We've chatted about this before, and here I am bringing it up again. There's no removing the flight unless you, you know, remove the flight and plan the lion's share of your travel close to home. We need to fly less. No one likes this but until the flight no longer tips the scales, that bike rental isn't going to do it. We can kick the can back to aviation all day long but we're still buying carbon rich flights and lots of them, even though we know they're bad, and then we're like "But I spent an afternoon helping a local farmer wash salad greens!"
Also, slow is great! I applaud slow, cultural deep dives, local interactions, etc. etc. amen. But the notion that it's not also luxury is, I think, false. It means you have time or flexibility, something not available to your average working stiff. Luxury isn't always about how fat your wallet is, it's also about what your life can accommodate. Time is available only to a subset of workers -- Euros with loads of vacation time and online slobs like me -- and is, I think the ultimate luxury.
Funny thing to be notified of this article today as I was sitting on a red plastic stool in District 4 digging into some bánh xèo & bánh khọt on day 7 of VN travel. I’m here 4 weeks and only have two destinations on my itinerary, here and Đà Nẵng. Thanks again for quality, thought provoking writing.
Hey Stuart - thanks for this. As I mention to DD below, we'll soon be in Saigon ourselves. November 1, to be exact. I love this piece, not just for the timeliness for our trip but because I love the concept of slow travel, which is what we have tried to do over the years. Cheers!
We've chatted about this before, and here I am bringing it up again. There's no removing the flight unless you, you know, remove the flight and plan the lion's share of your travel close to home. We need to fly less. No one likes this but until the flight no longer tips the scales, that bike rental isn't going to do it. We can kick the can back to aviation all day long but we're still buying carbon rich flights and lots of them, even though we know they're bad, and then we're like "But I spent an afternoon helping a local farmer wash salad greens!"
Also, slow is great! I applaud slow, cultural deep dives, local interactions, etc. etc. amen. But the notion that it's not also luxury is, I think, false. It means you have time or flexibility, something not available to your average working stiff. Luxury isn't always about how fat your wallet is, it's also about what your life can accommodate. Time is available only to a subset of workers -- Euros with loads of vacation time and online slobs like me -- and is, I think the ultimate luxury.
Funny thing to be notified of this article today as I was sitting on a red plastic stool in District 4 digging into some bánh xèo & bánh khọt on day 7 of VN travel. I’m here 4 weeks and only have two destinations on my itinerary, here and Đà Nẵng. Thanks again for quality, thought provoking writing.
Nice article.
Hey Stuart - thanks for this. As I mention to DD below, we'll soon be in Saigon ourselves. November 1, to be exact. I love this piece, not just for the timeliness for our trip but because I love the concept of slow travel, which is what we have tried to do over the years. Cheers!