Travelogue: The Far East

Keenan Hall grew up in Yorkton. Having graduated high school in the city Hall has recently embarked on a journey of discovery. In the coming weeks as he travels Hall will be using the ability to connect with the world via the Internet to share his experiences with people back home through the pages of Yorkton This Week. This is the first of his travel logs. More of his stories will follow as Internet connections and time allow him.



I've lived in Yorkton my entire life. I've grown up knowing everyone at my school and being able to recognize nearly all the people I see when I walk down the street. I've become fairly comfortable in the small Saskatchewan town, but I've found myself trapped in a similar cycle - work all week, hang out with friends, and go out and party on the weekends.

But - what about the rest of the world? What about the other six billion people living on our planet? How do they live? What do they do? Who are they? There are so many different cultures that span the globe; each with their own distinct tastes, beliefs, superstitions, and customs. I figured it was time for me to go out and experience something other than the perogies, snowstorms, and wheat fields I've come to love over the last twenty years.

So, on November 8, I embarked on a journey to learn more about the people that we share this planet with, and hopefully a little about myself, too.

The day of my departure, I awoke to the first snowfall of the year. It was like Saskatchewan's way of saying goodbye and a reminder of the frigid Parkland winter I'd be missing. I drove to Regina with my parents and was soon waving goodbye to a teary-eyed Mom and Dad as I walked through the security gate ready to start my adventure.

On the plane to Seoul, Korea, I couldn't help but wonder how an inexperienced traveller like me was going to manage without being constantly ripped off, scammed and harassed. For all kinds of places I was going, I'd heard horror stories of gullible tourists being taken advantage of by scheming locals, ready to take whatever money they could. I've only started to grasp this question in my first month, but there are some important realizations I've come to, too.

First, the amount of good, kind people will always outweigh the number of bad you meet. No matter where I am there is always someone willing to do their best to help me find a bus stop, point me in the right direction to a hostel, or show me where I am on a map. Only rarely will you meet someone who will try to scam you out of your money, and honestly, sometimes I have a hard time blaming them.

I try to think of how I would feel if children from another part of the world came to my home, spending more money than my family makes in a year on alcohol, clothes, and all sorts of useless souveniers to bring back to their friends. I've felt a kind of guilt coming to poorer countries and seeing grown men and women working harder than I ever have for a fraction of what I made back home.

How is that fair? Does the value of a person's labour really change that much once you cross a border? It's hard for me to understand how an imaginary line dividing land can make such a huge difference in the quality of human life.

I've heard travellers moan about locals raising prices for foreigners, but in all reality, do we have any right to complain about having to cut our vacation shorter because we don't want pay a few extra dollars to the people making that very vacation possible? If anything, so far my trip has opened my eyes to the inequality that remains prevalent just outside of our comfortable bubbles back at home.

But the overwhelming positivity and hopefulness of these same people gives me confidence that with time, they will overcome the obstacles holding them back. I've met some of the most kind, patient, and friendly people of my life working shops on the street, or cooking in the back of small family-owned restaurants. I've also seen some things I'd never thought possible during my life. The floating markets of Thailand, Buddhist monks meditating at the foot of Bodhi Trees, waterfalls in the middle of lush Thai jungles! Travel truly makes you feel alive, and the best part is - I've only just started!