Rules of the Road

In my travels both near and far, I've discovered something that is common everywhere - road craziness. There is always the person who doesn't signal, speeds etc etc.but it's the different traffic rules that can truly broadside you.  Here's a sampling of what I've experienced in my travels.

Cambodia

·  Don't assume that the cab driver with perfect English that you hired to pick you up the next day, is the cab driver you're going to get to take you cross country. 

·  Speed and the ability to understand English sometimes has an inverse reaction. The more you tell the driver to slow down, the faster he may drive.

·  Your driver's continual horn honking does not actually ensure your safety nor get other vehicles out of your way.

Canada

·  The cab driver you hire is the one you'll get.

·  Radar is common and painfully slow drivers plentiful - a rather inverse correlation.

·  Horn honking is rare but glaring and speeding up to cut you off when you signal to change lanes - common

Malaysia

"The left hand side of the road - the left, the left..." 

This from the passenger - coming from a place where cars stick to the right except to pass.

Safe Adventures

Ryshia

The Adventure Begins Today!

In the heart of the Canadian Prairies, is a road that runs straight and unpaved for miles. There are no sign posts to indicate where it leads. There’s only an abandoned stone schoolhouse, the only beacon that can be seen along a road that points straight into the horizon. I imagine that if there were time, it would be an adventure to drive this road to the end. 

And that’s exactly like the beginning of each of my stories – it’s an adventure that I drive to the end. That opening sentence, like this road, runs straight into the unknown. While I know the characters and where I want to take them, there are twists as sometimes the characters and even the villain(s) decides to lead the way. They drop what I consider surprise bombs that are encouraged by me saying “what if” over a coffee break. Those two words can change a lot. 

What is an adventure really? Not too many of us are going to climb a mountain, jump from a plane or, hopefully, run for our lives. But we can shake up our day to day lives, change up our schedule, sign up for a new sport or club or go on the occasional trip – even a local trip. We can also dive into fictional adventure. Books have been my escape since I was a kid back in the day when I road my bike to the library. Of course, that doesn't mean I haven't had my share of travel adventures with hopefully, more to come. But in the gaps in between...

If you’re looking for an adventure and you’ve no plane ticket in hand - check out a book. I'll try not to suggest which one.

Safe Adventures!

Ryshia

"The border means more than a customs house, a passport officer, a man with a gun. Over there everything is going to be different; life is never going to be quite the same again after your passport has been stamped."- Graham Greene