This week I was going to write about where we might be one year from now. Like I said here, one of the ways we stay motivated is to imagine where we’ll be this time next year. However, one year from now we will be in India and not long after that we’ll be in Thailand. Given the serious situations in both those countries these past weeks it’s hard to think about how much fun we’ll be having when we’re thinking about how we might handle such situations while we’re on the road.

It’s important to maintain perspective with respect to both these situations.

Thailand’s issues are political and are, so far, centered at the airport.  Nomadic Matt reports that daily life in Thailand, and in Bangkok in particular, has been unaffected by the protests. Although traffic is not moving through the airports, there are alternate ways to enter and leave the country. He is not feeling threatened and, so far, plans to stay. Situations like these can be avoided by the traveler as they arise slowly and can be avoided. If we feel discomfort we can move to leave the country by other means.

India’s terrorist attack is more troubling as it was sudden, and targeted foreigners. This situation is more difficult to manage as it’s impossible to know when, or where, an attack like this might occur. I think that this is best reduced to statistics – attacks like this have happened all over the world at various times and the chances of being caught up in it are low. You can be assured that we won’t be travelling to any areas with known conflicts and will leave any area immediately should any issues arise.

I’m not sure this post will alleviate any worries our family and friends may have, but we can’t be paralyzed by worrying about what might happen during our time away. Life is risky, we can mitigate it but we can’t eliminate it – we will be careful and cautious, but it’s important that we still go.