Looking at the world through many lenses

Many people travel in many different ways. I like to travel in a certain 'style' and I like to use this analogy to explain it.

There are a couple of ways to take a photograph. Firstly, you can shoot some average images of everything you see and come out with hundreds of pictures. Some funny, some completely useless, maybe one or two great shots, and some just enough to enjoy your memory of that time and place. Secondly, you can stop pause in the moment, get down on a knee or up on a bench to capture a moment in time and make it timeless. You may not have hundreds of photos to reflect on, but you will have memories of that time and place from an angle you were not constantly experiencing each day.

Travel can be the same way. You can jump in head first and rush, or you can jump in head first and pause. Ask yourself, ‘Why am I traveling..?' To experience new things, maybe?

When I was in Vietnam, I did this. I paused, I got down on my knee and I stood up on that bench and I looked at the country through a ‘different lens’. It stripped me of my pre-conceived notions and expectations and allowed me to absorb everything as the locals did. I gained so much more from building a relationship with the people and the country, instilling a completely different level of respect than that which would have been experienced through the eye of a tourist.

Those experiences I had would not have been possible had I not made that conscious decision to see things differently - from secret medicinal baths in SaPa to the majestically enchanting beauty of HaLong Bay, ‘Country Club’ swimming pools to cool off in the Ho Chi Min sweltering heat and the best Vietnamese cuisine - all for the same price as the locals.

So, next time you pack your rucksack and head off for a new adventure, take that small amount of time to pause, and think ‘Am I really seeing what is in front of me?’ and if the answer is ‘no’ or a soft ‘maybe’, then stop, go find a bench to stand on, take a look and breathe it in!