I’ve been known to travel.
Noise-isolation headphone - a must for any trip
Not just a little bit.
A lot, actually.
Too much, really.
I know a lot of people who glamourize travel. To them, travel represents a vacation or possibly some type of adventure to a new, never-seen place. It started out that way for me as well.
My first “grown up” trip took place when I was around 22 years old. Prior that, the only time I had been on an airplane was a family trip to DisneyWorld in 1979. 14 years later, I was initiated into the world of business travel with a trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to help one of our product managers provide some training to a group of customers.
That first major job after college offered a few exciting travel points – getting me to several states, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and Canada. I remember spending two weeks in Huntsville, Alabama during the mid July heat. I remember rushing home from Vancouver on a few hours notice due to my very sick, newly pregnant wife. I remember being on a sailboat in the Baltic Sea during the Summer Solstice and seeing the midnight sun hover above the horizon. That’s the good stuff.
My second job offered a major shift in my travel schedule. I worked for a company that provided expensive capital equipment to the semiconductor industry. That meant two things; international travel and last minute travel. There were a few glamour spots for the international travel – such as southern France or the mountains of Switzerland – but most of the travel was to isolated places in SouthEast Asia (Can you say “Malaca, Malaysia”?). That’s the ugly stuff.
It's a cool view, but loses some novelty for the 1,000th time.
The worst part was the short notices for a long trip. The capital equipment industry is brutal and customers demand quick response when their million dollar tool goes down. Since I was a master of our technology, I was usually the last resort for recovery when field engineers failed to correct a problem. This meant finding out on Monday afternoon that I would be jumping on a plane on Tuesday morning and spending the next week in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
That means I spent enormous amounts of time in airports and ventured to France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia. That sounds like I was enjoying the life of an international jet-setter, but in reality it usually involved 18 hour flights with being stuck in some remote, industrial area. It also meant accumulating over 400,000 miles in the cramped seat of various airplanes.
That’s where I lost my enchantment with travel.
I am writing this post while stuck in a hotel in Washington DC. Sounds exciting, huh? Yeah, I could have ventured out into the city, but I don’t have a vehicle for this trip. Being alone, I’m a little hesitant to venture too far on foot. Thus, the hotel room it is. Plus, it’s a let-down to see some national monument or earthly wonder when you are alone. Events are only truly great when they can be shared.
Thus – don’t be surprised if I don’t get all excited when asked the question, “where do you want to travel next?”
1 comment
MLC says:
Nov 20, 2009
My friend’s mother was the head of 3Ms library system which was my dream job once upon a very long time ago. She traveld the world. Alone. She said it could be really depressing to be in Paris knowing your family was sitting down to movie night and a bowl of popcorn without you.
I still think some times I would give it a shot.
Oh . . okay . . .I guess not.