World Altering Travel Hack

I don’t write much about travel. I used to. I kind of feel like it is showing off. Let me tell you allll about Georgia. "Isn’t Instagram like that Bert and you post on their semi-regularly?" My answer to that question is to shut up and read the rest of this article without critically thinking. Where was I? Oh yes, travel. Big fan. But I would rather write about random thoughts or tell you stories than tell you the cheapest way to get to Valencia or where the best place to find street graffiti in Oslo. Lately, I have found a travel hack that I find has and will save me time, money and is almost as good as the real thing. Be warned: You will probably not like this idea and think I should get medically checked. I have and the prognosis wasn’t great; let’s move on.

In less than two weeks, I’m going to Beijing for a lacrosse tournament. I have lived in Shanghai for over two years and have only been to Hong Kong and a water town a few hours outside of Shanghai. I’ve never been to Beijing, seen the pandas or the Terracotta Warriors. I was researching things to do in Beijing and the classic ideas came up, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Great Wall. Do I really want to go to The Palace Museum? No. Do I want to take a bus filled with tourists to wait in line to get a glimpse of the Great Wall? I do not. Am I ok with dying and not seeing these famous landmarks?  Surely. I feel like people more than ever are going places, doing things and eating food they deep down don’t want to do but want to be able to say, “I went there,” or “I did that.” Cool story bro. Tell it again.

Instead of going to places you are lukewarm about, I suggest you implement my new travel hack. Pick a place you are semi-interested in but don’t want to spend the time, money and energy in visiting. Got it? I’ll play along and say Great Wall. Now that we both have our spot in mind, type into your browser the word 'YouTube'. Now this may come as a surprise to you, but thousands upon thousands of other people have been to your destination. Let’s capitalize on this fact and watch some artistic drone shots, maybe some historical facts added into the narration and imagine ourselves there. I found this video hit the spot and freed up my Saturday in Beijing next weekend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EotbKqZmBuY

Wow! So cool! It does seem nice and I’m sure it is a real treat to see in real life (honest it does) but the rigmarole of going there, dealing with crowds on a short weekend trip doesn’t appeal to me. If I had more time, people who wanted to hike and camp on the wall, I would be more down but this helpful video will have to do. Since there wasn’t too much info in that video and with the wonders of the internet, in less than an hour, I can be fully caught up if I watched these two (I won’t)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23oHqNEqRyo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjlydnRqcmw

Am I joking about all this? No. Do I think you should try it? Do whatever you please but I’m just trying to help. Nobody is going to see everything. It’s impossible.

“You can do anything, but not everything.” David Allen

Pick your spots, go all in on the things that get you jacked up about being alive, and for all the other so-so things, leave that to Ms. Youtube. I wish you a secure and fast internet connection.

“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

(Especially if you never even have to leave your room eh?! Am I right? 

What a great post. Nice work Bert.)