Monday, December 3, 2018

Part#2 - An Enroute Direction Change


I’m gonna tack a little here folks. I was going to offer a same old, same old travelogue of what my week was like. Maybe pop a few pics in too. You know, normal stuff. In fact I had every intention of doing that while away, posting from various exotic spots. But I began to hesitate as I asked myself the question aloud, who is that for?

The answer made me uncomfortable about myself. And so I didn’t follow convention and instead thought about my motivation and why I share this.

So here’s a more honest story of the past week. I've no idea if you’ll like it (as much) but it’s my story, so read on - or don't.

I started planning this idea of blowing some long accumulated frequent flier miles on something “interesting” a while back. In concert with that, I’ve been reading a couple travel FQTV points guru-guys blogs for a while, so I developed an awareness of some unique travel situations. In truth, I was seduced (as we can all be) by the idea of super-luxury first class experiences out there, that are accessible if “you know where they are”. So I looked at travel as a means to an end, not to get somewhere, which in itself made me a little unique in the sense that others around me were going place to place to place and I was there for the experience.

There's something that I feel a little vulnerable admitting here about myself, but that I think might be cathartic.  When one travels around in business/first class on flights, fancy airline lounges and suites in 5* hotels - and generally enjoys the finer things in life that money can buy - it's easy to persuade yourself that you're doing well.  People wait on you hand and foot, and it's a little vacation from the reality and varying degrees of the shit in your life.  I engaged this facade with about $240 in airfare taxes and some FQTV miles as I wanted that vacation from reality. The escape itself justified the planning and the motivating factor for me - the fact I'd travel around the globe was a nice bonus.

I had a deeper motivation. My own business is struggling for some traction and while there are good things coming up work-wise, I had too much time on my hands, and was anxious to change my own scenery. The holiday week in the US meant I knew nothing would happen work-wise, so a superficial desire met an ideal opportunity and hence the trip was born.   Many people trick themselves that 'stuff' can replace real connections, but I'm both saddened and a tad ashamed that I can also do that with experiences too.  I was teased as a kid that I acted as "Richie Rich" (look it up), and it's a badge of shame I wear that it's easy for me to get lost in the bullshit that money offers. I despise the label.

So I decided to circle the world, and spent some time in Hong Kong, Doha and Muscat. I had some specific airline experiences I wanted to try on the ground and in the air and managed to arrange those. The trip was all done in great comfort and was effectively nothing $ wise in airfare. Not bad as an escape and in hindsight the best parts weren't the champagne or  luxury - it was the exploring, a good book I read and the couple interesting people I met.

I knew I needed to get out, but when I left, when I wrote chapter #1, I didn’t acknowledge what I was doing.  I'd apologize for that, except this is written mostly for me, so my regret is that I wasn't straight up from the start.  So there's no pics, no travelogue as I/we don't deserve these.  I've travelled enough honestly, in the dirt, and with real experiences to know this past week wasn't real.

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