Linda Rose

Home: Eugene, Oregon

Expat home: Various Pacific Islands

Age: 59

Job: Retired teacher. Now doing a variety of jobs --ranging from environmental education to grant writing.

Longest trip: 6 months

Places visited: Europe, Mexico, Canada, U.S., SE Asia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Costa Rica

Favorite countries and/or places to visit: "The Pacific Islands (for their slow tropical warmth and unhurried pace), Mexico (for its color and warmth), Nepal (for its color, intensity, and the overpowering Himalayas), Bali (for its music, dance and lightness)."

Inspiration to to travel: "Got interested in travel at my father's knee. He was a sailor for 30 years and his ordinarily serious face always lit up when he described the opium dens of Vladivostok or the sunsets at sea as he sailed out of Yokohama. Travel and the sea were his life's passions. From him I inherited this intense curiosity to explore the world."

Memorable adventure: "Living in a thatched bungalow on a pristine beach on the end of the island in Yap for 3 months (experienced everthing from geckoes, poisonous centipedes, and mosquitoes sharing our home with us to storms tearing the thatch off our roof; but mostly I remember the joy of coming home each night to swim and canoe in our lagoon, watching the sunset, collecting shells on our beach each day, and sitting among the mangrove roots, watching birds and being very, very quiet.)"

Biggest challenge: "Not giving in to discomfort. While trekking in Nepal, I sometimes got tired and cranky and didn't like sleeping in a dirt room adjoining the stable with cattle banging against the wall all night. When living in a thatched bungalow, I occasionally longed for air-conditioned comfort. I didn't like being pawed by vendors in northern Vietnam; my legs hurt as I crouched for two days on the ancient wooden boat sweeping down the Mekong River in Laos. I keep reminding myself of why I'm doing what I'm doing — my goal is to experience another culture as it is, and not look for the easy way out, not try to sanitize the experience. Overall, the discomforts are few and are far outweighed by the joy of discovery."

Biggest sacrifice: "One's home roots are interrupted. In my case, I have to give up seeing my children and grandchildren for a few months. That is not an easy sacrifice. But in the larger scheme of things, I feel it's worth it (to them and to me). I hope I'm teaching them that the world is a very large, fascinating place, worthy of deep exploration. I write them often, sometimes create children's stories for them based on the children I observe in the Pacific Islands. I try hard to stay connected."

Biggest reward: "I get to see what's on the other side of the mountain, get to test my limits, learn who I am in a different world."

Travel advice: "(1) You can drown in your own bathtub, get hit crossing the street to to get the mail, catch on fire in your kitchen. Do you want to be ruled by your fears or your dreams? (2) The whole point of traveling is to experience a DIFFERENT culture (food, customs, geography). If you want everything to stay the same, why bother leaving home? (3) For better or worse, it's hard to get very far away from English, western medicine and food. You'll be just fine. (4) Pack half of what you think you must take. Carry it all on your back. (5) Bring a couple good paperbacks and trade them along the way for different ones. (6) Look for the "road less traveled" and leave the Hiltons and McDonalds back home. (7) Keep an open mind. (8) Expect to be respected and safe but keep your money belt safely tucked inside your clothes. (9) Most importantly, be open to and respectful of the different cultures you enter. Speak quietly and listen carefully; you are a guest in a world you will never fully understand. (10) For you older travelers out there: the rest of the world is generally much kinder and more respectful of us Elders than our own western culture. Enjoy!"