quora25:環遊世界的感受

Do you find any benefits of "travelling"?

When you live in one country. Everything you see that occurs everyday in that country, you believe is normal. Even though you may see different countries on TV, you still cannot relate to them, until you have been there.

當你住在一個國家時，你沒有什麼感覺

I thought until I left the U.S. for the first time, that the obsession with making as much money as possible, while stifling friends and employees, was normal. I thought racism (although not constant, but frequent enough, was normal. I thought a healthcare system that seems to try to provide the minimum amount of care, unless you were a celebrity or a politician was normal. I thought a majority of the population (no matter which race) thinking about only itself was normal. I thought competing intensely with each other to grab every crumb, without letting anyone get a taste was normal.

離開美國之前，我想這些都是正常的

Then I traveled to Korea, Singapore, United Kingdom, Japan, Amsterdam, France, Iceland, Brasil (that is the proper spelling), Argentina, Australia, Amsterdam, Tahiti, Canada. Even different parts of the U.S. (hitting all 50 states). Loved Montana!

我去了很多地方

I saw how other countries folks interacted with each other and interacted with me as a tourist (like the stranger in the Caribbean who closed his shop after he saw me accidentally break my finger and took me to the emergency room). How the bill for that ER visit came to only $80, yes, $80 (not in the U.S.).

他們用對待遊客的態度對待我

How women in one country could leave their children in their strollers outside on a beautiful day, while having a coffee together inside. Not worrying about someone trying to snatch their kids or calling the cops on them.

婦女如何把孩子丟在一邊自己和咖啡

How I didn』t hear gunfire anywhere, anytime. How I could walk the streets of major cities with my camera at night taking photographs with no sense of danger.

我如何沒有聽到槍聲

How a policeman with an assault weapon in one country, Singapore, took his time to show me how to use their mass transit system. How students in Australia told me about a special mass transit pass, which allowed me to access buses, trains and ferries for very little money. How much fun the nightlife is in Amsterdam. How the beautiful women of Brasil make you grin just from looking at them.

新加坡、澳大利亞、巴西

How I could sit at a table to have a bite and locals would just come and sit with me, starting conversations and making tourist suggestions. They weren』t afraid of my skin color at all.

我如何不用擔心膚色

How I was amazed to find out how the 『socialized medicine system』 worked and learned how it provided support for more people at less cost per worker.

我看到社會醫療系統多麼有效

How it was to see how the elderly were revered, especially in the Asian countries, with support from the government and their communities.

政府養老

I can go on and on, why travel is important. But mainly, it opens your eyes to what is normal for other people, that would be considered 『abnormal』 in the United States.

打開你的眼睛

A co-worker with a limited education and a closed mind said to me recently, the 「United States is the greatest country in the world」!

有人對我說，美國是最好的國家

What are the best life lessons youve learned from traveling the world?

spent my career in the Canadian foreign service. I travelled a lot but it sure wasnt for pleasure. You go some place that they send you and then you have to stay there, sometimes for years, processing visa applications.

To the extent I learned anything, I was left with some views about the meaning of reality.

Dont Panic, Its Just Life

別慌，這就是生活

Here you are, arriving in a national capital, in the developing world. You are posted there for three years. The embassy driver picks you up at the airport and you start the journey into town. You have jet lag. You are tired. You are 10,000 kilometres from home. You are anxious about your fate. And, when you look out the embassy car window, you may have the initial feeling that you have landed in hell. Its really, really, really poor. Its 40 C. (105 F.) with maximum humidity. The billboards sell cigarettes (Canadian gasp!) and the advertisements are in some weird alphabet you cant read. The road is lined with scrawny palm trees. If your new home is not so terribly democratic there are military checkpoints here and there, soldiers waiving submachine guns around rather carelessly.

Then that feeling, arises, you ask G-d, why did he do this to you? You beg him, if this is a nightmare, please, please let me wake up.

Before you get completely hysterical and tell the embassy driver to take you right back to the airport, you need to get a grip on yourself. Its a job. You arent rich and you are going to make a lot of tax free money working overseas. Once you are inside the Embassy, processing your visas, you are in just another Government of Canada bureaucratic office, doing your civil service thing. The Embassy is going to allocate you 「staff quarters」, nicely furnished, and frankly way better than the apartment you could have afforded in Ottawa. You have the diplomatic community so if you want you can hang out with other people who are just as disoriented as you are. I dont drink but diplomats get to buy their liquor tax free. That bottle of Smirnoff in the diplomatic store isnt going to cost you much more than a two-litre diet coke back home. Once your car finally arrives from back home (Unless you are buying a tax free BMW from the local diplomatic dealer) you will get to prance around with diplomatic licence plates. And, scrawny palm trees means no winter.

Then you ask yourself, is life always hard, and you know, yes it is. Is your current situation existentially worse than, for example, repairing diesel locomotives outdoors in mid-January, in a railyard just outside of Saskatoon?

Watch CNN, Do Not Be on CNN

My ex-wife, my infant son, and I were living in a very nice staff quarters, in a gated residential village in Makati, the business district of Metro Manila.

Most Filipinos I met were really nice people. However the Philippines occasionally has political stability issues. A particular manifestation of this problem was that a group of rebel soldiers decided to hold a coup attempt, in Makati, using our pleasant little village as a no mans land, to shoot across.

Tracer bullets look pretty at night. Mortar shells make a type of fireworks. However there were so many bullets whizzing overhead that my ex-wife had to come in from hanging up the wash.

The Canadian Embassy had organized an evacuation convoy, most of the Canadian embassy staff living in another residential village some distance away. The Embassy had made group reservations at a nice hotel, on the seashore promenade, in Manila proper. However we were the only Canadians in our village. We got in the car, dodged the gunfire and made our own way down to the hotel. We actually got there first and got a nice room.

However the rest of the embassy gang eventually got to the hotel and, also, a thousand or so other, kind of stressed, people.

Then CNN showed up. People started giving CNN various shrieky interviews. It was painfully obvious that some of them had previously seen catastrophic films about the Third World, and were outright plagiarizing. My ex-wife had put the baby in the stroller and we had gone downstairs to the front of the hotel, to get some fresh, gunpowder-scented air. CNN wanted to film my kid, looking blase and unimpressed. However my ex-wife was a real party-poop and told CNN a flat no. Being British she had a BBC-based disdain for CNN. Also, she was concerned that her parents in Liverpool, seeing our baby doing his macho-Sylvester Stallone thing, might feel concerned. OK, I guess she had a point.

So what life-lesson did I learn from this Wild West shoot-up in the Western Pacific? Watch CNN. Do not be on CNN. If you are appearing on CNN with regard to anything other than a major sports event or to promote your tell-all book about silliness at the White House, you are doing something very, very wrong. You need to stop, immediately, ask yourself how you got there, admit you have made a dreadful mistake and do something else.

If you want to learn about military coup attempts and generalized pandemonium in the Third World, watch a movie on Cable TV at home in Winnipeg. Then, have a cup of tea, shovel some snow and go to bed. Thats absolutely as much information as you need. In the real-life situation the people are nowhere near as attractive as on cable and are very highly unlikely to be thinking about having sex with you.

Ironically, a few weeks earlier, Chuck Norris had been using our residential village as a movie set for a movie about, guess what, military violence in the Third World. Thank you very much Chuck, you are a great role model.

Money Talks and Everything Else Walks

Was it Cyndi Lauper who said that money changes everything? A very smart woman.

I have been to England, I have been to Paris, I have been to Moscow, I have been to Detroit and Seattle. I have learned the prime rule of life everywhere, money talks and bull---t walks. Call it Pounds, call it Euros, call it Rubles, call it Greenbacks, but its all the same.

One arrives in a certain country that one has never seen before with certain expectations, like its really religious. Well yes, but religion doesnt pay your bills (unless you are a person of the cloth or a TV evangelist) And no, neither will anarchism, socialism or some type of quasi religion.

In every country I have been to, the prevailing belief system has had to wrap itself around money. If I can quote another very wise American lady, 「Money makes the world go round, it makes a happy sound.」 Even terrorists need to make some dough, in fact, a lot of it, because explosives cost.

And with that money need, cynicism creeps in. People who are well-fixed and secure give everybody else lectures about morality. Then they are off to the gambling casinos of London, England, while you are praying for money to feed your kids.

I am not saying that some people in any country are not charitable, caring and kind. However, being charitable costs money. The professional fund raiser and their sizable cut, is right behind.

You Can Take the Boy Out of Manitoba But You Cant Take Manitoba Out of the Boy

There I was, a young man, living the diplomatic life in London, England, in the 1980s. Glamorous, eh!

After the first week, not so much. You had to eat. A supermarket in London is only marginally different from one in suburban Winnipeg. Rely on fish and chips for nutrition and you are going to put on a lot of blubber.

You were not one bit more handsome than the day you left Manitoba. The nightclubs of London featured generous supplies of posers, and doubtless still do, but you dont have what it takes to pose. It is just as hard to scratch that itch as it was in Winnipeg, or maybe worse. To top it off, in all of London, there is hardly one secluded outdoor place to pee, when the damp chill is messing with your bladder and you need immediate relief.

You spend eight hours of every weekday in an office. You were working in an office back home. There is that pile of visa applications. Its still just you, processing applications, in an office.

Add on the sore feet from walking. Add on a toothache and funny feelings in your prostate gland. Add on a boss from hell.

This was my London of the 1980s. Like anywhere else, anytime, glamour isnt a substitute for a positive attitude. Lose it and London can feel like 1984. Except the Spice Girls were watching you, instead of Big Brother.

Winnipeg is Paradise

As Judy Garland said, 「there is no place like home」.

My Winnipeg does not have a high status reputation in Canada. I used to have that attitude. Winnipeg was grubby, rundown, and for Canada, had a serious crime rate. However some of the stay in Winnipegers bit the bullet. Winnipeg still needs work but it is better than it used to be.

So, heres me, the world traveller. I have seen this, that and the other thing. Since I got sent off to work in places that were a lot less than the Garden of Eden, I had to face certain life realities. The world is not an easy place, partly because the human race messes up so much, messing with each other and Mother Nature, who is seriously starting to push back.

There are so many poor places. There are so many badly polluted ones. There are so many, many places where no one has any idea of progress or a morally repugnant elite will not allow it. There are so many places where the police are thugs, the military brutalize their own people and everybody is looking for an excuse to hate everybody.

And, my Winnipeg. There it is, free medical care and professional social services. The Winnipeg Police Service will read you your rights. Theres employment insurance. Theres multiculturalism and human rights. R20 insulation addresses Winnipegs super-chill issues. A block heater and a battery blanket can smooth out your 「will the car start」 anxiety. Winnipeg isnt huge. Commuting is not a prison.

Basically, Winnipeg is a situation where a well-functioning snow blower will address some of the most significant problems in your life.

I know there are some other Winnipegs are out there, where life is both bearable and improvable and life is not a load of fear. However, my travels around the world have taught me that, what I took for granted, is actually precious and rare.

Martin Levine

第二篇

Travel is the BEST teacher one can ever find!

You learn and experience a lot of events during your travel, which will profoundly change the perspective of your life.

# 1. You realize how FORTUNATE YOU ARE.

We all think think that we are undergoing so much hardships in life and god is so unfair to us to bestow us with all the problems we seem to have. But when we travel, we realize how fortunate we are to have so much more than many others

# 2. Realize how LESS WE NEED

We always worry about that expensive watch or those cool sneakers we dont have and feel sad. But when you travel you realize how much we actually really need. You just need a comfortable pair of shoes to protect your feet and just a simple mobile to check out the time.

# 3. Realize ALL ARE JUST THE SAME

When i had been to Prague for the first time, i had thought people there would be so different and think, behave very differently than in India. But after a while i realized that we all feel and behave very similarly. Its just that the culture that adds a different flavor to the life.

# 4. You LEARN how to handle different types of situations

Once you are in a different country and culture, you will understand how unique each place is. You will learn how to adjust and handle different situations in life. You will be amazed how good you CAN be with people.

BY TRAVELLING YOU WILL 「LEARN」 YOURSELF BETTER AND KNOW WHAT YOU TRULY WANT IN LIFE.

第三篇

3 of the best life lessons I』ve learned from traveling the world

1. You don』t need materialistic things to make you happy你不需要那麼多物質的東西才能開心

You don』t.

Through my travels I』ve collected new things, and left things behind. I』ve also seen the poorest people with the biggest smiles.

What I valued the most while traveling is the people I am with, the views (both geographical and in terms of perspective) I get to see, the experiences I get to feel (and the food I get to try).

Each trip I』ve taken— whether it was to Turkey, Hawaii, Egypt, Peru, Paris, Dubai, Croatia, India etc—have been their own little life times.

Each trip had its ups, its downs, its lessons and its triumphs. These little life times have allowed me to analyze my own life time.

My favorite thing about traveling is that it has helped me evolve.

Traveling will juxtapose your perspectives and propel them to come to more knowledgeable and experienced conclusions. Each new country has taught me about myself, and the world, and helped me become who I am today.

In Hinduism and Buddhism they believe in Nirvana. A place of peace that comes when you』ve reached a state of enlightenment. This bliss rises out of a spiritual awakening. It』s an awareness that allows you to reach such happiness that you forget all your desires and sufferings.

Traveling is like a micro-dose of Nirvana.

When you do it right, traveling allows you to go somewhere new with your old self. It allows you to let go of the materialistic things you desire, and your day to day worries.

Realizing how big the world is reminds you how small those worries are.

Traveling has made me realize I don』t need things to be happy. I thrive on experiences, laughter, and the feeling I get when I breath in a new place for the first time.

2. Culture is crazy——文化很瘋狂

It is!

And getting out of your own culture and experiencing someone elses allows you to fully understand the concept of a cultural norm. It almost absurd to realize how immensely culture shapes our view of the world, and our view of ourselves.

It molds our perception to allow and reject behaviors, actions, and ways of thinking.

Culture is upheld by the pillars of ethnicity, language and religion. It』s the root of music, food, comedy, dance, and ceremonies.

But culture can also breed hate.

While there should be enough room on this earth for every being and every belief, social norms sometimes deny us that truth.

We』ve drawn lines in the sand to separate us. We』ve made distinctions between our beliefs to disconnect us. And we』ve made assumptions to interfere with our knowledge seeking, our fact finding, and our ability to learn from experience instead of what we see on the news or what our cultures teach us about other cultures.

Nationalism, xenophobia, prejudice, racial profiling, stigmas, pigeonholing, stereotypes are birthed from the womb of culture.

Maybe we live in a culture where fear creates hate, and therefore, differences are despised when they should really be dismantled, understood, and appreciated.

We are all so different, and that』s a good thing.

Instead of promoting that culture can reject it—which ironically is a culture in itself.

Traveling has shown me no matter how different we are, we are all humans.

3. There are a lot of good people in the world——有很多好人

The world can be a sad place, but it』s also a very beautiful place. People can be horrible, but in my travels I』ve met some of the most wonderful, friendly, genuine and kind people.

Sure, I』ve had all my money stolen in Barcelona and my phone pick pocketed in Bogota. But for every shitty thing someone has done to me while traveling, I』ve received or seen something better.

Traveling or not, the world can be a bad place. If you allow it the good will always outweigh the bad.

Fred Rogers captured this notion very well when he said

「When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.」

It』s true, there will always be people who want to make the world a better place.

Traveling has allowed me to evaluate what I want to bring to this world. It has made me ask myself how I can make this world a better place. It allowed me to empathize beyond the politics, and the capitalism and that dictates so much of international legislation, and see human beings.

If you don』t travel you might only see the world through the lens of your favorite news channels camera man.

Traveling allows you to see landscapes and animals you』ve never seen before. If you travel to a different hemisphere you』ll see stars you』ve never seen before. You』ll experience things you never would have. And you meet new people and learn about them, and in turn learn about yourself.

Traveling opens your mind and helps you understand yourself, different cultures, climates and regions. In world with wars, terror, famine and poverty, travel—hopefully—can help us to connect resources, compassion and understanding.

Ultimately, travels biggest lesson is learning to humanize people, learning to be humble and kind to one another

第四篇

These quotes summarize the lessons I got by travelling -

「Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.」 - Mark Twain

Travel taught me to appreciate similarities and accept the differences without really hating anyone. The media / internet feeds us with so much negativity around the world and yet when you travel, you find most of people doing the same things like you do. Go to work, hang out with their girl / boy friends, take their pets for a walk, buy an ice-cream for their kids, get drunk, go for movies, travel etc. Majority of the people around the world want to work hard, earn their livelihood and go home to see their family.

In times of crisis, at a place where you barely know anyone or do not speak the language, it is the locals that usually come to help. People whom you may never see again in your life. Yet they step forward to assist you and get you out of a dire situation.

I still remember the London Airbnb host; a 80s something English lady who told me about her experiences in Europe. The books in her home all screamed history and the stories of her father during the world war 2!

The Istanbul grand bazaar vendor who shared with me his life views. The Paris hotel manager who helped me get through another set of crisis. The Edinburgh walking tour guide who made history come alive with his narration. All these people & places have been etched in my mind forever!

"The best education I have ever received was through travel". Lisa Ling

Travel is the best teacher and gives you the best experience which no other medium can! The people, the culture, the food, the climate, the transportation all imparted knowledge in one way or the other. The metro in Paris or the train from Edinburgh, the London tube, the Istanbul tram all served as a teacher. Airline delays taught me to be patient. A missed flight made me a better planner. A wrong subway / bus made me a better navigator.

"A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it". George A. Moore

This quote specifically stands true in the last leg of my travel. No matter where in the world I have traveled, I always miss home. You begin to learn more about your home when you are away from it. You appreciate what your home has to offer, your family. Travel lets you to get back to your roots. It restores in you a sense of belonging to a particular place. Travel taught me to be kind, patient, to live in the moment, to realize that time is limited & to explore as much as we can!

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.」 -Gustav Flaubert