When you travel, focus on the tangible world around you
“Abandon your mobile phone, laptop, iPod, and all such links to family, friends, and work colleagues. Concentrate on where you are and derive your entertainment from immediate stimuli, the tangible world around you. Increasingly, in hostels and guesthouses one sees “independent” travelers eagerly settling down in front of computers instead of conversing with fellow travelers, they seem only partially “abroad,” unable to cut their links with home. Evidently the nanny state — and the concomitant trend among parents to overprotect offspring — has alarmingly diminished the younger generation’s self-reliance. And who is to blame for this entrapment in cyberspace? The fussy folks back at base, awaiting the daily (or twice daily) email of reassurance.”
–Dervla Murphy, “Murphy’s Laws of Travel,” from Paul Theroux’s, Tao of Travel (2011)
August 29th, 2011 at 1:12 am
I love these quotes you post here.. they always give me so much to think about.
August 29th, 2011 at 9:06 am
I spent 6 months cycling and camping in Europe, lugging a heavy laptop around in my panniers and spending a great deal of time in my tent at night downloading photos and updating my website posts.
I would then be looking for an internet cafe while riding instead of seeing my world. When I arrived home, I found that not many friends or relatives even followed my website. Never again! From now on, I will send everyone a one line e-mail message once a month – “I’m here, safe and sound and seeing my world!”