Travel Bits: November 2019

Culture shock....... different perspective on life's priorities

For many of us who live our entire existence in the busy and fast-paced city, it has become ingrained in us that everything have to be completed quickly. There is simply no tolerance for any waste of time.

And this belief goes along when we travel. When we travelled to cities, towns or villages where the pace of life was much slower, we started to get impatient if we had to wait for services. Sometimes, we began to start getting upset at the "slowness". Whenever this happened, it would be prudent to take a step back and reflect. If the services we were expecting had been a little bit slower, did it somehow meant that the service was bad or that the attitude of the service provider was bad? The difference in expectations and realisation of speed of service delivery is usually down to simply  the perspective of life's priorities. In the smaller cities, towns and villages, the pace of life would definitely be slower than that in most metropolitan cities. That simply meant that the people in these cities, towns and villages see life differently from us city folks. They may even equate slower service to a better quality of service standard. For example, they may take more time to gift wrap your purchases, making sure that the gift wrapping service they provided was top notch. But as we waited impatiently for the gift wrapping to be completed, we somehow became impatient and took it wrongly that they were slowing down on purpose.

Slower does not mean bad service. It simply means a different perspective in life's priorities. After all, we travel to take a break from our hectic working life. So, take it slow and easy. There is no need to rush from one touristy attraction to the next. Take time out to enjoy the ambience wherever we are. We are on vacation and there are no assignments that need to be completed quickly so that we may answer to the bosses. Smell the roses on those travels and return from the vacation rejuvenated and re-charged.

Take time out and enjoy the day. There is no need to hurry through your day while on vacation. Calamari and smoothie, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia (2018)