Greetings from the open road. I’m in what I call real Africa all week, having fun exploring two new countries.
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Condé Nast Traveler publishes a feature called “The Perfect Trip Every Time.” It’s a good headline, but I wonder about the subtext: is it really possible to have a perfect trip where nothing goes wrong? I take at least twelve overseas trips a year, and none of them are ever perfect.
When I leave my iPod in the back of a taxi, as I’ve done twice now (Peru and Saudi Arabia), that is not perfect. When I get stranded due to airline delays (Warsaw, Male, Vancouver, etc.), that is not perfect.
Check out Sean and Jodi’s recent updates from Thailand—it’s safe to say there have been no perfect trips to Bangkok recently. A few months ago I was in town and had meetings at coffee shops in the lovely CentralWorld Plaza. As you can see, its current status is definitely not perfect.
Hopefully your favorite shopping center won’t be torched by protesters, but you can probably count on some low points wherever you roam. When I encounter the low points, I always ask myself this question: would I rather be doing anything else?
I could always stay home and drive my Prius to the job at the bank. But since I have neither a Prius nor a bank job, I can deal with the low points. In fact, accepting the low points tends to make the high points more special.
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So far this year I’ve had more travel low points than usual. It could be because I’ve been visiting more challenging countries lately, or maybe I’m just tired from an especially intense schedule; I’m not sure exactly. But even with the craziness, I still feel purposeful and motivated to keep going.
High Points on my current trip so far: four new countries! (Well, two for now… but I should get another two next week if all goes well.) Cameroon is a fun little place: it’s definitely real Africa, but doesn’t feel as desperately poor as some of the other spots in the region. I went running beside the port in Douala last night, and had a lot of good memories about running in West Africa years ago.
Low Points on my current trip so far: I had forgotten how challenging travel in this part of the world can be. Some things just don’t work out the way I might expect or want them to. When you try to fight against the system here, you don’t usually get very far.
Also, Equatorial Guinea is quite possibly the most expensive place I’ve ever been. Due to a booming oil industry, everything costs a small fortune in the capital of Malabo. I booked the only room in town for $367 a night, which I suspect is the most I’ve ever spent on a hotel room in my life. But then when I showed up and they couldn’t find my reservation, I was offered a room for $508. Yes, truly—a $508 hotel room, the only one in town, with 8am check-out. Did I mention I was checking in at 11pm?
Continental breakfast goes for another $39, and everything is paid in cash since no credit cards are accepted anywhere in the country. I finally argued the rate down to about $400, or about $44 an hour for the time I was allowed to spend in the room before someone came knocking to evict me at 8:15 the next morning. Crazy! But that’s just how it goes in Equatorial Guinea these days. Keep it in mind the next time you’re planning a holiday trip over this way.
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I try to live in the present, but when I hit the low points, I look ahead to the future. Thus, in Malabo I thought about coming to Cameroon and not having to pay $400 for a few hours of sleep. (Thank God the once-a-week Ethiopian Airlines flight to Douala was only two hours late—I didn’t have a backup plan for that one if something went wrong.)
Dissatisfaction comes about from wanting something different but not being willing to take action toward achieving it. I’m taking action, moving forward, always thinking about what’s happening now and what’s to come.
Most importantly, remember that highs and lows go together. Bring on the highs! Bring on the lows! Let’s live a little, people. I’m trying to do the same.
While I’m on the road, I’m also reading a helpful book by Scott Belsky called Making Ideas Happen. Scott writes about the bias toward action, a concept I really like. A life oriented toward action and creation sounds good to me.
Lastly, my take on perfect: don’t try to have a perfect day, a perfect trip, a perfect life. Try to have a meaningful one instead. It will probably contain some high points and some low points, and that’s OK.
How about you—what are your highs and lows?
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P.S. A note on comments: West Africa is good for running, but not for high-speed internet. Posting your comments and responding to emails may take a bit longer than usual over the next week.
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Image: Hi-phi
May 30, 2010
Brooke Ferguson
Wow. That is a CRAZY amount of money for a hotel room! Hope it had a great view and big bathtub or something!
I really liked this: “don’t try to have a perfect day, a perfect trip, a perfect life. Try to have a meaningful one instead”.
It’s easy to get discouraged when the lows hit, but I think if we keep reminding ourselves about the meaning, it helps us to get through. Also, you can’t get the good without the bad so why not see it as humor?
Every terrible situation I’ve been through has turned into a funny story later, so its almost as if are Lows are just our debt to humor. :0)
May 31, 2010
Hamilton Shields
Learning to live with (and find contentment) in the low-points is something I’ve come to love about hiking. Found this great quote preparing for my first long trek: “I like to make ‘statements of fact.’ When the weather is slapping me around, it helps to say out loud, ‘Damn, it’s hot!’ or ‘My toes are frozen!’ or ‘Rain three days in a row sucks!’ This is not complaining — I’m making statements of fact. Don’t laugh, it really does work. Saying it out loud releases all the frustration, and now I’m just living with what I’ve got.” Barbara Egbert
May 31, 2010
James Clark
I was going to ask if you checked to see if you could use some milage points to pay for a hotel room, then I remembered who I was asking. The story will get better as pain in your hip pocket subsides.
May 31, 2010
Mike Ziarko Musing
Learning to change the things your dissatisfied can be the hardest undertaking in life. The reason being, is that too often we accept the things are the way they are for a reason, and that change is beyond my control. Five months ago I left my job for good, it was a terrifying decision. I don’t ever want to be in that position again. Then again, I also don’t ever want to work for anyone again. I took a leap, suffered a little, adjusted, and forged on. Looking back, with the mindset I had, it was the only thing to do. I wouldn’t change a thing about my decision. Life life without regrets.
Great post Chris.
June 1, 2010
Erin
This def just struck a chord with me. I was driving back from an incredible, random 9 day road trip out West on Sunday, and only one hour away from being “home” [at my friend's pad], we hit a deer. This unexpected and bummer of an event through an otherwise smooth-sailing adventure created an ending that was far from ideal. Needless to say, we were thankfully okay – unhurt – and had to roll with it. My adventures continued through trying to get home car-less to Kansas City, and now I can only shake my head and smile at it all.
It is all an adventure. It is about the journey. A lot of it is out of our control, but it is what we make of it, how we react, and let it affect us. Perfect is not even something worth striving for, because “perfect” is the helluva story that comes naturally out of our circumstances. That’s what I want at least.
Thanks for your posts! Highs and lows indeed. Aka LIFE.
All the best,
Erin
June 29, 2010
Haidn Foster
Absolutely true, Chris and @Erin. Highs and low are definitely both a part of life, and no adventure would be complete without them (then it wouldn’t be an adventure, would it–just paradise, and that’s not really as interesting).
Thanks for your work chronicling your awesome travels, Chris. I’m enjoying keeping up and look forward to doing the same someday.
All the best,
Haidn
July 5, 2010
Cody McKibben
Chris, I read this a while back and spent some good time writing some feedback because it struck a chord with me and I wanted to also share some of my viewpoints about what happened here in Thailand alongside Jodi & Sean. I was coming back to check for responses or more discussion… and now I don’t see it here. Disappointing if it was not approved because of the link(?), as I put it in my web url field and I thought it was pretty relevant to this discussion about high points & low points of travel…?
July 5, 2010
Chris
@Cody,
Not sure where it is – maybe eaten by the spam filter somehow? We have many of your other comments throughout the site, and no one would delete it.
July 5, 2010
Cody McKibben
Well thanks for the quick response Chris, glad it’s not your intense hatred for my feedback! ;P But sad it got lost in translation. now I don’t even remember all I had to say.