Travel Lessons.

My Mom wanted me to choose some of my favorite travel pictures of myself to give her and so she could hang them up.
It has been fun to sift through them. . . .
It's made me think, and so I thought I would share some McKay Lessons to whoever thinks it would be wise to listen to me. . . . . . .
Here ya go. . . .

Life Lessons I have learned from traveling:

1. How to get uses to almost anything.

I had been traveling for over a month, I was sitting in an open air restaurant (everywhere to eat was open air) nothing was eventful, and I sat enjoying my meal when up the street drove a Cambodian boy on a motorcycle, on the back of the bike was a massive dead pig, so morbid, so huge, still bloody. He turned off the road and went right into the back of the restaurant. I looked down at my food, sure enough, pork.

It made me smile but didn’t even phase me, I just kept eating. 

My first moments in Thailand I was lead through the streets and then onto a bus by a tall “Ladyboy” (Transvestite) and he/she gave me a nasty roll to eat with surprise meet in it. It was the worst. I wanted nothing more then to go home. Yet after weeks being there I didn’t even give the Ladyboys a second thought and the while the mystery meat remained a mystery, it was a welcome treat. 

Even squatty-pottys are not that bad. 

Everything you think is normal will disappear when traveling out of the country and what a liberating feeling that is to free your mind of “Normalityies” and let whatever makes you ‘you’ stand out.

2. Food/ The importance of sharing a meal.

I love food. I LOVE IT!!! And when you travel there is nothing better then tasting the country. No better way to connect, no better way to experience something new. Try everything twice. I have heard that love is the universal language, well allow me to disagree! I have seen how the Asians “Love” each other and it weirds me out! (Nothing funny, they are just nuts!) Food is the Universal Language! Food! And MORE FOOD! In no culture in the world do people generally eat alone, people gather to eat, to share a meal is to share a memory, a memory that is defined by the dish. And I think as people get older we all realize (hopefully) that emotions and people are more important then things, thus food is one of the most valuable things you can buy for a person. Take the time to share a story over food. 

In Thailand you basically lay down to eat, it is beautiful, in Europe no one is in a rush when they eat you are rude if you are. Share a meal, buy someone food, it makes your day brighter.

3. How to ask for help.

I am a prideful soul, I like to pretend I know it all, and there is a fake it till you make it fasade that I love to parade around.

Yet I have learned to stop all that and ask for help, I have no shame in asking around for anything anymore. 

Most of the time it is an easy, very easy way to make a friend. Who doesn’t want to help out a cute girl traveling? (I’m cute right?)

I read recently  that "If you want to ender someone to you quickly, ask them for advice. Doesn’t matter what on, just asking for their opinion on anything shows that you respect them and value their input.” I think that fits in with what I’m trying to say. Don’t be afraid to talk.

4. How to have fun anywhere

Drew is my favorite person in the world because he is a master at this one, and I will forever love him for helping me do it too. 

Vacations with Drew usually end in organizing rocks, or spending the night in a Price parking lot, not ‘fun’ activities but some of my favorite memories. 

Sitting in a restaurant with Drew last week and he says “If you had to hang one pice of art in here in your bedroom what would it be?” A classic Drew game. Drew always forgets his phone, or lets it die and is with you, present in the moment. He makes being hungry and hot and annoyed hilarious, the worst situations are funny, and not that he is always happy, he just makes getting angry fun, getting mad is part of the game, and I feel like with him more then anyone I have moments of awe.  It’s a talent, I have very little advice as to how to acquire this. Maybe just let go of any expectations. That seems like a simple statement, it is hard to travel to Disneyland and not expect to go on Splash Mountian, or even drive to Disneyland and not expect to enter the park. But if you let go of any and all expectations, everything exceeds expectations. 

5. How to trow stuff away

When I was in Thailand I did everything really light. I had to, carring everything on and off motercyels, and walking for a few miles trying to locate things. To collect souvenirs was a joke. 

I bought clothes when I got to Thailand, wore them out and then threw them away to come home. Take pictures, and write down everything. I have been a good handful of places and the things that matter to me the most about these vacations will always be the pictures, and my stupid journal entries. 

I wish I could say I am a minimalist, But I am only one at heart. I imagine a world where I live as Nathan Evans http://mckayjoice.blogspot.com/2012/12/we-are-tide.html with just my Dog and my Truck and America’s promise of freedom. But I love my collections of cake stands and colored glass and old lights too much. I just can’t.

But when traveling act as a boy scout, take only pictures leave only footprints. 

6. How to empathize

It is one thing to learn about sex trafficking, and it is something else entirely different when you see it first hand. 

My sister told us about the Romain orphans who lived on the streets, but seeing a man hole with a bed down inside changes it. 

I remember when I went to Mexico, we went down to work in an Orphanage (in between surfing and camping on the beach)

When we got there, day one we were so completely saddend at the conditions these kids lived in, the rooms they would pack them into, the sweet dirty faces smiling at us. 

And it almost kocked you over to realize that this was a reality for these sweet kids. 

Yet after spending a week with the kids, forgetting a bit about the home you have waiting for you, you realize that these kids have it quite good, that they are happy that they are fed well and they love each other, and that my life, my life that I think is more important because I own a car, I grew up with a traditional family, that I had a collection of American girl dolls as a girl, my life seemed almost the same, that there was things that I lacked that they would pitty me, that my fancy life wasn’t at all superior, but different. 

7. You are more resporseful then you thought. 

I lost my shoes in Laos, I was alone and only had one pair of shoes and they were gone. Stolen while I ate. 

I had to walk barefoot into a store and buy new shoes, put them on and walked out.

Most of the little hostles I stayed in in Bangkok didn’t have a bathroom, you would have to go down the hall, or down a floor. 

And at the end of a long day it was hard to motivate yourself to get leave your bedroom. 

So I kept water on hand and I would brush my teeth and just swallow my toothpaste and take a drink of water. 

It was weird but I kinda started to love it, sometimes I still do it. 

I was in the back of a truck with a girl who had been backpacking for 8 months, she told me it just gets to a point where all you use is shampoo, no face wash, no body wash, no conditioner just one thing. 

I thought she was nuts, my hair is long I need conditioner and face soap? I can’t use shampoo.

But when I hit about the two month mark out traveling, that’s what I switched to, it was easy, and it worked really well and simplified things. 

It’s nice to not panic about anything, I’m not a panicer anyway but it is nice to let go, if I loose my bag, I’ll figure things out.

8. The joy of being alone

I love being alone, mostly because I love to run in circles. 

Last month I took on the new York City subway tunnels all by myself, it was so exellerating to me. I got on to three wrong trains,  resulting in it taking three hours to get where I needed to when the direct route would have taken an hour. 

If I was with someone else they could have freaked out, they would have had there advice on where to go, and even if they were a person that was stress free I still wouldn’t have been able to put my headphones in and watch the people of new york dance around to the music in my head. It was empowering, it was so fun to just be in the tunnels, surrounded by a million people that didn’t know me.

To be alone for 24 hours in a new place listening to your own thoughts prioritizes things for me, I can see clearly the things that I place at the greatest importance, then adjust it or try to adjust it, if I want. 

I admit that sharing a moment is more fun then telling someone about it. I admit that while I was alone in Laos I was lonely, I remember sitting in the jungle of Laos watching the sun set and wanting  a familiar face so bad that my heart hurt. But while that moment sucked it makes me feel so glad now to have people around me that I love. To feel that contrast uplifts me. 

9. Embrace Spontaneity

I think I was born with this one. I crave spontaneity I love the unknown. Shit happens. . . All the time, and I have learned how to love those moments the best. Chillax, trust more then you normally would, say yes to everything. Don’t ever let laziness consume you on vacation! Place yourself where the action is! And if you must nap, do it in public! 

Remember plans are meant to be broken, let the wind carry you, follow good smells, smiling faces and bright lights wherever they are take you.

And Dance, always Dance. You catch more flies with a hair flip, and if you teach a man to dance he’ll dance life. . . . Something like that. 

Dance, it’s free therapy, and it’s HELLA fun. 

10. Step way. 

There is a million wonderful things about being on a backpackers trail, but one of my favorite things is the book exchange. Leave a book, take a book. And with out using your hand to impulsively open up Instagram you have time to keep an index finger in a book to save your spot. I finished four books while I traveled in Asia, and if you know me you would know that is kinda a big deal. Don’t travel for others, travel for yourself. Let people know you are leaving, then leave. 

I like to keep my blog updated, I love blogging from a weird location. Up load some pictures I’ve taken and leave a few words, but leave your world behind when you travel, no one cares about your Instagram and snapchat is shit. To step away and give a stranger your complete attention is worth more then 5,000 likes. 

11. Let go of your Religion (But not your morals)

My Parents may not agree with this, I’m not even sure I do.

I sat with a monk for 3 hours one day in Laos he taught me (or tried to teach me) to meditate. It was so humbling to see the devotion he had to his God, he had given his life in attempt to be closer to something greater then him. His devotion was his testament to his belief. He was as devoted to his religion as I was to mine, maybe more. Who am I to tell him he is wrong? Who am I to force on my beliefs to him? All I could do was sit and respect him, learn how to meditate and let go of the ideas I had craved into my heart to better understand him more hoping I left him with the same happiness he gave me. 

And when you are on a hippie farm in Canada and you are offered a drink that may have alcohol in it, that they have brewed themselves, just drink it. And if shrooms are legal in Laos and you just met a boy from New Zealand who wants to have a chat and sip a shroom smoothie, just do it.  Don’t go crazy, listen to your gut, never do anything you know you will regret. But be open to the universe, act on the things your heart tells you, and avoid most of what your head says. I have found that this oddly has brought me closer to my God, with a better understanding of love and acceptance.  As well as a great adventure. 

-So travel, and when you don’t have time or money you should still travel (That may be horrible advice) 

God has packed this earth full of variety beyond anyone’s lifetime can intake, and to open your eyes to others is to open your eyes to yourself.