Who are The Travelling Dual

This photo shows exactly who we are. Excited to travel. Waiting at airports are fun, or at least we make it fun. We are Dirk, Riana and Phillanie (the plus one). We are full-time photographers in our studio in Kimberley, South Africa, and when we have spare time we travel. Although doing it full-time will be great, but we are not there yet.

At first it was only Dirk and Riana traveliing, but in recent times Phillanie decided to give travel a go and joined us on our latest four month South East Asia excursion. I think she’s hooked, so we made her the “plus one”.

Why we travel

We don’t travel just for the sake of getting out for a day or ten, and we don’t travel to impress people.

We travel to explore, to have fun and to bring change to ourselves. We travel to learn from others and to teach ourselves different ways of living. You always think that your way of doing things are the only way and it become your standard that you live too. With travelling we found that there is a whole world full of different ways of living and that all of them are acceptable to humans. We just had to adapt to the different cultures, and it only when you accept them that travel becomes a way of life.

We travel to meet new people from different countries. We have so far met the most friendly and exiting people. People in most of the other countries are friendly. They might just express it in various ways, but they are acceptable to foreign people. Although language might be a huge barrier, friendliness and patience can overcome the barrier and people might be able to communicate and share life.

We have learned that people in the eastern countries are very patient and very giving. We once walked the back streets of one of Thailands most popular holiday destinations and came accross three men that were building a new structure. We had a steep walk up a street on a very hot day, and as we came down, one of the old men saw as and signed us to come to him. We went to him, and knew that he could not speak one word of english. He indicated that we must drink coconut milk and went to a palm tree, chopped of two coconuts and open it for us to drink. It was, at the time, the most refreshing drink we ever enjoyed. We thanked him for his kindness and he carried on with his tasks as we walked off. This is why we travel!

We met a freelance tour guide in Vietnam that took us to places that is not open for tourists. He was the most friendly and caring person. He took as to local restaurants for meals that was not known to local tourists, but he felt that if it is good for him it’s good for us, and it was amazing. Good quality food for a fraction of the price you would pay in town. He took us to peoples homes where noodles are made, where rice wine is brewed and where the poorest of the poor lives. This is the kind of experience that makes  travelling worth everything.