The biggest regret I have from my trip is not taking notes. It wasn’t even a case of taking careful notes, but even where I was on any given day or what order events occurred would have been useful. Useful for what? For my memory.

I have come to really appreciate the value of my trip reports. It’s not about the fame and glory (if only), but for other reasons. Sharing my experiences enables others to learn and get the most from their trips. That’s how I discovered this secret life and want to make retributions for those who helped me. So, I try to write for a novice audience, for guys who’ve never been where I was. Because I appreciate reading stories that help me understand what a place is like, I aim to write the sorts of things I like to read.

My reports are much more valuable for myself, however. I find that I easily forget events that took place during my trips. Even the things I’m sure I’ll remember, I forget. Sometimes a photo or a souvenir can bring these memories flooding back, but some things can not be easily recalled (such as a conversation).

Approaching my trip with the intention of writing a report makes me pay better attention to events and to record the details in some semi-permanent format. When I don’t do this, details are lost or change or move around.

For example, I’d completely forgotten that I took Spicy for a slice of cake at the Marriott’s bakery shop. The details of the event are even now slipping away. I know we ordered some strange, but delicious, pastries; I just don’t remember what. I forgot which movies I saw with her. It wasn’t until I passed a similar shop in a mall here that I recalled the shop selling manga (Japanese comic) figurines. Someone went through the trouble of knitting teeny tiny bikini tops and bottoms for the (otherwise naked) female figures.

Are these details important? I think so, because we are but the sum of our experiences.

Writing about my Bangkok experience took a considerable amount of time, mostly because I did not write it soon after it happened. On my earlier expedition to Rio, I kept a trip diary that enabled me to recall every event while it was fresh in my head. I’m about to tackle my Cambodia trip and that has far more detail. Sadly, a lot of the interesting details are already blurred beyond recall.

Looking back on my first trips to Thailand, I realize I’ve forgotten far too many things. What remains intact are the bits I’ve inscribed here and elsewhere. Even if the stories themselves have few details, they evoke a lot of the memories around that experience.

I once promised myself that I would take more mundane photos. When I view my trip photo collections, the more memory evoking images are not babes but boring street scenes, cluttered hotel rooms, half-finished meals, curious shop owners and ordinary buildings. This trip I forgot and I’m paying the price by forgetting people and places and thereby forgetting events.


Memory evoking street scene

Gentlemen, approach your trip as a reporter; make notes, record mundane details. Even if you’re a terrible writer, commit the trip to a trip report. You don’t even have to post it. Years from now, when those reports stir up some fond memories, you can thank me.

Wise philosophy. I move every few years due to my job. I always end up digging through boxes to find somthing and come across old prints, from before I went digital, of places I've lived and visited and it takes me back quite a bit.

With digital cameras, this expereince is dying, there's people who will never know what it's like to wait for your pics to come back. Regardless, your pics extend your experience past a given moment to the rest of your life.

I know what you mean about older photos. When i was very young, i bought an old camera and took photos of the farm and the barns and the house, for several years and now those photos and slides of the early 60s are very dear to the whole family.