Advertisement
Published: January 9th 2015
Edit Blog Post
Happy New Year to all our friends around the world, and to those of you that we never met, but are reading these few lines.
You may wonder why such a title for a first blog of the year. Well, it is a question that over the years, many people have asked me...so here is my little light on how do you feel...when you leave the place where you grew up...for a land far far away...
Most people will grow up, marry (even divorce) and die in a radius of 30km from where they were born. Millions dream to start a new life in Europe or North America and would risk their life to move to those lands, even to the risk of their own life. And still, some will think that the comfort of their day to day comfortable life is not what they look for in life...and these people, do have the freedom to move...with the wind...
Thanks to my parents, I had the chance to attend a great university and graduate as a trained economist. I grew up in Luxembourg, by far one of the wealthiest country on earth.
I could have had a job easily...the current prime minister is a friend from my teenager years, I knew the former one, and the one before...could have been working in the biggest bank of Luxembourg...or for Arcelor...had personal friends in charge in those too...and still...3 weeks after graduating...I left to Asia with my backpack...and never looked back much!
Most people on earth will content themselves with comfort...comfort is a straight line where you know exactly what tomorrow is made of. You graduate from University, you get a proper job, than you buy a car, you get your first mortgage, you do get married, have the kids and go on holidays every year at the same place. By the time you are 40, you dream of the day you'll be 60...or more like 67, when you'll finally retire and be finally able to enjoy your own time to travel.
But it never happens like this...most will encounter unemployment, divorce (if they are lucky enough to start a family) or sickness...and life won't be comfortable as you had planned for it. Than there is the other route, the one where we don't crave for comfort, but
for adventure...where our life could be nice, but would be even nicer by getting the freedom to run the world. Some will be able to do it for a year...some for life...wouldn't it be wonderful to be free...all our life!
So 18 years ago, I moved more than 10,000km from where I was born. It is interesting to think that at the time, my parents never really "jumped" continents. We were a family who had travelled, mostly in Europe. Ok, I have to admit, my Mum was born in Africa, and spent her teenager years in South America...the bug was in the apple!
18 years later, my parents do jump from continent to continent more than once a year...I have two teenagers at home, and yes, even a divorce and few long term relationships. Do I miss my parents...not really...the reason is simple. When I first moved to Vietnam, back at the end of 1996...there was no internet in Saigon, just faxes...and a call was a good 5usd per minute. We called each other at least twice a month...for a good 3 minutes maximum each time...enough to make sure we shared all the news!
Than internet came, and one day, Skype arrived. Now, if we want to speak, seeing each other, it's just a click, and you can do it whenever you feel it, it doesn't even have to be planned. Amazing!
So yes, thanks to internet...I can "see" them often. And than there is another news...inflation is a fact over the last 18 years....except for....long haul economy flights! I do remember my first round-the-world in Business Class over 10 years ago, a deal at 4500usd...these deals don't exist anymore. But deals on long haul tickets from Europe to Asia...do still exist starting these days at 600usd....that's actually even less than 18 years ago! Flying long haul today has never been that cheap....with complementary entertainment, and yes we have to admit, the food they give you...has gone worst! Inflation may not have hit the price of your ticket, airlines had to deal with it and cut few corners...
This means today....that over the last two decades, I've seen my parents an average of 3 times per year...ask people living 500km apart in Europe if they do better!
Than the kids came...so now I have my
own little family...and also my own little nest. Through the years, we were not always living together. You just have to read about this blog from the beginning in 2007 to find about this. Tiffany and Leslie have done a round-the-world already...and have lived in more than one country, on more than a continent. And there is one thing for sure, we have no idea where both of them will live their adult life. They may have a European passport, we are not sure it will be Europe settling in the future.
There is an interesting fact about those two. Over the last few years, while on holidays, or simply on the road....we were calling home the place we were sleeping that night...irrelevant of the fact that it could be home, or a hotel room! Today, it's pretty fun for me to think that my children could live anywhere on earth...and that my grand-children....could be of any color too....just time will tell!
Leslie and Tiffany are teenagers today. We speak often about the different changes that will happen over the coming years. Bangkok and Asia is home today, but that won't be the case
in a few years time...so the world will even become smaller for them in the coming years.
So with Skype and cheap long-haul flights....and petrol today at 48usd a barrel....I guess I won't miss these two too much....as at the end of the little, our little earth, is home!
On the pictures....I spent few hours with my parents in October in Brussels, than a week-end in December in Paris....and you have Tiffany and Leslie in Bangkok, and the view from our little place...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 12; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0409s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Happy New Year
The world is small. Enjoy Skype