You always hear us saying “_______ is fantastic” and “_______ is the best part of travelling”, but what about the other side of being on the road? If you’ve read our blog, you know that we absolutely love our lifestyle and we wouldn’t trade it for all the money in the world, but it’s not all sandy beaches and sunsets. travel can be exhausting and being a goat on the road has it’s downsides. here are a few of the things that I really don’t like about travelling.

1. feeling like A walking dollar Sign:

After our first trip to Southeast Asia, Dariece and I both thought that being checked out as a walking dollar sign was just a part of travel. We’ve considering that discovered that it really depends upon where you are in the world. In places like Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of the Caribbean, we found it hard to fully connect with the local people. sure we made some great friends and had great experiences along the way, but lots of people in the tourism service in these regions see travellers as earning potential, rather than potential friends. After checking out places like China, Iran, Egypt and Turkey, we realized that this isn’t the case everywhere. There are places in the world (even poor places) where people don’t just see you for your money and really want to learn a lot more about you. but these places are becoming fewer and fewer. feeling like a walking dollar sign is the primary thing I don’t like about travel, but we feel so grateful to be able to live this life that it’s really a small price to pay. We help where we can and where it feels proper and try to connect with the people the best way we know how… with smiles!

2. Being away from Family:

This one is probably connected with primary actually. It’s not easy being away from our families for such long periods of time. things happen at home and we wish we could be there. friends have been married, children have been born and grandparents passed on, all while we were away travelling. It’s not always practical to fly home for the occasion. aside from missing major events, we both miss just being close to family. We’ve met other long-term travellers who have had their families visit them overseas on many occasions, but this just hasn’t been possible for our families. This indicates that we are minimized to Skype calls and text messages until we return home, about once ever year and a half. Being away from family is a hard one, but we’re very lucky to have a family that supports our travels and our dreams.

Me With My Brother, Uncle and Cousins
3. long travel Days:

I know what you’re thinking, “If you don’t like days of travel, why are you travelling?!” Well we do like days of travel but some of them are longer and a lot more tough than others – like the ones that span 24 hours and take us on 3 different buses, a ferry and a taxi ride, in a country where nobody speaks English. When we first started travelling, we loved these kinds of days, but slowly (and probably because of age) they’ve started to wear on us and now we actually like to spend the extra money to either fly, or take the “VIP” buss. We find that if we have enough food for the journey, it’s normally fine, but if we end up hungry… I get grumpy and Dariece doesn’t get to take pleasure in the trip as much!

4. getting Ripped Off:

This pretty much goes hand in hand with #1 on this list and if you’re a long time traveller, getting ripped off isn’t a matter of if… it’s WHEN! We were actually pretty lucky up until our trip through the Pamir highway in Tajikistan. After 4 years on the road we had only an iPod, cheap sandals and a snorkel mask stolen. but then, high in the mountains, we were taken for $1500 cash and it hurt. It’s always a lot more the principle than the actual cash itself, but getting ripped off is a guaranteed con of travel. Whether you fall for the “free tuk-tuk ride” in Thailand, or have your bags stolen from a bus in Africa, it’s always a piss off to know that someone out there has your stuff. Theft can range from vacationer pricing to all out hijackings and no matter how it goes down, it ends with an upset traveller with mixed memories about the country. We’ve discovered (the hard way), to not let it spoil the trip.  These things are bound to happen and if you’re smart… they’ll happen less often.

5. getting Sick:

When your travelling the world on a long trip, it’s not a question of if you’ll get sick… it’s when! We absolutely dislike being sick but over the years, we’ve contracted some pretty nasty bugs on the road. Luckily, the a lot more we travel, the a lot more we build up an immunity to foreign illnesses, but we still fall ill every once in a while. We recently had a pretty nasty tropical fever after tilbake fra turen gjennom St.Vincent & The Grenadines. Det var ikke første gang vi har vært syke på veien, og dessverre vil det ikke være den siste!

6. Hostel Table One-Upsmanship:

Vi prøver å unngå denne typen samtaler som pesten, men de skjer fortsatt. Noen ganger synes reisende at kule historier er en konkurranse, og for hver morsom historie du forteller, har de en som er “bedre”. Først hadde vi ikke noe imot denne typen chat, og vi ga den av som bare “spent bordprat”. Men jo mye mer tid vi bruker på veien, jo mindre ønsker vi å delta i denne typen samtaler. Vi elsker å høre om andre reisende historier, og vi blir regelmessig inspirert av våre andre backpackere, men ofte er motivene bak å fortelle historiene alle gale. Vi gleder oss over å fortelle historier frem og tilbake så lenge de ikke er konkurransedyktige. Å prøve å få turen til å høres bedre ut enn din, virker bare som bortkastet tid. Alles reisehistorier er spesielle og spennende av forskjellige grunner. Hvis en gjengjeldende reisefortelling starter med “Å ja”, eller “Vel, det er ingenting”, forsømmer vi vanligvis resten!

7. Ingen bryr seg:

Hvis du har vært på en lang tur og kommet hjem, vil du kjenne denne altfor godt. Venner og familie hjemme er interessert i omtrent 10 minutter før samtalen svinger, og du har tenkt å tenke “Jeg trodde vi ville snakke om den fantastiske turen min i årevis”. Sannheten er at turen ikke er så utrolig som du tror … i det minste for folk som har vært hjemme. Poengsummen til hockeyspillet, forrige helgedrikk-fest og den drittsekk på jobben er langt bedre samtalestykker enn historiene dine om å gallevende over hele kloden. Hvorfor skulle dine venner og familie synes det er interessant? Med mindre de er reisende selv, har de andre interesser og kan ikke forstå hva du har vært gjennom på veien. Selv om de kanskje elsker å høre en og annen historie om turen din … er det alt du sannsynligvis vil få.

Dette er en vanskelig virkelighet som vi alle bare må venne oss til. Det er for ille fordi reiser er alt reisende kan (og vil) snakke om! Hele Dariece og jeg gjør er å reise, bo i utlandet og lære om nye kulturer, så hvordan kan vi snakke om den irriterende personen på jobben? For oss er den personen den eneste andre personen vi kan snakke med om reise! Vi bryr oss ikke om ingen bryr seg om våre reiser, vi elsker det fortsatt, og vi vil ikke stoppe når som helst snart! Vi ville bare dele noe av det bitre med den konstante søte på geiter på veien. Det er deler av backpacking som ikke er enkle, men ærlig talt, de sannsynligvis legger til eventyret, og vi ville ikke ha oppdaget så mye om oss selv uten å håndtere de lave reisedagene.

Liker du alle aspekter av reiser? Hvilke ting får under huden din? Vis oss i kommentarene nedenfor!

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