What’s your worst travel experience?
There’s not really one…
Traveling, to me, is one the best things anyone can do. It provides unforgettable experiences, education in life and the world, and more importantly builds confidence in yourself to take on what else life has on offer — good or bad.
A lot of people ask, what’s been you worst travel experience? I generally respond — “I don’t have one.” Granted, I haven’t been kidnapped or held hostage, or any of those nightmare situations. But generally I try not to believe that there are bad experiences — only great ones. Great experiences, great moments, great hangovers and great memories.
Traveling is truly one of things, to me, that always has a silver lining.
I’ve been locked up in Japan, chased by the cops in Spain. I’ve had to take a mate to the hospital with a broken back, I’ve been robbed and lost personal material. Crashed cars in France, and been lost in Helsinki. I’ve been detained in the US, threatened with being deported home (long story). But the ultimate point here? While those times we’re frustrating, exciting, exhausting, stressful and pretty much at that point in time. They eventually become the stories I retold the most, the ones that left people bewildered, the ones that left the deepest memories for me.
Most ‘bad’ travel experiences tend to become the great moments, the ones you laugh about later in life. It’s memories like these that make even the darkest of days easier to deal with. How do I know? I’ve been there. I travelled pretty much from the ages 19 — 25 and then some. By myself, with friends, with strangers. To places I’ve never been, to places I was told not to, places I was scared of and places I was psyched on. And the overall residing thought in my head? I’m so amazingly fortunate to have done all that — I’ve made great friends the world over, jumped off an 80ft cliff, surfed in the Arctic Circle, raced taxis in Malaysia and more…
It’s all these things that when you’re in a dark spot, they make you smile, they give you hope for what will be in the future. When you’re in a good place sharing your travels with people, you reflect on the good times and how rad they were…
So when people who are thinking of traveling, but seemed scared or ask me about bad travel experiences. I talk of the positive experiences, how the bad ones became the good ones. I tell them that traveling will open them up to so much — opportunities and possibilities will present themselves. That they will create such a great log of experiences, moments and memories that will live on in their mind, photos and conversations til they die. And every time they reflect back they will smile that they did it.
And you don’t need to stress about what might happen, because it hasn’t happen and might never happen.
As much as you need to learn from the past and aim for the future — you need to focus on NOW. Live today, it sounds so fu**ing #clichemay, but it’s true. Enjoy the things that are happening now, they probably won’t happen again. The fact that you are worrying about getting bad travel experiences or that unjust things happen while traveling is silly. There’s no grounds for that type of thinking — regardless of how you try to justify it. You cannot know what will happen, you can just guide yourself towards things. Law of Attraction works — right now, I’m thinking of Ronald, and hey whaddaya know — Dinner!
So, go travel, explore, enjoy and be awesome. And again, the bad travel experiences will become the great/funny/awesome travel experiences. Do it, go out and create your own path, your own memories, moments and experiences.
