Some of these stories are reflective, but many were written in the moment as “travel update” emails to friends, or as a series of web pages recounting the latest events. (In fact, we were blogging about our travels before it was called “blogging.”)

You could call this a “travelogue,” but we’re not comfortable with the term because we like to think this is something more, just as travel itself is much more than destinations and “sights”… it’s unexpected encounters and new things we learn along the way.

We do not completely know our own world until we see it from the outside looking in. By traveling, we leave our comfort zone. It stirs the imagination and inspires thought to experience new landscapes, cultures, time zones, food, furniture, and ways of getting around. Doing Something Different brings new insight into day-to-day life. We discover new things about ourselves, and we gain a clearer view of the options before us.

We may describe landmarks and other high points, but we’ll also discuss how we felt and what we thought along the way. It’s important to acknowledge that travel is not all beauty and spectacle… there is also ugliness and exploitation. It’s dishonest to talk about the tranquility of the Grand Canyon without talking about the constant drone of helicopters, or to talk about the dolphin in Dingle Bay without talking about the mountains of trash washed up on shore.

This is more than a story about dolphins and rocks – it’s about reality. It’s about life in different parts of the world at a particular moment in history, as seen through the eyes of two particular people navigating their way through traffic, trains, and life.