Essay Example on Exploring Australia: My Adventures with Barramundi, Oysters & Prawns

We travel to build our social capital (to meet our friends and relatives leaving abroad), to acquire practical education that neither television nor novels can provide, and to experience new history, languages, geography, and family values. Likewise, travelling traveling provides the perfect opportunities to discover fresh foods, like the authentic and exciting barramundi, Sydney rock oyster, or Australian prawns (Thomas, 2020). This paper extensively describe my own diverse experiences with regards to a simple prompt: "why we travel." In connection with my story in Australia, the discussions herein revolve around the different social, economic political and ecological instances surrounding the reasons for travel.

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The guide underlies a brief story of my spring break travel to Australia to see friends and relatives who are now working in Sydney. Coincidentally, the outbreak of COVID-19 has laid a threat on travel into and out of the country because of the lockdown decree. Various airlines have canceled their flights out of the country until a later date. Now I have to endure the real hardships of being stuck in Sydney, a place where I did not plan on being stuck in. There are no direct flights out of Australia to other countries like the U.S. and Korea. Meaning I cannot travel back home to my parents in Korea, or travel to the states to get my belongings like clothes. I do not have enough clothes, and the weather is getting cold here in Australia day by day. I cannot carry on with activities like indulging in the streets of Sydney to shop, explore and have a taste of its diverse culture and landscape because of the lockdown. We can only order for food basic services online, and this has really become very difficult for me.

With that brief anecdote outlining my story, it is apparent that traveling can prove to be an essential aspect of our lives. Looking at this scenario from the philosophical point of travel, I have to acknowledge that "why travel phenomena" have racked the brains of philosophers since time immemorial. Various fundamental diverging thoughts and concerns have sprouted from the matter. Several philosophers and theorists have praised the benefits of travels, while others have not seen the very reasons for traveling.

In the eyes of those extolling the benefits of travel, it is seen as a way of widening horizons, learning, and building intelligence. Traveling is simply a part of our progressive life. For example, George Santayana remarked that human life is just but a form of motion and a continuous journey through a foreign country (Lee, 2017). So, in this perspective, travel can be more important than even the destination. Travel offers a means of self- exploration, which forms the basis for memories and experience. As one of the renowned philosophers of travel Montaigne argued that: travel through the world is bound to offer a marvelous clarity in the judgment of men and women alike (Mitsi, 2017). For him, the world is just but a reflection of ourselves, and we must see ourselves through it. Travelling is where social capital resides. Several philosophers, especially the ones that ever lived in the Age of Enlightenment, observed and experienced the benefits of travel as a source of strength to human society through the practice of interaction and commerce.

But even so, the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson haven't seen or instead experienced the very point of traveling. Their criticisms suggest that travel does not offer whatever it promises. Waldo, for instance, believed it was better to remain at home, and that traveling was not appropriate for self-development. In his masterpiece Self-Reliance, Waldo described that "traveling is a fool's paradise (Emerson, 2019)." He also held that our first travels unleash for us the differentials of places. Travel can also bring forth vexation and unhappiness. For instance, Ghandi complained fiercely against the damaging impacts of modern travel. Remarking that, is the world any better with the inventions of quick machines of locomotion. In what ways do such locomotives and automobiles add unto the spiritual nourishments of man? Do they not, ultimately, lead us to destruction, ruin our civilization our environments? He, in fact, predicted chaos as the result of travel throughout the world. Also, to the critics, travel always necessitates a period to recover (Csikszentmihalyi & Coffey, 2016). Contemporary, I always get fatigued by the crossing of time zones and jet lag, the carriages on miles in bumpy roads also saps energies of travelers. That is why Paul Theroux implied that travel is only glamorous in retrospect.

However, in my case, the satisfaction I derived from traveling to Australia was simply the pleasure of leaving behind my stressful moments from school to see my friends and relatives and enjoy my spring-break in Sydney. Concerning that, even a barramundi or Sydney's rock oyster in some fancy restaurant in the city was going to be novelty and revelation. Like Pico Iyer in his iconic essay "Why We Travel" suggests several reasons why he chose to travel, it appears to me that my sovereign freedom of traveling to Sydney came from the fact that it whirled me around and turned me upside down (Iyer, 2000). As a traveler, it was inevitable that I would encounter diverse customs, values, geography, and other demographics, some consistent with my home country's values and some inconsistent.

Therefore, I traveled in part to shake up my delight with regards to seeing all the ethical and political urgencies, the life-and -death situations, that sometimes one must face. Also, my travel would someday fill up the gap left by tomorrow's headlines. When I surf the internet to place some online orders in the middle of this crisis; for example, I interact with the images of the deserted and snowing streets of Sydney, all pavements bare, shops closed and not even a mirage of a person appears, and my notion of the world and life situations grow usefully revised. Travel to me is the best tool of rescuing the trapped humanity in dire need like me, even in threatening cases like this one of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.

Even more importantly, in this situation, I carry values and beliefs and news to every place I might travel. For instance, in American and also elsewhere in the world today, I would become a walking video screen, and living newspaper and headlines with regards to the situation in Sydney because of the lockdown, I would be regarded as the right channel that can inform people beyond the dictates and limits of their homelands (Csikszentmihalyi & Coffey, 2016). This is metaphorically implied to mean that travels enable explorations and discoveries of life situations that can make the news and headlines and unearth some of the unknown experiences about people or nature.

Further, taking this traveling debate into the social, political, and social realm, the current situation of COVID-19 in my experience has triggered a substantial paradigm shift in socio-political and economic situations. It is true that capitalism develops where people travel. The discoveries of new markets around the world have inspired travel and exploration for centuries. The mutual and reciprocal benefits of market liberalization and free-market principles of supply and demands define not only the economic situations in countries but also the socio-political facets of the states. For example, the theoretical frames by Adam Smith, are today defining the pillars of growth and developments in various parts of the world (Scapp & Seitz, 2018). Unlike the communists' states where there is economic self-sufficiency because of the restrictions on travels, most of the global economies have increased with an increase in long-distance transport that service it. This has inspired massive growth in the shipping and aviation freight industries.

Travel economist like Daniel McFadden, have started to consider behavioral factors into forecasting. For instance, the current situation in various parts of the world, including Australia, has witnessed substantial economic changes. These transformations are accelerated by the travel ban issued by the governments leading to cancellation of most directs flights, both offering commercial and passenger services. Industrialization in countries like Australia, which have always spurred massive internal growths, have stalled because the production processes and the movement of people en masse to work in the production sectors have stopped suddenly (Csikszentmihalyi & Coffey, 2016). Labor as a factor of production does not attract much utility to the countries, and most of the segments of economies are facing huge losses with diversions of capital to others areas of critical concerns.

Additionally, I presume that my travel decision also is relatively concurring with my social status. As the research suggests when people plan their travel, some traveling choices and styles ranging from habitual to rational have to be considered. In this case, my habit of traveling to see my friends and relatives abroad during the spring break of mid-march can certainly explain the urge of my travel to Australia amidst a great crisis (Csikszentmihalyi & Coffey, 2016). This decision could be subject to a social class of affluent individuals where informed decisions are systematically made for the best options and deals. However, as these decisions become more dynamic and complex as they are currently, it is undoubtedly predictable that more impoverished people or the low-class individuals will be left out on travel opportunities, and as a result, they might even pay more pro-rata.

Also, understanding this aspect from a political perspective, the issues surrounding fair transport policies and ethical considerations of travel would be the prerequisite towards the development and achievement of behavioral transformations among travelers today and towards more sustainable travel post COVID-19. Generally, my suggestion is that restriction of movement or travel ban for people and goods during crisis is not valid entirely, because more resources could be diverted from other interventions. Further, restricting travel during this time interrupts the flow of the required aid in areas badly hit by the virus. Why travel to Italy; for example, in the current situation (Csikszentmihalyi & Coffey, 2016). The reasons are; the necessary technical support like doctors and nurses and other experts must travel no matter what, to help salvage situations and rescue in such areas. Also, humanitarian aid programs and other critical businesses must be undertaken in such countries to eliminate the threats of complete social and economic shutdown.

Conclusion

However, in some circumstances and with this outbreak, various ethical and restrictive measures of travel for the general population might be justified as temporarily practical and useful. Also, from an ecological perspective, travel and other forms of transport are sources of enrichment of our experiences of environments and diversity. For example, travel can facilitate the importation of potato from South America, which in turn can lead to the survival of the peasants in the remote regions of Australia (Csikszentmihalyi & Coffey, 2016). Concerning conservation, travel companies like Qantas airlines have taken pride in conservation activities. For example, they have developed the local conservation programs and some voluntary ecological levies on air tickets. Even though travel by air can sometimes lead to climate change and natural disasters like the recent Boeing 747 aircraft crush, exploitation, and unwanted effects like the spread of diseases, it is the fastest means of travel. It is a boost and a growth aspect for various economies both socially, politically,...