A small piece of travel advice

A friend emailed me this morning with the following request:

If I could teach a part of your experiences in my senior seminar, what would you like the students to know? I am teaching a senior sem on travel and writing, making it travel writing or making sense of experiences abroad. So tell me.

Here was my response:

Travel - Don't sweat the small stuff. Seriously. Shit is GOING to happen when you're traveling. It's important to be able to laugh it off. Also, try LOCAL things. Don't stick to the all-touristy stuff. See how the locals live, not how the tourists see the locals. This includes trying local cuisine. Sure, it may look and smell gross. Sure, you may throw up simply being within 50 feet of it, but it's good to say, "Yeah, I've tried that." I know for a fact now that I wouldn't touch stinky tofu with a 30 foot pole; nor would I care to eat a boiled chicken with head and feet still attached. Barbequed rat on a stick? No, thanks.

Travel Writing - Try to write a little bit every day, even if it is only jotting down a few notes. If you miss a day here and there, don't beat yourself up, but get on track again as quickly as possible. There are days when I could kick myself for not writing something down immediately. Now I bring a small notebook (a travel diary) with me wherever I go. I even bring it into the restrooms with me in case I get an idea while I'm sitting on the toilet. And don't just talk about the things you did that day; talk about personal observations you made about the culture, the mentality of the people, the way everyone stares at you when you're walking down the street, how people are accommodating and strict at the same time, that they feel the need to repeat something twenty times, or the fact that none of the taxi drivers ever know where they're going. These are the little things that make a place unique.

Sometimes I really need to follow my own advice. Do what I say, not what I do!