Where's Sydney? is a program to spread the message of light and mindful travel to travelers across the globe. Copies of the book are handed off from one traveler to the next, with each traveler checking in on the website to let us know where that particular copy is and some of the dramas associated with it. The intention is to create a deafening silence of people traveling lightly with shallow footprints. Some people will send photos and stories of their encounters back to the website.
Copy#1 Elephant First Traveler: Andy Jacobs Country of Origin: USA Received: Brisbane, Ca. 1/18/2007
Current Traveler: Andy Jacobs
Where Received: Brisbane, Ca., USA
Mileage Logged: 10,000
Countries: USA, UK, Kenya
Correspondence
Sun, 21 Jan 2007
From: Andy Jacobs
Location: Brisbane, California
Dear Sydney,
I received the book on tuesday and I have already immersed myself in the resonances it is striking. Thank you for the privilege of launching #1 of "Where's Sydney?" and for taking the time and expense to send this along for my upcoming voyage.
The journaling method in the book are giving me a lot to think about...I always seem to come back to the limitations of language, any language. I think I am leaning more toward the concept of a universal consciousness that you mentioned as Touchstone 7.
I clipped a few links to the sites where we will be staying in Tanzania. I have read through a few of their postings and they do seem to be very conscious about their definition of eco-tourism. Even 20 years ago, Robert Redford was telling Meryl Streep to just stand still while she was being stalked by the lioness. "If you run she will chase you," and then he would have to use his rifle. That's some advice I have considered when swimming with sharks. We will see if I have the same resoluteness shown by Ms. Streep.
http://www.kigongoni.net/ Feb. 3-5 Kigongoni Lodge: http://www.savannahcamps.com/scl/kikoticamp.html; Feb 6-7 Kikoti Permanent Tented Camp: http://www.gibbsfarm.net/ Feb. 8 overnite Gibb Farm
..I noted also how you clearly indicated what is compromised by group travel: choice, free time and privacy. But as you say (TS-2) "Risk is Indispensable to Discovery," and it feels like a voyage of this great distance into unfamiliar country has risks enough. When we did a Stanford tour of China in early 2001, I never wandered far from that hotel in Beijing during my free time. The one walk I took outside got me only about 100m, across a trestle over the highway, to sit in a park and read. Then a big thunderstorm (I thought it was jet wash initially) trapped me in the park and I finally fled back to the hotel during a break in the downpour. Very brave, eh?
I am trying to think to whom on our trip I might pass along Where's Sydney. I am torn between thinking it is for the seasoned traveler, with its Zen insights, or the beginner who is clueless about keeping a journal. I guess I will just let the Force tell me what is right.
Best wishes and, again, many thanks for your support and enthusiasm.
February 26,2007
Dear Sydney,
Pardon my delay in checking in. I have been savoring the existential time/space distortion of returning to the real world this past week (after travel to Kenya), and fighting off a respiratory infection courtesy of the 20hrs of flying that it took to return to SFO.
I am still pulling together the pictures and impressions which I will relay in a week or so--definitely a transforming travel adventure and there were some exquisite moments. Traveling with the Harvard Professor, Faresh Jenkins, was a real treat. I will send along one of his nightly lecture notes, one about the elephants.
Coming Soon: Photos from Andy's Trip
Start Sydney on a new travel path by sponsoring a book Contact sydney@sydneysthumb.com and read about participation