Many people say that they love travelling. Some love car journeys. I love being a car passenger. I love long distance and overnight train journeys. And coach trips. And watching movies in planes. And the fun of odd transport. I remember the tractor through the water along the cuaseay to an island hotel in the UK. The covered bridges in the USA an Switzerland. In Cambodia being met at the aiprot by our driver, who had a motorised bike with a canopy.
In these times of Covid-19 we all miss travelling and look with nostalgia at our previous years' trips. Travelling for fun is different to travelling as an expat or taking off for a year. The Chinese say that a journey starts with a single step. That phrase is to encourage you to take the plunge, to start your journey.
Robert Louis Stevenson said, it is better to travel in hope than to arrive. In his days the journey took weeks or months by train or ship. Arriving presented more challenges, climate, language, new people.
Another popular saying is, the grass is greener the other side of the fence. We travel to find something new. New ways of doing things. New foods. New clothes. New forms of transport. New friends. New work. New everything. New experiences to make us forget the bad ones and the mistakes of yesterday.
If you travel for a new you go for skills and to earn money. Sometimes just planning a trip gives us a temporary purpose. Sometimes we are travellling just for a change. A change is as good as a rest. Sometiems we are travelling to a specific place for a specific purpose. Other times we just want to get away from where we are.
Your Purpose in Life
Most newlyweds and first time parents have a purpose in life. So do most carers.
'Purpose in life' implies that the wider world is more important than family, especially if you don't have a family.
Mother Teresa's purpose in life was to look after the poor and sick. Why had the government not provided hospitals and orphanages?
You might also argue that an employee or devoutly religious person or political party member has followed a purpose set by others. An entrepreneur or founder of a cult or President of a country, king, queen, dictator or benevolent dictator has decided their own purpose and that of others.
The Purpose of Travel
To travel in hope? Or to arrive?
To reach another place? Or to escape?
To start afresh where nobody knows your past?
To find out whether you can be different, whether society can be run differently, back to the good old days, or on with the newly developed. The latest.
To be distracted from worry by an every changing scene?
To escape the city and live close to nature?
To learn new skills?
My trip hiking in Europe with Java Lava expats has just been cancelled, in April 2021, for the second year running.
Airlines have successfully attracted people to pay for trips to nowhere. Or sitting in first class and eating first class food which they could never afford on a real flight.
Planes are being scrapped. By the time we get to fly again, planes could be redesigned.
New Deigns
The latest developments are completely new designs for aircraft. One idea is playrooms for children. Hurray - keep theme away. Another is an office type setup where you can sit like those in business class at a desk like an open plan office. Another idea is for gyms.
What about the majority of us in us in economy class? Fold-up camp beds for us plebs. New folding wings around our heads for easier sleeping upright.
I looked at the new Oscars for aircraft interior design, the Crystal Awards. The commentators in the public comments kept saying, never mind all this fancy stuff in first class, what about us in economy, what about seat width and leg width!
Wider middle seats and narrower outside seats.
What about the cost of all this? And social distancing? And new concerns about the environment?
Save water. Costs the customer nothing. Great idea.
Water from wash basins can be used to flush toilets. Saves weight on the aircraft. Environmentally friendly. Good news for airline costs, and maybe charges to passengers. Will they be able to fly with spaced apart socially distanced seats and still make money?
If you are not going anywhere, you can use up your Krisflyer airmiles buying yourself gifts from the Krisflyer giftshop. Such as a Brother sewing machine with auto threading and a four step buttonhole.
Useful Websites
https://www.crystal-cabin-award.com/finalists-winners/finalists-2020.html
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Aircraft_seating#Q84306784
https://www.krisshop.com/en/product/ca32931077202af4/brother-ja1450nt-sewing-machine.html
About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a British author who has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. Her 20 books include Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations.
She has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. She is a travel writer and photographer.
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.
