- Northern Pacific Wanderings 2024 — here we go!
- Enjoying a few days in Hong Kong
- A day in Kaohsiung and Tainan, Taiwan
- A quick trip to the Penghu Islands
- Two Days in Taipei, Taiwan
- Naha, Okinawa
- Two days in Beijing
- Two days in Incheon and Seoul, South Korea
- Jeju Island, Korea
- Busan, Korea in a day!
- Nagasaki, Japan
- Arita, Japan
- Miyajima and Hiroshima, Japan
- Kyoto’s Bamboo Forest and Rock Garden
- Matsushima, Japan
- Hakadote, Japan
- Kushiro, Japan
- Dutch Harbor….er, Unalaska, Alaska
- Kodiak, AK
- Homer, AK
- Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, AK
- Sitka, AK
- Klawock and Craig, AK
- A Nanaimo, BC, Canada drive by
- Vancouver BC, end of trip, and final thoughts
All good things must come to an end, and yes, this trip did too. We arrived early in the morning after a voyage of 9,197 nautical miles, and the debarkation process began. While it was only 44 days earlier (only!), the time flew by and we had to say adieu to the new friends and crew we had met on the journey. While the distance between Vancouver and our home on San Juan Island is only 50 miles as the crow flies, getting back is somewhat complicated involving planes, trains, and automobiles. We knew this was going to be complicated, so we took the slow route. We spent the day in Vancouver doing tourist things (e.g., visiting the aquarium, experiencing the Flyover Windborne: Call of the Canadian Rockies show) and then took the train to Bellingham, WA (only an hour late — pretty good for Amtrak) where we spent the night. While having dinner with friends, we were treated to a beautiful display of the Aurora Borealis. The next morning, we took a small plane back to the island and we were finally home!
So what do I take away from this trip? Actually quite a lot. It was a very diverse and adventurous trip, covering untold climate and time zones, but my takeaways were much more fundamental than that:
(1) It’s easy to see how East and West mindsets miss each other when we deal with the issues of the day. Under the Confucian philosophy, it’s all about duty to one’s family, country, and god(s) — individual needs/wants are sublimated to the greater good. They also take the long view since there is a continuity between ancestors and the current day and we are merely cogs in the greater wheel. This is fundamentally different with the West where the individual (and their rights) are paramount and, because it’s all about the individual, the time horizon is short (we need it now!). Dedication/duty to family and god are more situational, and certainly less than those in the East. So when situations like Hong Kong personal freedom or Taiwan come up, both sides are looking at the situation through their own set of optics — no one side is more right than the other in their context. It’s hard to come to common ground.
(2) In the US, we barely teach our own history (especially the less than glorious bits), much less histories of the other parts of the world, especially Asia (beyond Japan). This is not healthy given the increasing interactions we are having with China, Korea, etc. where their history definitely colors their outlook on life, business, etc. We are a country/culture of less than 300 years; theirs are thousands of years old. As an example, Chinese traders were traveling all around Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and ultimately the Persian Gulf and Red Sea as early as the 600’s AD and an admiral, Zheng He, led seven trade voyages with 317 massive sailing ships, holding 28,000 crewmen in the early 1400s. The Western World was only scratching the surface of exploration by that time. Accomplishments like this are points of pride in China and, after many years of foreign domination and a failing dynastic period, a level of greatness they hope to return to.
(3) People are people all over the world and they all want basically the same things — health and happiness for themselves and their families. This is not a new insight; it’s one I have believed for as long as I have traveled. But this trip reinforced this at a fundamental level. As an example, when we were in Tiananmen Square, there were tens of thousands of Chinese people waiting in line to see Mao’s Mausoleum. Many of these people were from way out in the country and had never seen, much less met, a white person. They were so excited to meet and interact with us. While much of the interaction was lost in translation, our guide pointed out that they were amazed that we came all this way to see them in their country (particularly so, given our “advanced” age). There were lots of smiles and laughter on both sides — people enjoying people.
(4) Travel can’t help but broaden you. I have traveled a lot over my lifetime and I always learn something (often a lot) new on every trip. Whether it has to do with the natural world or the people that live in it, travel offers you opportunities and experiences to learn and appreciate both the diversity and complexity of life on our planet. I know that not everyone can afford (whether monetarily, timing, or both) to travel and I hope that I can share a little of what I have learned along the way.
Until next time…
This entry was posted in British Columbia, Canada, Cruising, Travel, United States, Washington
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
