Our Momentary Lapse of Reason
From their site: ”Beginning in June of 2008 we (Tracy & Jason) left our families, friends, house & jobs in Denver to follow our dream of traveling the world. This website is a chronicle of our 2 year journey.”
When we started asking our fellow couple travelers to awnser our 7 questions, our hope was to really capture a glimpse into how and why they travel. What makes them unique. Our latest couple gives us that reflection.
Tracy is truely a fine photographer. Her pics of India with their use of color and story telling are truely not to be missed. We are also very impressed with their fighting skills! Please enjoy.
1) How many countries visited between the two of you?Over 50
2) If you had to travel with someone else besides your travel partner, who would it be? (this person can be living, historical or mythical?.)
He Said: I like Anthony Bourdain. If I could have traveled in the 60′s-70′s, Tony Wheeler (LP author) would be a good companion as well. Both are insightful and a little edgy.
She Said: Hmmm, I like Jason’s choice! Imagine a personally escorted food tour by an international celebrity. I could wrap my mind around that pretty quickly.
3)What has been your favorite destination in your wanderings?
He said: I have to answer this in groups: The Galapagos Islands have to be my favorite wildlife spot. Angkor Wat has to be the most under appreciated ancient site but the place that keeps calling for more exploration is India. It has to be the craziest place on earth and there were moments where I hated it with a passion but the more I have time to reflect, the more I miss it.
She said: That’s such a difficult question to answer. We always tell people that we enjoy different places for different reasons. SE Asia is our favorite region and within that region we love Indonesia (though we still have much to explore there), Burma & Laos. Aside from SE Asia, we love eating in Thailand, Italy & Argentina :-) The wildlife viewing in the Galapagos is amazing & diving Sipadan is a real highlight. For natural beauty it’s hard to top Patagonia but we haven’t been to New Zealand yet (the USA is no slouch either of course!). I could go on and on…I agree with Jason that India is high on our list to return to.
4) If you had to eat one last meal, what/ where would you eat?
He said: WOW, so many choices on this. I have to go with what first pops in my head – Steak and wine in the breathtaking mountains of Patagonia, Argentina.
She said: Lets see, it would have to include an incredible red wine, perhaps a goat cheese souffle appetizer followed by a blue cheese & tomato salad then a rare steak with crab legs. For dessert, I love ice cream! Thanks for making me hungry with that question :-)
5)How do you pick the places you visit? Spontaneous vs. planned?
He said: “SO, where are we going tomorrow?” She picks the places, I plan the logistics of how to get there. Of course, we both daydream all the time about our next adventures.
She said: I”m the A-type person in our world so usually I like to have a plan but I”m totally ok with changing it as we go (which we almost always do).
6) If you could solve one problem in the world what would it be?
He said: Lack of Tolerance. If everyone just showed a little more tolerance for people of other backgrounds/religions/countries etc. the would would be a nicer place.
She said: Wow, that’s a pretty difficult question. When we were traveling around India it apparent that the lack of available fresh & clean water was a huge problem. If I could solve one problem, I think I would bring the world plenty of clean water for consumption & agriculture.
7)You knew it was coming….What has been your greatest travel fight/disagreement?
She said: We took a Transatlantic cruise from Harwich to Boston to round out our Middle East & Europe segment of our trip and one day we stopped in Cherbourg off the coast of France. Having read a lot about the amazing war & peace museum in Caen we decided to before hand to visit it despite the fact that it was 90 minutes away by train and our ship was only docked for 8 hours. The ship was an hour late docking and on our way out we stopped and asked the information desk about trains to Caen. We were told there was one leaving in 30 minutes and the train station was 25 minutes away with a return trip that would get us back into Cherbourg with a few minutes to spare! We raced off, determined to make that train. By that time I was thinking that it wasn’t such a great idea to head all the way to Caen (90 minutes away by train) and as we were racing to the train station I told Jason that I thought we should stay in Cherbourg for the day, after all, spending 3+ hours in transport just to see a museum when we only had 7 hours didn’t really seem worth it. We thought we would have more time and I thought there was enough to do in Cherbourg. Well, Jason’s the type of person that has a one track mind and while I was talking I could practically hear him thinking “Train, train, must get to the train. Can’t miss that train.”. He told me in no uncertain terms that we already decided to go to Caen and it was too late to change our mind…and so we went to Caen. We arrived at the museum and enjoyed 2 hours there (which was probably less than half the amount of time we really needed as it was probably one of the best museums we had been to). After racing around the museum trying to take it all in we raced back to the train station to buy our return tickets to Cherbourg. DOH! The train we planned on taking back was a summer train that expired on Sept. 1st and it was Sept. 5th…the next train was an hour later and would have gotten us back to Cherbourg AFTER our ship sailed. We hightailed it to the bus station where they politely told us to take the train. We thought about renting a car but we never would have made it. Our last resort was a taxi…at a princely price. As we raced down the highway watching the Euros add all the way up to 191.20 E (all the while converting it into dollars at 1 Euro = $1.50 USD) I muttered, “wow, that was a nice museum.” It was certainly the most expensive!
He said: I don’t think many people realize how hard it is to travel…not vacation/holiday…but long term travel. I can’t really remember a knock-down-drag-out fight but three weeks in, we were walking down a street in Malaysia about ready to call the whole thing off. We both calmed down however and it all worked out in the end.
For more visit: Our Momentary Lapse of Reason
Of all the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai is best known for its breathtaking landscapes. It is known as the “Garden Isle” due to the beautiful greenery that drapes the island. Cliffs, canyons, and waterfalls remain untouched, as the terrain is impassable by car. The only way to see the whole island is by air.
We are Mike and Luci.