Daring to travel outside the box - great or scary?

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You cannot travel everywhere in the world. In some places, unfortunately, there is war or other unrest. But at the same time, we wonder if many of us do "box" a bit unnecessarily small sometimes. The world is a big place and most people are incredibly nice - even those who live in places we don't often hear about.

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Great experiences in Uzbekistan

We have just been to Uzbekistan, on a press trip with nine other travel writers. What should you expect from such a trip and destination? Everyone in the group travelled with curiosity and an open mind. Yet, time and again, we had to challenge our underlying prejudices. Like we almost became a little surprised when it just always felt safe, secure and harmless ...

The question is perhaps really, why would it not be safe, secure and harmless? The whole group was made up of experienced travel writers, and we had all done our homework. We were knew that Uzbekistan is not a dangerous destination. Nevertheless, we felt that we were always a little surprised by the atmosphere being so wonderfully relaxed and people so casually shopping or eating ice cream in the sun.

News reporting does not always give the full picture

In 2015 we travelled Around Europe in our motorhome. Our visit to North Macedonia coincided with news reports of a refugee influx that pressed to the borders. According to reports, the refugees were everywhere at the borders of North Macedonia and concerned readers wrote to ask if we had double-checked that the refugees had not entered our motorhome garage (tailgate) or were hanging under the motorhome.

We have no doubt that the news reports were true. The influx of refugees was certainly there and the problems were undoubtedly both large and challenging. But no, the refugees were not crowding into our garage, nor were they hanging out under our motorhome. In fact, we didn't even see them.

Presumably, the scenes took place only at some of the borders, and not precisely at the borders we crossed. In other words. The news reports are certainly mostly true (and important!). But it tells us about the problems, for good reason. It does not tell us about the non-problems. That's why it's sometimes easy to believe that a problem is more widespread than it is and that large parts of the world are suddenly dangerous.

We need to be able to travel outside the box, right?

Travelling is about seeing new places, meeting new people and challenging our habits, at least for those of us who want to experience a little more than a hotel pool and an umbrella drink. Right now we want to shout, with a megaphone, "Go to Uzbekistan!". Because yes, it was amazing! Colourful, emotional, dramatically beautiful and downright surprisingly lovely.

We will continue to hold that megaphone for a while (there will be reports of course!) while thinking that Uzbekistan is probably not alone. There are certainly many more destinations that are a little "outside the box", that is, outside the places we Swedes, our neighbours and our colleagues usually go to. But why not change course and dare to ... travel?

Travelling outside the box - great or scary?

Travelling outside the box, is it great or scary? What do you think? Does it entice you to go to places where not many others have gone? What makes you take the plunge, or hesitate?

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