A brief note on a thought bouncing around my head. I just finished helping two people with ideas for how to travel in Sumatra and where they might want to visit. Angelica form Germany has back trouble so won’t be interested in long bus trips. Dan is from Switzerland and considering going as well.
I got on a boat leaving Lake Toba and met Maria from South Africa. We talked about some peaceful places to visit when I mentioned the Gili Islands off the coast of Lombok. She emotionally exploded telling me how terrible they were, “don’t ever go there, it’s just like Kuta Beach! It’s a horrible place, a waste of time even going there”! I was shocked because I’ve met so many people who loved the Gili Islands. Wendy glows when she talks about here experience relaxing on one of the smaller islands. Yes, there are three islands all with their own atmosphere and culture and reputation. All, exactly what a person makes of them!
My two friends from Czechoslovakia waited there for 10 days trying to get their visa paperwork complete, friends from France and Germany have touted the pleasures of the small islands, Gili Meno and Gili Air. So I probed a little to find out just what made them so horrible.
“What was your experience there that made it so terrible?” “Oh, I haven’t been there, my friend told me about it!” WARNING….WARNING….WARNING….caution about what your hear and what you do with it!!!
I was so surprised before realizing it’s probably not that unusual for people to form opinions about experiences they haven’t had but only heard about second hand. Amazing really!
I’m sure I have written this before as one of my travel tips: “ignore much of the advice you get”! I have a policy of asking three different people and averaging answers. I also have a policy of listening to my own intuition. “Don’t go to Lake Toba, it rains every day and is very depressing!” Considering it is rainy season here, rain isn’t surprising. Every day, that would be surprising. I walked every day, never got rained on except for a late evening shower my first night and had a wonderful time.
My first trip in 1988 to Mexico, my friend Debra’s grandmother expressed shock when I told her I was going to Mexico. My first encounter with the non-experienced expert was that moment when she said, “You can’t go to Mexico! They eat babies in Mexico!” Suppressing a laugh, I wondered whether that was a National Enquirer report being repeated or what actual source, if any, it might originate from.
Tonight, I helped my new friends with suggestions, names, addresses, trekking possibilities, transport suggestions from the airport and reserved as much judgment as I could. Any opinion would only be about my own experience and quite likely would have little or nothing to do with them!
Be careful what you do with “advice” you receive and even more aware of what you are sending when giving advice to others! Experience is meant to be had, not discouraged.