Hanoi
Lessons learned
Now that we’ve been home for a while I’ve had time to
reflect on some of the things I learned while circling the globe.
The first lesson is that all cultures contain many people
who provide help to a stranger. I am
constantly amazed at the number of ordinary citizens who stopped to chat, offer
advice and otherwise provide aid for no obvious benefit to them.
People often ask which country or sights were my favorite
and the answer is there is no way to choose one or two as every place we
travelled had some fascinating aspects.
The most interesting thing, however, was seeing the subtle changes as
one crossed from one border to another.
And like a game of telephone where a message can get totally changed by
the time it goes around a room full of people so it was with countries. Each border change was subtle but by the time
we were half way around the globe the cultures were completely different. If you’ve read Jared Diamond’s wonderful book
“Guns, Germs and Steel” which describes the evolution of civilization across
geographic borders you will understand even more fully the experience.
On a more personal level I found that after months of living
with only the contacts of one carry on suitcase I can now live with only a few
outfits. After living with two pair of
chinos, three T shirts and one little black dress I find that I don’t need or
even want much more. That also goes for
a lot of other personal stuff and I now find it easy to pare down possessions. That’s been very liberating.
Leslie
