HAVE PATIENCE WILL TRAVEL

You might want to travel to distant lands. The best is by organized tour.You don't have to think of anything ; food, accomodations, transportations and even entry into the theme parks. You will be put in at least a 4 star hotels. In the morning you will be feed, then a bus will pick you up and send you to whatever place. Theme parks like Disney Land and Universal Studio are expensive. They would cost you about RM400, but the tour will pay for you. An 8/10 day tour will cost you about RM4000 to RM5000. If you have money and ready to spend them then go the easy way. You pay for comfort. No hassle , no worry.

If you don't want to follow any tour then you will have to do alot of homework. You have to be mentally ready and prepare to face difficulties. You have to think on the micro and macro basis. Most of all you must have patience.

Travelling alone can be dangerous but it is very convenient. You make your own decission; what to see, where to go, where to sleep and how to go. If your partner is not a season traveller or has never travel before then it might be a little easier but he must be willing to face problems. Cheap things does not come easy. You have to sacrifice energy and effort.

If you have no patience you will tend to grumble, lost your temper and will always feel dissatified. You tend to push yourself to a point of no-return. I saw travellers slept in sleeping bags at many places, at the airport and camp ground. I saw people sleep in the cars in the rest area ( some rest area ban sleeping overnight ). When I travelled with my family I went around searching for cheap motels and we got them. We plan the trip back in detail to ensure nothing is wasted; when to arrive at the airport, where to stay before that. No day is wasted. When I travelled with my neighbor, we travelled in the same format. In fact we drove from the West Coast of USA to the East Coast and back.

We went to places where alot of people go, tourist attractions and theme parks, malls and chain stores, places where we can buy cheap clothings, university campuses and movies.

If you are not patience you tend to lose those things. You just try to travel with imaptient people and experience the trauma.

You have to plan your route well to make sure you arrive at a place at the right time and day until the day you want to depart the country. Even that your plan can go haywire if there is an accident or a plane delay or the town go strike. If you hire a car and you'll be in a country for 2 weeks, then hire the car for 2 weeks. If you know a place well and plan to change the mode of transportation, make sure scrutinise the detail plan ; how and where to find the transport, how and where to find accomodations. Otherwise you'll be spending alot on taxis and hotels.

YMCAs and hostels are cheap. Those places are quite comfortable though not like a 3 star hotels. In Hawaii I have stayed in YMCA and hostels. Of course you have to be patience to look for those abodes.

Malaysian currencies is small compared to Euro, pounds or American dollars. Do not compute into Malaysian dollar when you want to eat. There are places that sell Briyani rice for us$12 and places that sell the same for us$3.50. Don't starve yourself. Go to grocery stores and buy the food there. They are certainly cheaper than restaurants or Mac Donalds. However in USA and Britain there are many Halal food around. Again you have to be patience to search for the halal food.

The picture on the left showing me at Grand Canyon. I drove from Los Angeles to Las vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and moving thru to Lubbock Texas. Then crossed to Florida via Alabama. I also stopped at the space museum. We were in Florida for one week before we drove back to Los Angeles. In 2002 we covered Mid Western States, American Falls, Corning factory, Miami, Cape Kenedy, Orlando and back to Newark. We slept in cars at rest area, camp grounds and cheap motels. We visited interesting places, moved from island to island and really enjoyed the journey. Such format of travel is not once but many time.

by 9M2AR