The benefits of moments of travel misery
Mt. LeConte, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
“There is little favorable to be said about poverty,” wrote Nelson Mandela in his book Long Walk to Freedom, “but it was often an incubator of true friendship.” I first read this line (and book) a decade ago, and I remember it sometimes in my moments of misery on the road.
No, it’s not that through travel I somehow become particularly poor; it’s that through travel I frequently encounter things of which little favorable can be said but which, at the same time, are incubators of qualities and traits I wish to develop.
Yesterday on a minibus, for example, the Syrian man beside me nudged my ribs and said, “It is too hot.” And it probably was, all of us dripping sweat and nearly suffocating as we waited for the vehicle to fill so we could depart. Part of me wanted to cuss, particularly at the driver who wouldn’t let us out for fresh air, but most of me chalked this up as another opportunity to practice both patience and endurance. And when an hour later that sliding door did open and we all piled out, the world was beautiful, not least because it contained oxygen and a slight breeze.
In some of my more heat-ravaged days in the Middle East this summer I’ve thought of the drops of fresh mountain water in the photo above. They are pretty little things, amazing really — so wet, cool, and abundant. When I took the picture a couple years ago, the water seemed ordinary and commonplace, because water was easy to come by (and easy to take for granted). But ponder these drops while in the desert with a dry tongue and they may suddenly seem extraordinary.
So what do my experience in a Syrian minibus and a picture of drops of water have in common? Travel, particularly budget travel, includes moments of hardship and discomfort. These moments may be brief or they might last the duration of one’s journey. But always they are opportunities to build one’s character, and they might even lead one to see the world as full of the extraordinary, whether drops of Appalachian mountain water or drops of Syrian sweat. If Nelson Mandela could point out something good to be found in poverty, surely we have the capacity to discover good in our own lesser travails.
If you have memories of travel miseries which, either at the time or in retrospect, were also good, please share them in the comments.
July 6th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Joel,
I always love your entries–well written and thought-provoking. There have been so many moments of travel misery–probably as many as good moments–but I usually don’t think about them as much as the good times. I met a woman in India a few months ago who kept a journal of the negative moments; she explained to me that she wanted to remember the good and the bad of her trip, and not just the nostalgic stories she normally would remember.
One memory that is jogged by your minibus story is my own…a ride from the south of Israel to Cairo. 12 hours, across the Sinai in a minibus stuffed with about 5 more people than it needed to hold. Plus each person seemed to carry their weight in cardboard boxes. Regardless, the memory of arriving to Cairo in the middle of the night, feeling the cool breeze hit me as we slid open at Talat Harb–it was amazing. I remember looking at my travel companions and saying, “…we’re in Cairo” with such awe and happiness that it made the hellish journey completely worth it.
July 7th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Joel I couldn’t agree more with you here. On our way from NYC to Vietnam this past May, my wife and I got “stranded/detained” in Beijing for 25 hours. It was a horrible experience and it surely created some misery. But we were able to step back and put the experience in perspective – Yes, we were stranded in Beijing and felt completely helpless, BUT we were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel so far (Vietnam) and we couldn’t really complain about our situation. Looking back on it less than 2 months later, it’s a great story to tell our friends! The “miserable” travel experiences like that help us appreciate all the greatness that travel has to offer.
July 7th, 2010 at 10:06 am
What if your travel misery includes your travel companion(s)? There’s nothing worse than complainers, whiners, and travelers who won’t take a chance and drink a beer that’s not Bud Light! This is a little embarrassing, especially when you’re in Europe which is known for their beer. What’s the point of traveling if you’re not willing to experience local flavors?
July 7th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
i agree with you joel! some of my most memorable moments of traveling come out of misery and make great stories later. Like hitting a tram in Romania or traveling in on a public bus in egypt with everybody chain-smoking around us- i was never so thankful for broken windows!!!
July 7th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
I’m currently in the middle of six weeks in a small Mexican fishing village and the bugs are killing me. The mosquitoes are the size of bats, jejenes (no see ‘ums) are everywhere on the beach and there are cockroaches and giant spiders in our flat. Three weeks in and I’m covered with bites and itchy but I’m beginning to get over myself a little, finding ways of coping with the discomfort and realising that it’s not the end of the world.
It’s definitely been memorable!
Great post!
July 7th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Discomfort really puts situations in perspective if you can detach enough to remain calm and really cultivate those qualities you’re talking about – it may not be fun at the time, but those challenges have not only made the best stories, but working really hard often makes me appreciate the sweet ending so much more. Epically long chicken buses are made that much more enjoyable by the vendor coming through with cold mango and water – though those vendors can be a nuisance on shorter rides my perspective shifted after gratefully accepting snacks and cold drinks!
July 8th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Yael and others, thanks so much for contributing your own stories and thoughts. Greetings to you all from Antakya, Turkey.
July 9th, 2010 at 2:12 am
Some of my profound character building moments came after those times of misery. In the days prior to my driving up to Alaska; I had lost a family member and became very ill due to food poising. In the first hour up the road- my dog got diarrhea all over the back seat of the pick-up, one of the main ropes which lashed down my horse cart broke and a rear wheel of my trailer shredded, tossing bits of rubber all over the highway. There was a point, where I just stared at the blood on my palms, cut from the steel belted tire that I wondered just what the universe was attempting to tell me.
July 10th, 2010 at 12:03 am
In college, I left NYC to head to a study abroad trip in Italy. A friend and I booked flights separate from the group for considerably less money. Our flight leaving New York was a little late getting into our layover in Paris. We dashed across the airport to find that our flight to Rome had actually left early. My travel partner started to cry at this point. I got us to a customer service counter who could only get us on another flight that was in 8 hours…my travel partner started sobbing. She cried until we got to Rome. At this point, we had to find a train to Florence. We used her travel guide to distinguish the different rail lines and she was happy for a moment. When we arrived in Florence, the local train to our final destination had stopped running for the night…we called to the hotel we were supposed to meet our group at and luckily one professor knew the area well and directed us to a cheap hostel for the night. When we *finally* reached our destination the next day and my travel partner was finally happy. I was totally exhausted and wanted to collapse! By the end of that summer, she was a great traveler! Now we can look back and just laugh.