Why Travel?

It used to be that I traveled for vacation. I went to places all over the United States and relaxed, sat on beaches, visited museums and basically did the touristy stuff. Over the past few years, travel has become something more for me. If I don't need another week off to recover from my vacation, I don't feel fulfilled.

That is not to say that a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe isn't worth doing, but if I only did that, I probably didn't learn anything. That trip is a vacation. Travel is something altogether different. Travel is showing up alone in Mumbai, India at midnight looking at a 45-minute taxi ride to the hotel and knowing the only word I'm sure I can pronounce in Hindi is "salad."

I hope this blog proves interesting and gives you a good sense of the joys I find in travel. At worst, it should give you an image of the different cultures I have visited and the experiences I have had, inside and outside the United States' borders. At best, it will inspire you to buy a plane ticket and soar to parts unknown, where you can discover for yourself the thing that inevitably strikes me every time I find myself a stranger in a new land:

People from just about everywhere are the same. Only the most subtle differences separate us, and it's those differences that can be the most exciting to explore.