Tuesday’s Travel Essentials: Knowing What Time It Is

Over the years of travelling, I have missed flights, buses, tours, trains etc. all because I was in a big rush, slept in, or more realistically because I didn’t know what time it was. Knowing what time it is is an important part of travel so enter another edition of Tuesday’s Travel Essentials. Obviously with phones these days a lot of travellers have the correct time on them. Or at least that’s what you think. Technology can fail us and cause us to be late. Recently in Kunming in China we got to the bus station an hour too early and couldn’t work out why. My watch said 6.15 pm and our bus was leaving at 7.30 pm. Yet the bus was getting ready to board. We were an hour early. Now of course it’sbetter to be an hour early than an hour late, but you still get the idea. I horrendously once missed a flight in Iceland (somehow alcohol rather than timing will be blamed for that one!).

My favourite time quotes/lyrics:

“Time’s running out the door you’re running in” – Ian McCullough (Echo and the Bunnymen)

“Time grabs you by the wrists, directs you where to go” – Green Day

“Time as it stands won’t be held in my hands” – Noel Gallagher

“You’ll never change what’s been and gone” – Noel Gallagher

A few reasons why knowing the time is important on your travels:

– you get less stressed when you’re not in a rush

–  if you have booked a ticket for something, you will be gutted to miss it and have wasted money on it

– making the last bus, train, minibus etc.

– catching your flight

– arriving to a tour on time

– getting to work on time

– Skype calls (especially to other time zones)

– check out time in hostels (you might get charged for overstaying)

– different countries have different time zones

A few reasons why knowing the time is not important  on your travels:

– travel stress free without needing to know what time it is

– who cares what time or what day it is, YOU’RE HAVING FUN!! You don’t need to know the time.

For knowing the time, I wear a watch. It’s a simple easy technique and normally works. Not much to it really. For South America I wore a cheap one that nobody would want to steal. I’ve worn a watch since I was about 6 years old and to be honest I feel naked without one, so that’s what I do. It’s not full proof of course. Batteries die, one button could change the time zone and the watch could break, but apart from one missed flight and a few buses, I’ve been fairly lucky timewise on my travels. I’m still waiting for the day I can add “Time Travel” to my menu bar on Don’t Stop Living. You might have seen my post on Saving Time On Your Travels. While I rev up my Delorian, I’ll keep dreaming my friends…before I run out of time…