This was published 8 years ago
Ten problems every traveller faces (and why they're worth it)
By Daniel Scott
Travelling means facing problems, but in the end they're worth it. Credit: iStock
Every journey has its own challenges, but these 10 problems are ones that every traveller faces. In the end though, every one of them is worth it.
LEAVING HOME
There is a reason the place you live is called "home". It's familiar, it's probably near friends and family, it's where you feel settled and in your element. Homo Sapiens may have evolved in a nomadic, go-where-you-find-your-food way, but many of us love nesting within four walls or behind a picket fence. There'll be tears when you leave, from dad, the dog, or your infant child and you'll feel selfish, selfish, selfish while you gad about the world. You might not admit it but you'll miss them too.
Why we do it: There is a whole world out there and haven't lived until you've tried putrified shark in Iceland, romanced a foreigner, watched the sun rise on a tropical beach or stayed out all night in New York city.
See: Science proves travel is the secret to happiness
COMING HOME
You've been away, even for as little as two weeks, and feel renewed, a different person from the shadow that left home. When you get home from a longer trip you'll find it's the same old, same old, except perhaps that the Prime Minister's been replaced in a coup and there's a new Malcolm on the job. While away you've undergone a transformation, you're newly enlightened by Japanese Samurai traditions, tantric meditation or European wine and everybody back home is still into the same TV series, bands and sauvignon blanc.
Why do we do it: As much as travel might shape our perspectives on life, where we come from defines us. Our friends and family keep us grounded, sometimes in a good way. Even if you're ready to flee the nest again the moment the fuzzy feeling of being home wares off, the contrast between being "away" and being "home" puts your travels in perspective. You may even be able to turn your mates onto European wine.
DANGER
While you're as likely to hurt yourself doing DIY at home, travel exposes us to the kind of dangers we wouldn't normally countenance. Staying in that dodgy area of Caracas? Sure,why not? It's the cheapest option. The overnight shootings on the street outside "happen all the time" according to the hostel manager and are "nothing to worry about". Following that group of strangers into the night in Bangkok? Why yes. Going home with that effusive salsa dancer in Rio after just half-an-hour? It would be rude to say no.
Why we do it: Getting out of our comfort zone is the best way to learn about life, other cultures and often provides times we will remember for ever.
See: Why you should visit the good places where bad things happened
TRANSPORT MAYHEM
Much as we complain about domestic plane delays, grid-locked traffic and inefficient train systems back home, it's nothing compared with what we'll endure with when travelling. In India, bus and train journeys scheduled to last a few hours regularly pan out for days, and in our efforts to save money, we often take the interminable way around to get to our destination. Choosing Aeroflot in their chaotic heyday to fly me from Bangkok to London (flight time normally 12 hours), eventually entailed a 48-hour journey via seven countries.
Why we do it? It's what makes us travellers. Not for us the clockwork supervision of cruise ships or the reliability of premium airlines. We'll have stories to tell and triumphs over adversity to share with other travellers. Suffering from bronchitis on that Aeroflot odyssey, an angelic flight attendant plied me with cognac and her own medicines. When she finally left the plane, at Moscow, I seriously considered an unforeseen future in Russia.
See: Commuter heaven: The world's most spectacular local transport
ENGAGING IN LIFE-THREATENING ACTIVITIES
At home, most of us retain a modicum of self-preservation. We'll avoid unnecessary risks like throwing ourselves out of planes. While away, we'll drink to excess in places we'll never be able to find our way out of when sozzled and also try anything mildly life-threatening like cage-diving with Great White Sharks, or yes, ejecting ourselves out of a plane.
Why do we do it: Trying new experiences is what travel is all about. Fear can also be good for you, shaking you out of your complacency. You'll emerge feeling like you've conquered the world, become a changed person. Plus most of this stuff just sounds dangerous and is done under tried and tested conditions.
See: 10 popular tourist attractions that could kill you
IRRITATING PEOPLE
If you're lucky, at home, you'll have enough friends or other family that you don't have to tolerate that intensely irritating mate, parent or sibling for long. On the road, all that changes. You can be strapped into an airline seat for 12 hours next to somebody with verbal or actual flatulence. Billy-no-mates will always gravitate toward you when you're sitting alone and you'll likely be on the end of stories from the lovelorn fleeing broken relationships. You won't avoid certifiable crazies either. On one overnight bus journey from Denver to Chicago, the last empty seat next to me was taken by a jittery young woman who exclaimed "yeaaah, doggy!" every thirty seconds for thirteen hours.
Why we do it: Tolerance is a virtue and a life skill. If you end up in an office or pretty much any work place, this lesson of travel will equip you well to deal with difficult people. You may even develop sympathy for your socially inept dad. Plus you will have stories, my friend, and stories make the world go around.
MUSEUM OVERLOAD
Oh, we're so cultural aren't we, when at home? Every weekend we're in the art gallery, the museum of industrial design or an exhibition about our indigenous heritage. Truthfully, you're likely to visit one museum every three months back home, if that. Yet, while away, somehow you become a culture vulture, compelled to trudge around every significant art museum in Paris, in a day.
Why do we do it: Bless us, we're so keen to learn and we have so little time to do so and strolling around the cultural highlights of Paris is de rigueur, as is visiting way more churches in a week than you would in a year back home.
See: The 10 artworks you must see in real life
DODGY FOOD
Sure you've consumed sangers off filthy backyard barbecues but that's as nothing by comparison with the odd preparation conditions you'll lap up while away. Shack-like kitchens inhabited by mangy cats and stray dogs? Fine, just give me the nasi goreng. Out of date camembert festering in the humidity of the Vietnamese roadside, lobsters twitching in the full glare of the sun on the steps of that Zanzibar café? You bet.
Why do we do it: Because we're travellers, and we want to experience street food like the natives do, and eating from questionable establishments helps us support the local economy too.
See: The world's best places for street food
ILLNESS
We wouldn't deliberately expose ourselves to food poisoning and mosquito-borne disease while at home but while travelling, eating those half-baked lobsters seems like a top idea, not covering up in that malaria hotspot in Africa perfectly sane and running yourself into the ground in South America all part of the experience.
Why do we do it: Because we want to push the boundaries while travelling and leave our usual caution behind. Sure, those Zanzibarian lobsters nearly ruined my visit to that beautiful isle. But I'll never forget the kindness of the staff at the Stonetown guesthouse, ministering to me while I was bedridden for two days and even mopping my sweaty brow. As for Vietnam, after weeks eating from grungy roadside stalls, it was a celebratory final dinner at a five-star Saigon hotel that gave me food poisoning.
See: 15 common mistakes that get travellers sick
FALLING OFF THE CAREER LADDER
Whenever you choose to travel, before you start work or in mid-career, it can play havoc with your prospects and even your vision of your future. You'll find the strictures of a full-time time job hard to take and others may resent your adventures. You could even be creating a lifetime addiction to travel that means you'll never truly settle.
Why do we do it: Because we know that there is a whole planet to explore and doing so will help us grow in every way, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. Because, while we may not end up as prosperous as Gina Rinehart, we'll be rich in experience, and hopefully a whole lot happier. Hey, we may even learn how to get on with our family.
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