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Our Favorite Travels So Far
22 Plays5 months ago
Have you ever wondered what our favorite travels have been so far? In this episode we each go through our top 2 favorite travels! From the villas to mountains to jungles, our favorite travels may surprise you!
You can let us know what you thought by visiting our instagram @artofintentionpodcast, or by emailing us at [email protected]!
If you liked this episode and want to hear more, be sure to subscribe on your listening platform!
Sincerely, your hosts:
Beth and Ayla
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Okay, so a few months ago, Ayla and I did a couple travel related episodes and you guys seem to love those. So we're back with another one today. We're going to share all about our favorite places we've traveled to. Welcome to the Art of Intention podcast with Beth and Ayla. Two best friends turn creative entrepreneurs. This is a place for us to discuss everything, business, friendships, and faith, and occasionally more. We're so excited for today's episode. We think you're going to love it. Stay tuned.
Choosing Favorite Travel Destinations
00:00:34
Speaker
Yeah, we're just going to jump right into this. Both Beth and I have been to all kinds of places around the world. It would take forever to talk about every single one. But a few places really do stand out to us as our favorite locations, favorite travel experiences, culture, whatever. um So reach we we had to narrow it down. So we're each going to share our top two favorite travel places. So yeah, we're just going to hang out and talk about places we've been. Beth, why don't you kick us off?
Beth's Travel Experiences in Puerto Rico
00:01:03
Speaker
All right, here we go. And I will say, yeah, this was, like Alyssa said, this was hard to narrow it down. And it's kind of funny because I was like, dang, maybe we should have waited to do this a little bit. Cause I have more places I'm traveling to this year that I think might end up becoming my top favorites. I know, but it's okay. And maybe we'll do another episode in the future. We'll do a recap, like we'll do a years recap and we can talk about it. Yeah.
00:01:23
Speaker
Amazing stay tuned okay um eight months from now for that one No for real. Oh, that's funny. Okay, so um We're gonna start with my top ones Like I said hard to choose there's some ties, but I'm gonna say Puerto Rico so I know maybe it's not very glamorous and might surprise some people because I've been to like um Like Ireland and Germany and Canada and all these cool places But for this one, honestly, like there's a few specific reasons that made my top list. So um number one was i really liked the that the culture was actually still kind of like alive there um because it's a u.s territory i was kind of like not sure what to expect i did go there for a wedding um so i was hired for a wedding there and i'll talk about that in a second um but well you know immediately upon arriving it was nice to see that it felt very different you know it looked different the people
00:02:12
Speaker
um were kind and exciting. And it was just like, it felt like I was actually traveling somewhere new. It wasn't just like another part of the United States, which is always nice to see, especially when something becomes like a US territory, you never know. Like, okay, is it gonna lose all of its ah culture? Um, exactly. So, um, okay. So I went for a beautiful wedding and honestly, whenever travel like melds with work for me, that's actually my favorite. Like I like traveling for fun, but there's something about traveling for work and then even getting to add a couple of days to it for fun too. But traveling for work is so awesome because I'm meeting up with people that I've been so excited to meet and I'm doing a purpose while I'm there, you know, I'm documenting a wedding. And I just feel like there's so much more to it. And I'm not just going and doing something touristy. So anyways, this was a wonderful couple. The venue was so beautiful. It was actually, oh, you know what? Oh, I don't know if I can pull up and say the name. I don't know if I should say the name of it or not. Maybe I will in a little bit. But the wedding venue was also a villa where we stayed one of the nights. And it was the same place. I think, I don't know if I've shared this before, but it's where Sandra Bullock goes whenever she visits Puerto Rico.
00:03:20
Speaker
And she like, I know that. Dude, it is like so cool. So this venue is so cool. it's Like I said, it's a villa. And so also you'll see it in the background of like some movies and stuff. And I was just watching a TV show. I can't remember which one it was. I think it was like Chuck or something. I was rewatching it um a couple of weeks ago and I saw they filmed there. And I was like, wait, Chad, come look at this. Is this the villa? And so like, it's very famous, but like not super famous. Like everyone knows about it famous. It's like, used a lot by like famous people. So anyway, so it was very beautiful. I felt like I was just surprised at every turn by like something beautiful or something culturally different or like a surprise bit of like, you know, trivia about where I was. And yeah, so the wedding went really well and it was just so fun. And there was like, yeah, so that was awesome. And Chad also came with me. One of the reasons it was just so fun too is because Chad came with me.
00:04:10
Speaker
and Chad doesn't get to come with me very often when I travel much less going for like a wedding or something so we got to work together and he got to like just experience all this with me and the first place we stayed before the villa was a tiny little Airbnb in a different part of Puerto Rico and it was very local and like everyone was speaking Spanish so it was kind of fun getting to walk down the street and then go to the little market and just practice our so our Spanish that we're pretty rusty on So that was fun. So it was just a very like nothing too crazy. Um, but it just has a very special place in my heart and it felt very rewarding and just was a really good example of why I love mixing my travel with work and it just, you know, feels very good. So that's, that's just that one. Just sort short and sweet. Amazing.
Ayla's Adventures in New Zealand
00:04:53
Speaker
I love that. I haven't been.
00:04:56
Speaker
I don't know why I had to think about that, but a lot of people around me have, and I always hear like such pretty like beautiful things about it. yeah Yeah, that's so cool. Okay, for mine, ah the way I kind of broke up my locations overall was um like I've traveled both for fun and for missions, so usually when I pick my favorite places, I pick my favorite for fun. my favorite. yeah fashion So this is my favorite for fun place that I've visited, but it was New Zealand, hands down. I never even have to think about this. Like it was, I just love it there so much. I will go on my soapbox. I loved everything about that place. I was in Queenstown on the South Island. I lived there lived. That's no, um I take that back. I did not live there. I was there for two and a half months. I don't like saying I lived there because you know, whatever. Anyway, I was there for a couple months.
00:05:45
Speaker
I was in Queenstown on the South Island. It's a pretty popular travel and adventure destination. um It's kind of a big party city, but not in the way you'd think about when you hear like party city for the States, completely different like nightlife and culture over there. And I really loved the layout of Queenstown specifically. It's like hard to describe, but um the shopping was super cool which actually I did this the least so it doesn't even matter that much but just like the shopping school like it's a very walkable city like cobblestone streets and it's kind of like you know how there's downtown strips with like two rows of shops there's like a bunch of those next to each other so you can kind of just like leave in between all these buildings and and go around a shop it's a very safe city um it's very it's actually like very hitchhiking friendly and very safe like the organization I was with encouraged you to
00:06:35
Speaker
try out hitchhiking and just give it a try because it's probably the safest place in the world you can do it. So we did. And yeah, it was just cool. It's super adventurous. The people who go there's people from all over the world there, because everyone's going there's huge destinations there and stuff. So ah It is the one place, in my opinion, that is a popular destination that truly lived up to the hype, in my opinion. like Lots of people mentioned seeing their bucket list destinations, like Paris or or Jamaica or or London, and they're disappointed. It's not really what they thought it was going to be.
00:07:08
Speaker
But not New Zealand. It lived up in every single way. It was a bucket list place of mine before I went there and I would happily return there. um I've never gotten to see the North Island of New Zealand. So I would like my other goal is to return there and check that out um because New Zealand is two islands, the South Island and the North. And I've seen up and down the South Island, but never. up north so I'd love to see that. That's amazing. Would you say it lived up to its expectation like in just in like everywhere or like what was your like what do you want to go there for? Was it like scenery? Was it activities? Like what about it? You're like oh yeah that lived up to the hype. Right I wanted to go for I think scenery was what I really saw a lot if you look up New Zealand um fun fact little American me did not know where New Zealand was when I first signed up to go there like through the organization I went with through YWAM. I thought
00:07:55
Speaker
I'm just, I don't share this with a lot of people. yeah so Okay. American geography is terrible. We don't learn a thing. We don't learn anything. And I learned all of my geography from travel, like, cause you, you know, anyway. I thought New Zealand was near like Ireland, Scotland. It made sense. Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand. Honestly, I could see that. Green rolling hills and sheep and like old castles. Everyone be quiet. I thought it was similar. So then when I realized it was actually on the Southern Hemisphere right next to Australia, that kind of like
00:08:30
Speaker
um shifted what I was going to expect what it was going to be like. So but I guess scenery was like the main thing that I knew about it and I knew it had like Lord of the Rings locations and like Lord of the Rings was filmed there. It was filmed fully there I learned I thought they moved around but yeah but it was filmed fully. fully in new zealand It was just that, it lived up, like sometimes you go and even see destinations where things were filmed and you're kind of like, oh, okay. But it just, it was just as stunning as I imagined it to be. yeah Like it was just as breathtaking, just as stunning, like so pretty. Like I highly recommend everyone check it out at least once in your life because
00:09:06
Speaker
I mean, if you are disappointed, I'm sorry to hear that, but for me and a lot of other people, they we just weren't. um yeah We actually, we lived right under this mountain range called the Remarkables and we got to ski and snowboard on those mountains. They're very popular ski snowboard destination and they do appear in Lord of the Rings. They're in the background of a couple of scenes, very recognizable mountain range. um And it's just incredible. It was so incredible. It was just like, I was in my early twenties and it feels like that's what I was supposed to be doing was like snowboarding on these Well, I'm a skier sorry, but like on these Lord of the Rings mountains and it was June and July when I was there because
00:09:44
Speaker
the seasons are flipped. So I was like skiing in the middle of July. It was so cool. That's weird. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So super cool. Uh, I did travel alone for that. Like I met up with an organization once I got there, but I flew there alone and I had traveled alone within the States before, but never international or for this long of a journey. So the flight path was about 12 hours to Sydney and then three ish hours to Queenstown. And I just loved that. I don't know if I'm weird, but I love long flights. I don't like little hoppers like two to three hours. I love to settle in for so long. The planes are comfier. It feels like such an adventure. And ah so I actually like loved that.
00:10:26
Speaker
Okay, sorry, I'll speed through this. I have so much more to say. so um This is where I met Chris and fell in love. That's where we met. And ah one of the places that we got to visit was actually also where they filmed the final battle in the Chronicles of Narnia in the line of which the wardrobe, that big final battle, we got to see that place also held up. And I i grew to really love the culture a lot. like Kiwi culture, a lot of people expect it to be a lot like Australia, but it's completely different. Like it's two completely different cultures. Yeah. Like, um, I mean, Kiwis themselves, it's a, it's a pretty quiet and reserved culture, like pretty shy, not super chatty, not super talkative. Uh, but the more I was there, I kind of, I grew to just really like it and like the people I met a lot. And then there's lots of Maori culture there, which is like, you know, indigenous too.
00:11:18
Speaker
New Zealand the Maori people there was one guy who lived in our base who was Maori and it was cool to like just hear a lot from from him and this is a quick story but we got to so he when we first arrived to this school they're teaching us you know about kiwi culture and Maori culture and this guy comes and he performs a haka which is um it started as like a battle chant battle cry now they'll do it in in rugby in sports and he like got to perform on forest which was cool and then we got to do what's called a hongi and if you know you know but it's this it's this like welcoming ceremony thing and it's to show like welcoming um unifying whatever and you actually the people who are greeting you line up and you line up across from them and
00:12:06
Speaker
It's like a little awkward cause we had all known each other for just a couple of days, but it's like, you know, part of their culture. But you grab each other like by the back of the neck and you touch foreheads and you breathe in and out at the same time. And it's kind of a really big breath. You kind of go like, and you're supposed to like be, yeah. And that's how you greet. And it's like a a very intimate, like close thing. So I did that with like 20 strangers. Oh, you did it with each other all. Yeah. yeah That's hilarious. Show you part of the culture. So you've just met these people and you go and you do this like, like face to face, but by the end it was less weird. But I just, know I love that stuff. Like getting so uncomfortable and learning a really quick about a place. So yeah, that's how you like, yeah, that's how you get to know the culture. I love that. That's actually also all big part of Hawaiian culture too. That's a greeting, a typical, that's the traditional Hawaiian greeting as well. The way I touch my breathing in. Yeah. Breathing in your life force and exchanging it. Yeah.
00:12:59
Speaker
Is it called something else or is it? ah um The phrase of the Hawaiian greeting. I think it is a little bit different. What would you call it again? Hongi. I think it's Honi Ihu in Hawaiian. Oh, that's cool. Two words. but Interesting. yeah Anyways, I love that. Sorry, keep going. The last thing I'll say about New Zealand and then Beth, I'll let you talk about your second place was there's amazing hiking. There's some trails that I'm not going to say because they were secret, but there's no natural predators in New Zealand. There's no natural predators. So you can camp, you can hike. You don't have to worry about wolves. You don't have to think about coyotes, mountain lions, bears. Like I tell Chris all the time, I want to go back.
00:13:39
Speaker
just for some camping so bad where you don't have to bring bear bags or bear mace or um protection like I mean like protection against other people but again it's a very safe culture like it's a very trusting culture but yeah you can you can go out into the woods and camp and not worry about anything attacking you or eating it. I know it's insane. I camp every day. Yeah especially with camping in Canada we do have to worry about like grizzly bears so that's like I couldn't imagine just going without that that fear so I think You don't even have to hang your food up or anything. no Like none of that. You could cook right by your tent if you wanted. Yeah. way Oh, I'm so jealous. Now I just want to go there to go camping. Right? Oh my gosh. Let's go. Let's do it on a plane tomorrow. ah That's it. That's it for my first one. That's New Zealand. Oh my gosh, amazing. What? I love it. I love i love ah love of my life that place. I was going to say, and you met the love of your life there. What? That better be your Chris listening being like, you better say this is your top one. oh Every time we talk about a trip, we think of somewhere new week ago. Cause I, my bucket list continues to grow, but it also just go back there. Cause we just, we know we like it. So that's so true. But that's also one of the things you can do in like 30 years when you're just like, you know, after you've done new ones.
00:14:55
Speaker
Or you do whatever you want, you guys. We we were supposed to go live there, but you know oh things happen. That's okay. But life, yeah. We never know what the future holds though. Okay, so let's see. I'll
Beth's Cultural Journey in Germany
00:15:06
Speaker
move on to mine, right? So second second favorite. Again, it's so hard. Just so everybody knows, I literally hate choosing favorites. Not us thinking of an episode where we have to choose favorites, but hi we i We did this to ourselves. I know, I literally did. I exactly did this to myself. um But anybody who knows me knows I really have a hard time with that. so But another favorite I'll share because it has, again, not that it was objectively better than other places I've been, but because there was some like emotional like change and like mindset change during it, and it was really cool too. So that one is Germany, and Ayla was actually with me on this trip. we were quite younger. We were probably like 16 or 17, something like that. Oldie but goodie. So something about this trip that was different than a lot of my other trips was going with friends. So I really discovered how I think group trips are so unmatched. And like I'll see on social media, sometimes someone going in like a friend group going on a trip and I'm like, I got to do that again because that was so fun in a way that I really just like, I love all different kinds of types of travel, but I really am hoping to get like a friend group trip in at some point soon.
00:16:08
Speaker
Um, cause they're just so, they just, they're so different. Okay. Anyways. Um, so much happened while we're there. I won't go through everything we did obviously, but Jen, I'll talk about why there it was my favorite. So obviously like I definitely experienced a new culture. It was my first time going out of the country, I believe. Yeah. it was my first time going out of the country. And so totally got to see a new culture in a lot of different ways, everything from like seeing the city of Berlin to like concentration camps, which were so emotionally jarring to touring little villages to castles, staying in like a beautiful little farm, like helping out with community service.
00:16:43
Speaker
And I feel like we packed so much life into that summer. And it's honestly one of the things that changed how I travel. And that's why it makes this list. So like I learned from those experiences, I think, cause I always knew like that I wanted to travel, but I hadn't done a ton of it. Cause again, we were so young and it's my first time going out of the country, but like that kind of confirmed everything that I thought I knew about myself and what I wanted to travel to be. Like I knew I never wanted to be like a touristy traveler, but like that kind of confirmed what I didn't like and what I did like about travel. Anyways, so I don't travel for tourism. I definitely like to travel for culture and for people and experiences that I feel like I would connect with. I don't know how to explain that because it's different for everybody. I think you and I are the same in that. I agree.
00:17:26
Speaker
For sure, for sure, yeah. um So anyways, I want to just like, like a big part of my motivation to travel is to learn a lot about life and how like other people live life, not just for the sake of how do you live, I'm curious, but more so like what can I learn from you and then even go and apply to my life or spread his wisdom on to other people. Anyways, so that's like a big motivation for like traveling and side note, Between like traveling and all my weddings, I do feel like I'm constantly very, very blessed with like amazing life wisdom from my other people, whether it's like solicited or or not. like Grandmas and grandpas sharing like their marriage advice, their weddings, you know and their life advice, and then also traveling, seeing how other cultures and people live, and kind of adopting some of that into like my own lifestyle.
00:18:10
Speaker
to get to like live more at peace and live even more like efficiently and like to love more than I would be able to if I didn't like go out of my comfort zone and see new things. That's all kind of cheesy. So like I'm just having a hard time explaining, I guess, this mindset shift that I made after traveling to Germany. So all that being said, my mindset and heart around travel was definitely, I think, the most impacted through that trip. And I find myself leaning away from trips that are centered around like you know um like touristy things or resorts or just kind of sitting around because I feel like I have like a limited time not only to travel but also just on earth in general and a touristy activity doesn't give me the same like satisfaction and life experience and purpose as connecting with other people and connecting to nature does when I
00:18:57
Speaker
go like If I'm going to be spending all this time and money going and doing something, I want it to be like really purposeful. Either like there's like three rules for myself. Either I want to really connect with nature, really connect with people, and it can be the people I'm going with, or it can be the people that are there, or people I might meet along the way, or I have to be doing some kind of community service. like I want to be helping people, which we did a lot of in Germany as well. but anyways so ah just like totally hard to choose my top two favorites, but I'll just end it on that one because like my heart just changed so much. And I had a lot of people being like, how do you know you'll like traveling? Like this was again, my first trip and I was a kid and I was going to find, not by myself, cause I was with a group, but you know,
00:19:33
Speaker
none of My family wasn't going. and Yeah, exactly. So I had a lot of people make kind of like subtle digs at me when I would mention I was going and they were like, Oh, how do you even know if you're going to like it? Have you ever been on a plane? What if you get motion sickness? What did it like all these things? And every time I would say something I was excited about or like, Oh, I want to travel the world like this, people would always find a way it would seem like to be like, Oh, but you might not like that. Oh, but how? And you know, some that's such an L take. That's wild to me. Seriously, I literally encounter so many people in my life who do that with all kinds of things. I yeah yeah yeah i know i'm I'm sure everybody does too. But the point is, this was a big turning point for me in so many ways in my life. It'd probably take hours for me to fully explain that. But just to be able to have that shift in my heart. Like I can trust my own judgment and I don't have to experience something first to know whether or not I'll enjoy it. Like I have enough wisdom. I know myself well enough to know whether I'm going to like something or not.
00:20:32
Speaker
And I also just got a little, like I got more excited to travel and really open into experiences, but I also got more strict. Like, you know, if somebody invites me to go on a trip to like, I don't want to be in Paris or something. Well, I don't know, maybe I'd say yes, but I'm not necessarily going to say yes and spend my money on that. If I could spend the same amount of money going and doing something else, if that makes sense. I'm the same way. I don't have a Paris itch. Like I think that was a big thing when we were in high school, like that was the place people wanted to go. And it's like, if I ended up there, i'd be I'd go check stuff out. If it happened, I just got dropped there. Yeah, I would make the most of it. I know. You and I actually had a layover there. If I got to see Europe, I'd pick Ireland, Scotland, whatever. But it's just different per person. But I remember you breaking a lot of that down with me on that trip. like we yeah And it was both it was really important to both of us that we kind of like blended in. like I feel like you and I just had this knack and like not to dig the people we were with. Everyone was really great. We traveled with an amazing group.
00:21:29
Speaker
But you and I just kind of got the idea of observing the people around us and behaving like them. Not like we went and spoke fluent German, german but we just we didn't want to be like Americans being like, oh my gosh, this food's weird. Do you guys speak any English? What are you doing? like We wanted to just observe the people around us and like you respect you like them and be like and try the foods they were trying and and wear what they were wearing. and then we also Sorry, and I'm like stealing this is one of my trips now. But we had a really, really fortunate experience to travel Germany with people who knew the country really well. And so stuff like the concentration camps and the wall and things like that, we just got this incredibly in depth history on from people personally who lived it out. yeah And I remember that awakened a lot. And both of us too, we were like, we're here hearing it from the source. And yeah, like, just enriching travel in that way, it wasn't like, oh, we're just gonna go see the wall to take a picture of it. We got to like hear from people who lived through that.
00:22:20
Speaker
and like experience it that way beyond just a tourist trap, you know? Well, and that, again, that was part of what changed my mindset of touristy things. Cause I'm just not a fan of very touristy things. I think also there's something to be said. This is just me in my own mind of like, when something is overly touristy, I think at that point it just doesn't become, I feel like, okay, I've seen it. Like if this made people gone and they're all taking pictures of the same thing, I've seen it. So for me, yeah one of the motivators to like, okay, I'm going to do even touristy things differently was that we were going to these places like these museums or these camps or these cities. Um, when we did on the, you know, half, about half the time when we did touristy things and we were getting a whole nother layer to it.
00:22:58
Speaker
I wasn't just walking around a museum trying to figure out what this was or not really caring or having some generic tour guide. It was like sharing so much more depth to it and how it affects the current culture. And like, I remember when we were there too, there was a um ah mention made to us when we first landed saying like, you won't see it. Like, you know, in America, if you drive down, especially in the town we were in, lived in at the time, you would see American flags hanging out everywhere. Like it's just a thing. Like in America, every school has a flag, every home has a flag hanging off, it like it's just a thing, everyone has American flags. And they were like, you won't see that here, at least not yet. um You won't see everybody, not every home or every place is gonna have the country's flag hanging everywhere. um And the way it was explained to us, I don't know if this is is true or not, but it was told to us that part of the reason for that is because of the shame of what happened, still kind of carried over and that's why
00:23:47
Speaker
there wasn't this like insane you know Germany pride in that way because there was still some emotional and like societal damage from everything that had happened. So you also walk around with a little more gentleness and respect and you have to kind of search for like the appreciation of that culture and and you kind of learn what's so great about it and you gotta you know, take off your American lens and just go like, okay, what is great about this? Cause they may not come and yell in our face. What's great about them. So I want to find it. And I want to see what's so great about it. So that was a part of what I took away. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I think I remember we were there for the world cup and then they were like, this is the only time you'll see flags, flags. It was, it was sports. Yeah. So there were some up, but yeah they were like, this is like for world cup only. And yeah.
00:24:32
Speaker
Oh man. That is so good. I loved everything you said about that. That like reawakened that whole experience. Okay. I've got one more place. This is my missions pick as interesting bet that you brought up like going places for
Ayla's Mission Trip to Papua New Guinea
00:24:45
Speaker
community service. Cause I will say, and this is a mindset I know I shouldn't have. I will say sometimes I have trouble traveling. If it's not for missions, I feel bad that I'm not spending my time like doing something. And I have a, I have trouble going to places with resorts like Mexico. or Jamaica or something like that when I know you could actually just be there helping. I know that's not good because people completely have the right to travel and experience that, but um I'll actually explain when I get into ah mine. But this was really hard to pick. It's truly a tie between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. ah yeah Those are two places. And I have done, I've done the most missions actually in Mexico and that has a special place in my heart, but like that my favorite place, it was a tie between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. So I'm kind of cheating and giving Indonesia an honorable mention.
00:25:29
Speaker
Loved there, loved my time, would happily go back and do more work there. I got to work with Muslim people, which was new for me. And it just really opened my eyes to them and what their life's like. Loved it. But for the sake of this episode, I'm actually going to talk about Papua New Guinea. Amazing. Hands down the kindest culture I've ever gotten to experience. Oh my gosh. It would blow you away, Beth. Like it would just, They're so nice to a way that's almost painful to like receive from them like we had to like you you just know they have limited amounts of of food and money and stuff and you would go to some new person's house to just an absolute feast and like just a crazy feast and they'd welcome you they give you um
00:26:13
Speaker
not quite lays, but like something similar, you know, like hand made like jewelry and just all these things. They give you lap laps, which is just kind of like a sorry, like a little skirt and stuff. And you just like gifts and food and hospitality is just such a big thing. And it's so weird, especially cold climate cultures, like North America and stuff to accept that. Cause we're very like, no, you shouldn't have. And it's like, you gotta just let them do it. It's a very otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. generosity and kindness is so unmatched. It's a very polite and actually a very shy culture, which might sound funny, but like people aren't rude to you. They don't call out to you rudely. They don't shout at you while you're walking. Like men specifically to women are quite shy. Um, a lot of places I've gone for missions. That's not always the case and not to knock them. It's just, it's part of their culture, but you know, to get called that, to be like, where are you going? Where are you staying? Whatever. And like that won't happen in Papua New Guinea. It feels very safe because of the,
00:27:06
Speaker
the politeness and like a little bit of the shyness. um Generally very safe to walk around. Of course, we were traveling in a very foreign country. We were safe, but ah there wasn't a lot to really, really worry about. Loved the food. I ate so good over there. I loved the food. It was island food. The best fruit in the world. I can barely even eat pineapple over here because it was the best fruit in the world. Beth, you probably get that when you're not in Hawaii. You're like, I'm not even a father. I tried to buy a passion fruit here once, and I was like, I'm not even i not even eating passion fruit again until I'm like in the islands again, because it's not even worth it. ah Lots of like a chicken, lots of fish that's just grilled. like
00:27:49
Speaker
No heads cut off or scales cut off. They just like cook the fish and put it in front of you. Delicious. Um, like, I feel like it was just healing every time I ate there. probably And more about the culture is very like music and dance centered. ah so So like, it's super normal, um, for the churches to have like hymnals and stuff. And like people already know the harmonies and stuff. Like I don't even know if they can necessarily read music. Like the harmonies are just passed down. So like they'll bust out this seven-part harmony between men and women, and it's so you pretty. um We got to learn some traditional dancing, and like we'll try on some traditional outfits that they let us try, and like their worship was so beautiful. It's a Christian nation, so we went to church there quite a bit.
00:28:32
Speaker
And the worship was so cool. And sometimes it was like very hymnal when and men and women like standing up singing. And then sometimes it was like two guys with two broken guitars just singing. over And it was so fun. I had some of my best time in worship out there and like the the kids are all into it. Like it was just so fun. um And like I said, it was a Christian nation. So it was very welcoming of Christians and missionaries like they love when you show up because they've got quite a history with that of not always loving Christians and missionaries like um actually one place where we visited it was like not to make this super sad out of nowhere.
00:29:07
Speaker
but it was actually like a graveyard for missionaries who had come to them before that were killed back when it was a lot more tribal. And there are still unseen tribes there, but most of the country is now like ministered to and Christian. um But in the past, they have a history of like a lot of a lot of death and missionaries. so There's actually like a graveyard and like an apology site, like an apology for that because they've they've turned so much. so It's kind of crazy, like the villages we go to, if we showed up, like, and I'm not saying we are great, this is just like their appreciation of like Christianity in their culture. yeah like Schools shut down and the teachers stopped teaching and it was like, oh, you guys come talk to us. Like you're the missionaries, like you come talk to us, like you can come talk to these kids. So we did lots more ministry. The kids are awesome. Like kids in any culture I meet are usually the coolest, but like they were so funny and so sweet.
00:30:03
Speaker
And you'd finish like being in their school and you'd go home and like ah like a school of 120 students would just follow you while you walked home. Oh my gosh. And they'd just want to hang out with you and stuff. They were so, so sweet. Such a sweet culture. Yeah. Papua New Guinea is an underratedly beautiful place. like I think when we were getting ready to go there, we did expect a poor country. ah And like, don't take it this in a bad way. you may Maybe not the cleanest country, different food, whatever. But we went and the food was killer. um It's actually very clean culture. like like Sounds weird, but like bathing and going to bathe is a very regular part of their day, very clean culture. Your food's clean. They like their clean water. um But the place is beautiful. Like some of the beaches we were on, I was on white sand beaches. I was on black sand beaches. so beautiful there is There's palms. you know there's
00:30:56
Speaker
The weather's incredible. like There's super clear oceans. like it's so It's so out of a resort. Amazing. And we did actually spend one day at a resort, which, like I said, was weird for me. It was at the kind of end of our missions there, and then we like went to a resort for a day, and I was like, this shouldn't be allowed. is Like a resort that people would just like go tourist to? Yeah. like There was white interest families there, which was kind of weird because we hadn't seen other white people in three months. It wasn't very popular. It wasn't like Bali or anything like that. It wasn't very busy, but it did exist there. I'm kind of back and forth because it has potential to be an insane tourist destination. Things are cheap.
00:31:36
Speaker
you could start a lot, but I would want it to benefit the people and not just like tourists. You know, I'd want to really like integrate the people because it could be, it's beautiful. um Some other just fun facts about it that I love is there's over 800 languages in Papua New Guinea. oh wow So we would go village to village and have to completely relearn how to say good morning or good afternoon because like you go village to village and it's going to be different. And overall, that ah kind of going off what you said, Beth, like what this changed in me was like, I mean, I had been to Mexico before, so I kind of experienced this, but this was like true warm culture, like there's warm, culture warm and cold culture. And
00:32:14
Speaker
Just do different things like the difference in time, like time's not so important. They're not so taken up by time. Every single person they come across and meet is important to them. It's very giving. They're not bound by so many weird social things that that we are. ah That really opened my eyes up. to that and getting to experience that. And I was just grateful. And like you said, there's some things you end up implementing in your own life as far as that, like just caring more for the people around you and stuff and just being more aware. like It doesn't mean you have to fully try to be like an island person when you move back to North America, because you're just going to get frustrated. But you know, yeah simple things like patient and patients and care for other people that that you can implement because of that. And um making the most with what you have, like their worship wasn't, you know,
00:33:03
Speaker
like shows in fog machines and 10 electric guitars and a choir of singers. Sometimes it was two guys with the guitars that they had for probably 10 years in that village. And that worship was probably so much more wholesome than it is in some churches today. And just... They just make it a performance. Yeah. And just learning that, taking that in and the the importance that Christianity held to them. it it It wasn't a show. It wasn't to get to say, I'm a Christian. It wasn't to put on this image. That was what they had. And a lot of people came from not knowing it. and then getting to know it so like just the gift and like the thankfulness that they had and that was was so so cool to experience and their thankfulness for really just for really just anything so yes that is country number two i love that that's so awesome that is so special what a beautiful special place and i love too what you said about yeah like what you can bring back with you
00:33:53
Speaker
It's not like you're trying to become an island person and person or anything but like what small just even just heart changes that you can make and one of the things you know this is kind of funny this is maybe more of a bigger change but I wish more people We're better at like the gift giving and almost like the hospitality.
Cultural Practices and Hospitality Discussion
00:34:08
Speaker
So like, and I guess growing up, my family did this in small ways, um but okay. So like in Hawaii, for example, very similar, obviously Island culture. um Like you don't show up to someone's house without something. It doesn't matter if you're going to pick something up that you forgot there. Like you literally show up with something, a snack, flowers, candy, you know, poo boots, like average app ah appetizers. Like you bring something with you.
00:34:32
Speaker
And my mom always he taught us growing up that kind of ah hospitality and like we kind of practiced it, but it was nice living somewhere where people actually fully practice that. yeah And we kind of see what my mom always talked about in action. And so that's something that i' i would like and I would love to see more people on the mainland do that. And um just kind of have that, I don't know, that culture of like like good hospitality. And yeah, because it doesn't have to be anything. It was never it's never complicated or expensive. like It used to stress me out. I'm like, I have to bring a present every time. It's like, no, it's just what do you have and how can you make it so that it's like, this is for you. I'm excited for you to be here and kind of like welcoming you in. and
00:35:10
Speaker
showing an effort for people being there. Yeah. but yeah and I don't know if this is something I picked up from that, but if I do like go to a friend's house I haven't seen in a while for dinner, I'll usually snag flowers or I'll usually bring like a wine or something. and I think similar that like just learning from my mom, but also I think definitely was like cemented there. was like it's a little and it's just like It's not even like it has to be a big effort on your end. like You're explaining it perfectly. It's kind of hard to explain that it's not a big effort. It just kind of happens. I really like that. yeah Well, and it's hard. Yeah. And it might be hard to, um, to understand until you've lived it. Cause literally it's just such an everyday part of life. Like I literally, like in Hawaii, when I have to go, um, pay for one of my monthly payments, I walk, I like meet this lady at her house and I walk up and choice has something for me. Like it's like a bag of fruit or like some like can't, one time it was canned food. I'm like, thank you, Andy. Like,
00:36:02
Speaker
I bring her to you something, but it's just the most rare. It's literally just like whatever you have. You just, you know. It is not overthought. It is not. Like literally one time she gave me like candy and she's like, do you eat beans? And I was like, yeah. I was like, I think your auntie, I do. He's so yummy. They were like, I think expired, but that's okay. i I love that. Island culture is unmatched. I would love to check out more of that. yeah well clo ok We might have to reconvene at the end of the year for travel part two in case
Episode Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:36:31
Speaker
case we go places. but As you can see, we love travel. I can't believe we haven't done more travel episodes because it's actually a huge part of who you and I are, but hope you love it. Hope you love our stories about travel. Um, we ask a few times occasionally on here for travel stories from you guys. I would love to do more sharing our listener stories, whatever things like that. So if you have a cool travel story, you've been somewhere cool that you want to talk about. We would love to hear it. You can reach us anytime through our email at art of intention podcast at gmail.com.
00:37:02
Speaker
DMs are always open for a conversation at Art of Intention podcast on Instagram. um We also post resources for our episodes. You'll be notified of new episodes. We have a pretty good time over there, so make sure you're there. As always, you can find us every Tuesday, wherever you get your podcasts, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Zencaster. And we're gonna see you to do it all again next week. Bye. Bye.