If you live in the United States or Europe, you are probably rich. While you may not consider yourself rich, your income is likely far above that of many people around the world. We refer to ourselves as part of the first world while those in third world countries struggle. So what happens when a first world visitor visits a third world country? Does it matter how you spend your money? First let it be said that your money definitely…
Noodles, Art, and Sand, Discovering Kaohsiung, Taiwan
When you think of international travel, what places come to mind? Caribbean countries and Europe probably come to mind most readily. However, there are many places to travel which will not have the hordes of tourists you might find in some of these places. May I suggest Taiwan as one such place. In 1971 when I toured around the world, Taiwan was one of the places we visited so last year when my daughter suggested my wife and I meet…
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Is Seeing Enough?
A number of years ago my wife’s niece got married in Paris. It was in May so I was unable to go, but she and my daughter went. They arrived a week ahead of the wedding to have the opportunity to tour Paris, and tour they did. I got reports each night about the churches, museums or other places they had visited and how tired they were after walking all day. They tried to see it all. A few years…
Discovering Washington’s Dry Side: Tri-Cities
When most people think of Washington, they think of Seattle, the Space Needle, and Mt. Rainier. Washington is far more than that, however. The Cascade Mountains divide the state into two distinctive regions. To the west is the rainy, cloudy region that most people associate with Washington. To the east one finds a much drier area which is hotter in the summer and often colder in the winter. Through this eastern region flows the mighty Columbia River. In the southern…
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Finding the Right Hotel
When I was kid, and my family would travel, we would jump into the car and start driving to wherever we were going. If we needed to spend the night somewhere along the way, we would look around for the nearest motel with a vacancy, and that’s where we would stay. No planning was involved, but that’s not the case today. I may spend hours trying to find the perfect hotel for us to stay in when we travel. With…
Why Travel? What Value Does Travel Have?
It seems that one of the common expectations of retirees is that they will travel. This expectation was evident when I was reading what my high school classmates from 50 years ago wrote in their current biographies. Traveling both past and future was a common theme. But why? What is the purpose or value of traveling? People travel for many reasons. A common reason is what many people call bucket list travel. These travelers are out to see or experience…