 My Vietnam Travel Journal |
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| Inspired by the great book "Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awaken the Journal-Writing Traveler" by Lavinia Spalding, my boyfriend and I kept travel journals on our most recent trip together, and I'm so glad we did - you definitely should too! | |||||||||||||||
bwright Becky Wright Post Count: 1 Msg: #1 75 days ago, September 12th 2009 | I just got back from an AMAZING trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. In fourteen days my boyfriend and I visited Saigon (HCMC), the Mekong Delta, Hoi An, Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sa Pa, Kuala Lumpur, and Angkor Wat (Siem Reap). It was amazing, and I'm exhausted, but I have to say one of the most rewarding things I did on my trip was keep a travel journal. | Inspired by reading a book a friend gave me, "Writing Away: A Creative Guide to Awakening the Journal-Writing Traveler" by Lavinia Spalding, both my boyfriend and I bought journals along with a few good travel reading books before taking off. They were so nice to have! Following Lavinia Spalding's advice, we wrote a few things down in preparation (what predictions and expectations we had for our trip, preliminary plans etc) and brought a few necessary supplies she recommended (a couple colored pens, tape/glue, and child's scissors). First off, we had a lot of fun writing the journals. Everytime we were stuck on some form of transportation, be it airplane, bus or boat, we pulled out our journals. In addition to writing about our latest amazing experience, like hiking with girls from the Black Hmong tribe in Sa Pa, we competed for who could draw the best illustration of the things around us or find the best decoration for our journals. I had an edge as I actually read Spalding's chapter with ideas on this, such as rubbings, wine cork stampings, any tickets, maps, etc. We also used lots of Spalding's ideas for what to write about - she suggests writing about first impressions, people you meet (guide, friend, local), all senses including smell and taste (my favorite was the taste of cocunut crepes outside the rice factory; plus I put the wrapper it came with in my journal as decoration!). And in case you ever get writers block, there's a few pages with hundreds of prompts in the back that you can rip out and take with you. I found that Spalding was right that keeping these journals so faithfully (a daily dedication that she inspired me to keep) really helped make my experience more memorable. I paid more attention to the life around me and the details of my adventures than I normally do, and really travelled more mindfully, as she described. I recommend that anyone planning a trip like this (or any other trip at all) keep a travel journal, and before you go read "Writing Away". It's on Amazon of course, or offered by the publisher (Travelers' Tales) <snip> Happy Writing! ~Becky [Edited: 02:42 - Rat on the Road ]  tdoan12416 Thinh Quoc Doan Post Count: 9 Msg: #2 67 days ago, September 20th 2009 | How nice the book is ! I just got it 2 days ago and start reading it. Thanks for sharing this. Anyway, I am so happy cause you and your boy friend had a great time in Vietnam | Number of Users: 2 | Number of Posts: 2 | ||||||||||
