William Marcus Dixon:  

Yo! What's up, y'all? I love looking at all your photos! reminds me of my relative youthfullness! My profile pic pic was taken in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in their spring of October, 2006. Don't think that, as I mention traveling, that that is all I ever do. I do other things but you would not find these other things interesting. Just as I do not find most of the activities which my ex classmates have mentioned to be interesting. In my sweet, short life, I've visited a total of 78 countries on every continent except Antarctica, as a solo traveller on a low budget. This has given me a greater insight into various cultures. Unlike most travellers who travel in groups and only really see the tourist sights, hotels and restaurants, I have gotten out and met the local people! I have socialised with the locals, drank with the locals, dated the local women and stayed with the local families, in many of the countries I have visited. Some people react to this by askinging "Do you spend your whole life travelling?" Use your heads! It doesn't take a lifetime to visit 78 countries! If Ii spent all my life travelling, I wouldn't be able to make a liveing - now would I? Still, I do use some of my experience as a traveller to make a living. I now work as a freelance writer in Sweden (No,I'm not a journalist). Ever arrived in a new country and find that just about everyone is out to rip you off or is just plain hostile? Common features of tourist areas the world over is that one is highly likely to encounter dishonest behaviour, hostile behaviour or both within such areas. Many tourists arrive in such areas with lots of money and little sense. They find that the first person they meet is the taxi driver, who rips them off. In the tourist areas, they are ripped off by many of the locals. Not surprisingly, many of the tourists start to regard not only the locals in the tourist areas, but all the people in the country, with over-reactive suspicion. Hanging around in groups and not talking to the locals, often ignoring locals who are trying to be friendly towards them. For example, I was at a cheap hotel in Cairo with four European guys. We were sitting in the TV lounge when a member of staff, a fat, well dressed man, walked into the room and presented us with five glasses of Egyptian tea. He simply handed them to each of us. I was suspicious of this and told one of the guys, named Mark. He said it was obviously a gift. Still I didn't drink the tea. After about 20 minutes the guys had finished the teas and the fat man appeared again. This time he was asking for payment. He wanted one Egyptian Pound for each tea. This was double the normal price for such a tea in Cairo - and it was a cheap hotel. I pointed out that I hadn't drank the tea and that I was not going to pay. I also pointed out that it was a sneaky trick he had played on his customers. He merely shrugged his shoulders. One of the guys' I'll call him Hans, reached into his wallet and gave the fat man 5 Pounds. The fat man took it and did not give Hans any change. I did not see Hans complain about this. I was with the guys for a couple of days after this and we toured the pyramids together. Mark and I decided to rent some animals, I rented a camel, he rented a horse. We paid a high price to rent them for 2 hours. An animal keeper, on a donkey, accompanied us as we rode the animals around the pyramids. After 1 hour, the keeper asked us for a tip. Mark pointed out that we had already paid a steep price. He then informed us that the ride was over. We still tried to ride the animals but he made noises which caused them to stop. He took the animals and left us after only 1 hour. After this, I noticed Mark was being quite rude to many of the locals. He was ignoring those who approached him in a friendly way. That's no way to enjoy your holiday. You might do it to the wrong person - and then suddenly need the help of those people whom you walked past and ignored. Sure, being cheated can make you reluctant to talk to anyone but you can at least smile and nod to those who greet you Unfortunately, people like Hans encourage dishonest behaviour. Hans had the attitude that the locals had a right to be dishonest as the average Egyptian made $20 a month. While this might be the case, Egypt is a cheap place. The man who had cheated him was fat and well dressed. The average Egyptian was comfortably housed, clothed and fed - and could afford to have large numbers of children. Some tourists seem to think it is charitable to give money to cheats, but this causes a lot of problems. The psychological effects of traveling: Travelling can provide a diversion from your stress, also a sensory overload which is a way to change your state of mind. The road is addictive. Traveling is a vice, it can have negative effects. It can even kill you, but hey, what a lovely way to go! It consumes money and time. It causes you to get out of shape as much of modern traveling involves a great deal of sitting. Finding a gym in a country where you don‟t speak the language can be quite hard. When you find one, you might find that you can only use it by becoming a member and paying for a long term membership. It can cause a great deal of stress. It can drive people from different cultures further apart as tourists and travelers are highly vulnerable and attract criminals. Many of those who work in foreign countries which they are visiting are exploited by their employers. After one has traveled, one might talk about it a great deal to one‟s friends. If those friends have not been to the places you mention, and do not intend to, they will find such talk boring. They may even resent the fact that you have been to such places when they haven‟t. It‟s a vice - just like alcohol, cigarettes and cannabis - and it can kill you a lot quicker than all of those together - but, hey, it‟s better to live for 40 years than to exist for 80, yes? When I talk about my travels, I often talk about some of the more negative things. Not because that‟s all I get out of traveling but because negative things are more interesting to talk about. One lady I spoke to commented on the fact that I go thought the trouble to go to these exotic location - and get ripped off in these exotic locations. Why don‟t I take packaged holidays? Why do I put myself in danger by going there as a solo backpacker? In an episode of Star Trek, one of the crew is explaining an electronic game to an extraterrestrial. He points out that the game is a great adventure as one appears to be put in dangerous situations while playing. The extraterrestrial explains that he normally experiences such adventures and gets plenty of adventure without having to do so in an artificial way. There is certainly excitement and pleasure to be gained from danger. When you go to see an Indiana Jones film, you don‟t want to watch him just lounging around a pool, drinking beer with a bunch of other guys - now do you? Also, when one travels, one gets a natural high. A sensory overload which causes ones mind to be very active and flexible. One is having a great deal new input and this makes it very easy to remember things, in great detail, from many other times in one‟s life. It makes it very easy to alter an unfavorable state of mind. If you are feeling down, or stressed, traveling is a good remedy. When you change your surroundings, your state of mind changes. Ever noticed that when you come back home after a long trip, your house, neighborhood and town seem, and feel, different - even though they haven‟t changed? It‟s because you‟ve changed. Your head is in a different place so your old surroundings seem different to you. So, in the event of a depressed or other unfavorable states of mind, you can use this time when your mind is flexible to re-alter your thoughts. Some of us are bothered by stressful things which we cannot do anything about and don‟t want to think about. The problem is, stress is very hard not to think about. It is a well known fact that the best way to deal with particularly unpleasant stress is to focus on a more manageable source of stress. This was mentioned in the Brad Pitt film Fight Club. The adrenalin rush they got from the fight made their daily stress seem trivial. Likewise, if you go to some of your more exciting locations, like India, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil or Indonesia, you are likely to encounter things which give you so much stress it can make even a major source of stress seem trivial. Your adrenalin is going. Your heart is racing. Your pupils are dilated. Your old source of stress is now in the back of your mind. The thing is, the stress you are likely to encounter in these places is usually caused by strangers and is therefore impersonal. You have a choice of taking it or leaving it. It is fairly easy to cope with. Traveling to some places might even make you appreciate your own country more. When I lived in England, I was unhappy about the police not doing their jobs as they should have, about the poor health care system and about people being unfriendly. However, I went to Indonesia and found that those police did their jobs even less well as they were notoriously corrupt. Going to an Indonesian hospital might make you sicker when you come out then when you went in. Indonesia is a very friendly place but that friendliness can be less than pleasant at times, such as groups of strange men shouting greetings to you when you are walking down the street. After going to Indone...Expand for more