When the opportunity arises for travel, take it. Life on this earth is too short too sit on the sidelines and reason with yourself that you will do it sometime in the future. Next summer. After graduation. For my honeymoon. When I retire. No–now is the time.
I am still shaking my head that instead of rising at the crack of dawn and traveling from Bangkok to Phnom Penh in December, I decided to stick around Bangkok, where I later lost my wallet and missed out on a chance–that I may never have again–to see Angkor Wat. I can think of other travel mistakes I have made over the years that I look back on with regret, all because I did not want to take that leap of faith (scrapping the trip to North Korea comes to mind, which now is very difficult for Americans to travel to).
To be clear, I am not espousing you travel beyond your means. That would be foolish. But if possible scrimp and save in other areas so that you are able to take at least one major trip each year. I realize that with some that is a daunting task, but many just do not want to do any work. Good deals are rarely delivered on a silver platter–you have to seek them out through outlets like my blog or Flyertalk. In traveling to 50+ countries over the last five years, I have built up memories that will be with me for the rest of my life, memories that have permanently shaped my life and provided insight and education that could not be gleaned in any classroom or textbook.
So much is to be gained by traveling, which leads me to the point of this post: if you are considering travel to a place that you would like to see but are unsure whether to go now or later, think about how quickly situations can change. It is too early to tell whether Egypt will go the way of Iran in 1979 or Berlin in 1989, but I doubt you are planning a trip to Egypt this fall–even if you have wanted to see the pyramids all your life.
I am not saying Egypt will never draw back tourists: look what Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Baltics (for example) have done after being decimated by war. But look at Russia, which is becoming increasingly hostile again to the West, or to Jordan, which may soon face a situation analogous to their neighbors on the other side of Israel. Now might be the time to visit Petra and Moscow if that is something you are interested in.
The world is filled with many treasures, and if you really want to see them, you need to see them while you can.
Nice sentiment and I largely agree.
I don’t want to push on a sore area, but how did you arrive at the decision to stay in Bangkok? I can’t imagine having a trip to Angkor Wat planned and then bail on it at the last minute. Were you guys just really tired?
What was the original plan? Angkor as a day trip or were you going to spend the night?
(I’m interested because we’re thinking of going soon before the place falls apart – our friends just went and said that the Cambodian government unfortunately is not taking great care of the place…)
@Marcus: We had two full days before proceeding to China. We were at a nice hotel (Le Meridien), had never been to BKK before, and weren’t sure we’d be able to make it all the way to Angkor Wat and get back in time to catch our flight to Beijing.
Had we planned it better, we could have taken the 0555 train to the border, dealt with that lovely adventure, then proceeded to Angkor Wat by taxi or bus. We could have done it in a day and still had some time for a half day in BKK, which turned out to be a total dud of a city IMHO, even aside from the wallet incident.
I’m so angry that I “messed up” my trip to BKK, that I have booked another one for late November. This time, I will do things right.
Matthew, you seriously think that you might not have the chance to go back to Southeast Asia? You’re so young and are an expert in travel! I appreciate the sentiment of this post, but I am least of all worried about you of all people =]
Also, there’s a typo in “seize” in the title that you might like to amend…
@AJ: Thanks for the catch–stupid spell checker didn’t pick it up. And what happened to i before e except after c? 🙂
Yes, there is always the chance that I might not get back to place!
Just got back from Jordan visiting Petra, Kerak Castle, and Wadi Rum. Quite stable and not even a hint of issues. The CNN’s of the world always make things look worse than they are (OK, Libya is pretty bad but who wants to travel there?) Now cabbies ripping you off there is a whole other story.
@Randy: Even the camels on the road to Petra rip you off!