What are your most memorable tour adventures and destinations around the world?
Since childhood I have always wanted to travel to Egypt, to dine with the Pharaohs, and take a closer look at their majestic tombs, those huge arrow head like structures that protrude from the desert sands and glitter like gems in the colored sunsets, I would like to observe them carefully and uncover the genius behind them. To calculate the amount of sweat needed to lift a single stone to the top.
When some enthusiastic travelers see that you don’t travel much (you don’t move about very much) they come to you and say this,, “your father has been here all his life, why don’t you move about a little bit, he was born here, went to school in this town, found a job in this town, married a town girl from here, died and was buried here, are you going to follow the same suit? Please venture at least ten miles out of this town and you will see for yourself how beautiful life is out there,”
1- flummoxed wanderer where are you going?
“Who am I and what am I doing in this desolate place?” Is the question that many adventures ask themselves when they feel their luck is running out, when they run out of all options and what began as an enthusiastic adventure into the unknown has turned into a death trap? Am I a wondering Jew, A Bedouin Herder searching for a well in a sea of sand, a brave sailor trapped in a cast away island, or an astronaut that is lost in space unable to find his way back to earth. Whatever motivated these people to undertake such an unpredictable and perilous journey we do not know, what we know is that travelers and adventurers do change the face of the globe.
For an adventurer camper to stay long enough in the woods, they need to carry the package for only one day, hoping for sure they are going to survive much longer. Neither do they know their destinations, they wonder through the woods without much thought to what is happening next.
Our day today passing byes are of the greatest concern to these fellows.
People ask me, why, do you walk aimlessly not knowing where you are going. I said I walk for pleasure, it’s through traveling that someone gets to really know themselves from the inside, it’s through dangerous adventures that explorers discovered the world, a journey that took the lives of many, but there are also those who made it. You continually meet some who ask you why do you go about traveling the world, you leave the safety of your home to travel into strange unknown landscapes?
2- buying travelers’ ticket
Can you really afford the travelers’ ticket? How much does it cost? How far one travels across the world depends on how deep, someone’s pocket is, the low income earning citizens get enough money to sustain them right where they live and not to take them far across the country with majority of international tourists being the middle class. Countries with the highest incomes per citizen also are sources of the largest number of tourists worldwide,
More than a half of the world’s populace are geographically restrained in their home country, province and town by their financial hardships, the little they get is barely enough to sustain them right where they live, so no such thought as traveling the world ever crosses their minds, there is a saying in the ghettos that “if you want to travel the world you got to own the world.”
You cannot think of traveling when you barely have enough to eat. The ghetto dwellers insist that “traveling is still for the rich folk.”
3- a world still wild
When I see young tourists come in their dozens with loads of backpacks, I feel sorry for them, they leave the safety of their homes to venture into the unknown, filled with the spirit of adventure and naivety covered faces, they put on their backpacks and walk aimlessly around the countryside.
Ironically, the locals fear venturing outside after seven thirty p.m. and never open a door to anyone they do not know, but these foreign tourists come with their naivety and set camps outside right in front of the zoned out area.
We set up a camp in a remote arid region inside the desert called “the scorpion valley” where many locals and tourists alike are reportedly killed by attacks of scorpions, spider stings, snake bites, venomous creatures, and much more dangerous wildlife alike, hundreds are drowned each year by the torrential rivers.
I was stung by a scorpion one night while out camping, that tiny creature that has its tail raised backwards is extremely dangerous, a single sting from it can kill a camel and drive an adult human mad if they survive the ordeal.
There are places you pass through where you see huge rock boulders hanging off from a steep cliff and the roads are passing right underneath them, if the winds blow strong enough let alone have an earthquake, it can tumble them over and rolls all the way downhill, or simply fall onto the motorists, crushing them to the tarmacked road. It will bury them in the soil.
There was once a town I visited it was so hot you could feel as if you will get roasted if you stay outside the vehicle for too long. We thought the heat of the day was going to melt our bus and roast us whole, And for people who come from cold countries, their situation I believe could have been worse, it’s like being removed out of a fridge then placed into a furnace, people who cover the distance by road don’t have a big deal with that since they gradually adapt to the situation as they cover each area by area. But landing at the airport it’s like you are thrown into a fireball. Indescribable heat you feel from head to toe, we were surprised to find the locals felt nothing at all, they walked around in the heat of mid-day sun as if they were strolling on the sands of a cool beachfront. They felt absolutely nothing. A wild weather it was for our team and other research groups.
4- an endangered tourist
A bunch of fishermen come across a young attractive tourist shooting photos at the lagoons, “hello madam!” said one of the fishermen in a native ascent, “I am fine,” she replied, “what do you need?” they inquired, “please be open, if there is anything you might need let us know, we can do anything for you and take you anywhere you wish,” they said, each one was eager to have their boat chosen for travel by the tourist, they were full of vigor, their blood ran fast, it raced across their bodies at lightning speed, and their hearts began to beat as if about to burst out, the drivers in the four boats competed with one another to the point at which it almost turned into a confrontation.
“I don’t want to go anywhere,” said the tourist and with this she turned away from them and resumed her shooting, with every attempt they made it seemed the tourist became more and more resilient to their beckon calls, “all right then miss, if you don’t want to go for some adventure then you will force us to show you some misadventure,” with this said one of them jumped into the shallow waters and pulled her into his boat and sped off with the others, the tourist tried to scream and escape but the assailants were too strong for her, luckily one of the beach boys witnessed the commotion and quickly alerted the coast guards giving details of the events, the boat and the identities of both the tourist and the assailants, the tourist was rescued a few minutes later in the open waters unharmed,
This incident stuck with her for a really long time, it really made her hate the place, its peoples, and her nature photography hobby. She swore never to tour that nation in her life again.
It seems like tourists lives are more endangered than any other wildlife, a park ranger said that he did not like the fact that he saw tourists getting too close to wildlife, “these are wild animals, they are not your Tom cats which you rub your hands onto their fur and lull them to sleep, they can crush you,” another tourist requested the park ranger to allow her to hold the horns of an old rhino in the reserve, while one of her child gets to touch an elephants tusks, these are WILD animals, they won’t spare you because you are a tourists do you certainly think that a lion will spare a fellow who fell off their Rover because they are friendly tourists and not savage locals? They can’t distinguish any of them.
When these fellows left their homeland they were told that these are endangered species who need to be taken care of by humanity, what they don’t know is that sooner or later its they themselves who are going to become the “endangered species”, while the animals in the parks become “dangerous species”.
You should never trust a place, town, city or park too much no matter how famed or safe others claim it to be, there is no such thing as an holy city on earth, every village, town and city is rampant with violence and crime just as it has been from the beginning of time, there is nothing holy about holidays.
Since its made known to every citizen that international tourists bring money to their country’s economy, some locals have taken this literary, whenever they see a foreign tourist, they see them as money bags, a rich fellow who has left his/her country and has brought lots of money along, so they decide to follow the fellow from behind to get a little share of the honey, just a small share of it. They waylay tourists at every remote footpath, at every highway, at every park at every beach, they waylay them.
Its quiet clear that traveling abroad, you could be putting your own life on the line, every year, there are hundreds of cases of tourists being robbed, kidnapped, injured, molested and in very unfortunate cases getting killed by the local gangs or wildlife.
International tourism appear all peaceful and wonderful on big TV screens and in adverts, it’s when you visit the alien landscape itself that you get the surprise & shock of your life.
Though only a small portion of tourists get into trouble while traveling abroad, I mean real serious trouble, say five percent or less, but that still is a significant figure, you can easily find yourself in that five percent category.
It’s very unfortunate when you hear that someone worked hard all their life to get a few funds to enable them to travel overseas, when they get there they are robbed of everything they have or in extreme cases, loose their very own life.
Tourist that travel in groups of five or more through an agency let’s say a company that organizes tours of dozens or hundreds have less freedom of movement to visit the places they wish to go, they also spend exorbitantly in allocated hotels and resorts, but on the other hand they are much safer in their numbers as they can easily fend off an attack.
Beauty models who traveled the world doing charities and working in humanitarian organizations should be a little more careful about their surroundings lest they fall prey to ravaging wolves some from within their own organizations and from fellow workmates, people are very meek when they are in the inner surroundings where there’s is lots of eyes watching everyone, but when out there in the open country of the unknown, there is no police, some of their fellow workers who were once cordial all of a sudden become wild, they turn into hyenas and pounce on them devouring their flesh.
Not unless you are on a business trip should you dare come alone, but if you are planning to tour places deep in the remote areas, it’s not wise to come alone, when you ask the locals for some guidance, once they realize you are a lost foreigner and potentially wealthy and know nothing about the local area, then their blood begins to boil, and heartbeats skyrocket, they begin to shake with excitement. They can sense the opportunity and easily take advantage of your lack of knowledge of the environment. There is nothing more tempting for locals than to see an attractive tourist walking past their den on her own, and more importantly she is wearing lots of expensive jewels on her neck, has an expensive handbag which could have lots of money in it. Making good use of such a lost traveler wouldn’t be that difficult. If you’re really determined to have some safety in your trip then two other people are not enough, even though they are your bodyguards, you may need a company of a half dozen or more, not unless you are a taekwondo graduate yourself should you be confident enough to travel on your own.
They should never put too much trust in famed tourist destinations as if they were their own backyards.
5-an admired tourist
“Please stop staring at me, go back to whatever you were doing…” is common phrase among tourists,
There are places in remote towns where locals have never been in contact with the outside world, when you walk past them, the whole town comes to a standstill to stare at you, the instant attention is so scary that you feel like say you want to find a small mall or shop to rush in quickly and cover your face, you wish to walk through the busiest streets so that you can quickly intermingle with the crowd, if you are different from the others, you can easily become the new source of entertainment, even the slightest racial variations from them can make you look like a fellow from an alien planet.
I once went to a village when I suddenly found myself surrounded by an entire community, everybody, the children, men, women including the elderly came out to take a look at me, I had to tell my companions to prepare for us to leave the place immediately for I felt really threatened, though no threat was really evident at the time, I felt alienated as ever, I had visited the place to conduct a study on their traditions, now it’s turned out they are the ones studying me, what started off as to be an exciting journey turned out to be a scary walk through the wonder world, “HELLO” they greet you in local vernacular, then walk past you but some do keep staring at you, those that are selling you products, they give you their curio then shortly after that they observe you carefully while you are not looking, when you are busy attending to something else, they throw their eyes at you, some with deep interests, some with mere curiosity others with disgust, they wonder where you came from and what you are doing in their hometown, they want to know what are you looking for, so that they may at least help you find it, “where on earth did he/she come from?” they ask one another. Sometimes you feel like you want to tell them, “hey please stop watching me I am not a cinema screen.”
Sometimes you find the attention you get interfering with your daily routine, your tour or business activities or whatever things that took you to that area are greatly restrained, your contact with others is limited, those who were supposed to be cordial business partners look withdrawn, they unconsciously turned into admirers, when you are done with presentation, they fear to ask questions.
Language and racial differences do indeed divide people, I was hoping to walk into a city where I can easily be adopted into the community just like others do, this wasn’t the case for me, people do remember to keep their distance from foreigners, some locals when you have noticed they have been starring at you for a long time, then you suddenly stretch out your hands to greet them, they step back in mixed feelings of doubt and reluctance, “Hello, I am Columbus Junior, what’s your name?” they look at you as if you have suddenly pulled out a knife from your pocket and are pointing it at them, they won’t shake your hands.
6- surprises in a changing world
Each day the globe continues to become more homogeneous, traveling far and wide shows less and less of surprises. In a world in which its culture is increasingly becoming homogeneous only the natural and historical phenomena/wonders remain the key sources of attraction, if you travel to a foreign country to see how people there do things then you find guys there do the same staff you do back at home, so then do you feel your efforts becoming wasted, it’s better then to remain at home and continue doing the same old staff you have been doing before.
While traveling abroad you see things familiar to those from home but sometimes you also find things that are totally strange from those you are used to in your country, you feel like you are in an alien landscape.
The Above Text contains an excerpt from the book named… “My Adventures To Great Unknown”
