some trips you go to places with palaces and temples of gold that can make you dream of a pampered life. Like most people, we feel that we work hard and can often feel stressed and overwhelmed. Then, we go to a part of the world that doesn’t have all of the modern conveniences and see people truly toiling to make a living for themselves and their families. Seeing those people who work so hard and make so little for their efforts remind us that we are truly lucky. We do work long hours, often getting up before the sun comes up and working late in the day, but we aren’t going to fool ourselves into believing that work is as hard as some of the people we have seen in struggling countries. To do the kind of physical labor that they do with antiquated equipment in weather conditions that would drive most of us indoors is truly impressive. So, the next time that we complain about how tired we are or what a difficult day we’ve had, we will remind ourselves that if it weren’t for the luck of where we were born, we might be enduring difficult conditions just to eek out an existence for ourselves.

Herding Sheep in Ecuador
Working the Field
Train Station Attendant in the Cold of Romania
Hand Weaving Silk in India
Manually Clearing a Field in Bolivia
Drying Coca Leaves in Bolivia
Loading Truck in Chennai
Fixing the Roof of Their Home
Hard Work in the Heat

 

Going With the Flow

We have mentioned previously that we don’t always spend a ton of time planning for a trip and there are other times that we do. We had been going back and forth on where to go for our first big trip of the year and we couldn’t seem to make up our minds. Our initial plan was to go to Vietnam and Cambodia since we wanted to get into Asia, but the airline tickets were more than we were hoping to spend. Then we looked at going back to England as we could get a non-stop flight to London at a relatively reasonable price, but we were hoping to go someplace other than Europe, so we decided not to go there. We had also been tossing around the idea of going to Egypt and then 10 days ago we went ahead and booked our airline tickets. We then researched and found a tour company that had a good reputation and we just finalized our tour itinerary yesterday. In conjunction with that, we also booked our hotel stays and the tour company is taking care of reservations for our Nile River Cruise and flights from Cairo to Luxor and Aswan back to Cairo. Since we leave for Egypt in a little over two weeks from today, that means that it will be four weeks from the time that we decided on our trip until the day we leave for Egypt. Fortunately, we are getting e-Visas, so that wasn’t an issue as well and we could have gotten a tourist visa when we arrived at the airport, but we didn’t want to leave it to chance. Now we just have a few items to buy for our time in the desert heat and then we can relax and just look forward to our trip.

Waterfall in Coroico, Bolivia
Hidden Falls in Colorado
Waterfall on Death Road

For this week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge, Free and Easy, we are sharing some photos of waterfalls. How comfortable would you be planning a trip to a foreign country that you have never visited before in less than four weeks from initiation to departure?

Majestic Falls in Yellowstone
Coroico Waterfall
Waterfall in the Amazon
Waterfall on a Trail in Colorado

 

A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way

Have you ever had a flight delayed or cancelled and had to go to the airline desk to see about getting on another flight? People can be so rude and angry with the staff at the desk who had nothing to do with what caused the issues with the flight. We see it almost every time we travel, someone is berating a poor attendant instead of treating them with respect and kindness. As if somehow, if they yell loud enough, their circumstances will suddenly change. We always try to be understanding and not take out frustrations on the employees or each other. It doesn’t mean that it is always easy, emotions can get the better of you, but you will be far happier and the people around you will be much happier if you keep your emotions in check. There have been more than a few times when there have been issues with our flight or hotel room and we have had to ask for assistance to get things fixed. On several of those occasions we have not only had our issue resolved, but they have even upgraded our seats or room. Granted, both us as well as the person helping us were pleasant with one another, so clearly it needs to be a two-way street. This week’s Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge is about Kind and Caring, so here are a few photos to help put you in a calmer mood for the next time you have to deal with an unfortunate situation. 🙂

Lion Cubs Helping One Another
Parrots Snuggling
Is that a Porcupine Kiss?
Contentment