Does travel really open you up to new horizons?
"Georgia, eh? You're a long way from home!" the man says. It could be Alaska, or Newfoundland, or Saskatchewan or even Oregon, the reaction is the same. And usually, they follow up with, "So, how many days did it take you to get here?"
"About a month," I reply, "There's a lot to see and do between here and there!"
And there is, too. On a "moving house" day, we usually drive no more than 200 miles or so - often less than that. And we try to stay in places for a few days at least, to go kayaking and see the sights and just exist in a different place and see what it's like.
Even in places closer to home, we get the same reaction. In Pennsylvania someone will ask us how many hours it took us to get there. "About a week," I reply, "So much to see and do in-between!"
Most people, it seems, have the mindset that travel is something unpleasant you have to do in order to get to a tourist destination. They have little time off from work, so they drive "straight through" to Disney, and nothing in-between is worth seeing. And given how most towns are just a Walmart and a McDonald's (and gas stations) maybe they have something of a point.
But sometimes the journey is its own reward.
What got me started on this was a New Yorker article sent in by a reader that sort of made fun of travel. Tellingly, the accompanying illustration was of a harried traveler passing through an airport with one of those annoying roll-around suitcases behind them. That's not travel - that's flying. And to someone living in Manhattan, that is probably what they think of when they hear the word travel. But flying isn't travel, it is tourism.
Flying is perhaps emblematic of the problem of Tourism. You hop in a jet plane, travel hundreds of miles an hour to get to your "destination" and all that stuff in-between (you know, the "flyover States") is meaningless. You get to your resort destination, sit by the pool, sip cocktails, and never leave the resort, other than to visit a tourist area that only tourists go to. After a week, you fly back, "refreshed and recharged" and show pictures to your friends, so they know you have the status to afford a name-brand vacation to a well-known exclusive vacation spot.
To these people, it has to be a known place. You tell them you spent a week in a sleepy 8-room hotel in Zihuatanejo and at best, they might reply, "yeah, Shawshank Redemption!" If they ask you what was the appeal of the place, you can say, "Nothing" because that is really all there is there - just a tiny beach town with no mega-resorts or tourist traps.
Traveling is different that Tourism. When you travel, you live and eat and sleep like the locals, or at least try to. You learn what it is to live in the place you are in, rather than in an air-conditioned high-rise resort where the "locals" work at low-paying jobs and you live like a king. At least, that is what I strive for - to understand what it is like in other places in the world, whether it is in a noodle shop in a small town in the mountains of Japan, or even in a Walmart in Acapulco. What exactly does one do with a five-pound bag of chicken feet? They were snapping them up like it was candy, too.
The New Yorker article quotes a lot of famous people decrying travel, including Socrates, who traveled from his hometown only to fight in the Peloponnsian Wars. It reminds me of a quote from Full Metal Jacket shown above. See the world, explore ancient cultures, meet new and interesting people, and then kill them. Sort of sums up wars over the centuries.
But it does point out there is travel for tourism and travel for work, even if your "job" is killing people. Travel for work can be a lot less fun, which is maybe why we offer free upgrades to business travelers who would rather be at home. I had the chance to travel to Japan, twice, for work (at two different firms) and it was one of those instances where you do have to fly - although if you have a month to kill, you could take a cruise ship, I suppose.
The best part of visiting Japan wasn't in seeing the tourist sites in Tokyo and Kyoto, but in staying in a flophouse "salaryman" hotel in Asakusa, or a tiny Ryokan far up in the mountains. The best experiences weren't tourist areas, but ordinary interactions with Japanese people in shops and stores and on the street. It doesn't make me an expert on Japan, but it helps a tiny, tiny bit in understanding their culture. My run-in with the Yakuza wasn't on the tourist menu, though. I learned more about Japan from that incident than from visiting any temple. That and Mr. Donut. But that's another story.
I digress, but one trip I would like to take is to take a "transitioning cruise" (no sex changes involved) from Ft. Lauderdale to Italy, and then spend a few months on the Continent, renting a house and a car and seeing the sights in different countries. When it is time to go back, take another transitioning cruise or the QE2 or whatever back across the Atlantic. Not only would it be more comfortable than flying, I think it would lend the sense of perspective of the distance involved. Flying, in addition to being incredibly uncomfortable and annoying these days (usually because of the other passengers) is more like teleporting from point A to point B. Even looking out the window, you have no sense of distance involved.
But once you are "there" there is little to do than to get caught up in tourist destinations. The author of the New Yorker piece recounts how they went to a "Falconry Hospital" in Dubai or some other godforsaken Arab country (there are no other kind, sadly). They pointed out that their interest in Falconry was zero - zilch - but they went anyway and noted wryly that they displayed a number of awards, not from veterinary concerns, but from tourist bureaus.
I know this all too well, as we have a "Turtle Hospital" here on the island, and yes, they do save turtles. But a big part of what they do is tourism. A major part of the "Hospital" is the gift shop and they have an outside roofed-over section with above-ground pools with sick turtles in them (smells great!). They also do "turtle tours" on ATVs on the beach. Bring money because it is like $20 a head to get in, and the tours are even more expensive.
Attractions (as they call them) exist in tourist places to answer the question, "What does one DO here?" You set up an attraction or a gift shop and people pull out their wallets - it is what one does, even if you get home with yet another lame t-shirt or a post card you never send to anybody. And yes, we all stop to see attractions as sometimes in a foreign location, we are unsure what to do. If someone says, "form a line here and get out your wallet!" we all line up like sheep, because it is comforting to do thing thing everyone else is.
While Mark and I tend to shy away from "tourist" attractions, we do go on them. I like to go on vintage train tours, not because it is a tacky tourist thing to do, but because I like trains. If we see a train ride, we go on it, unless it is some "Thomas the Tank Engine" theme train or the Christmas train or "Pizza train" - because those are going to be full of screaming kids who don't even care about trains. Hopefully, you can just ride the train, maybe get a drink, and sit back and watch the scenery go by and some self-appointed tour guide won't talk constantly over the PA system. Boat rides can also be fun, because we like boats. Sadly, in both cases, tour guides don't understand that when it comes to talking, less is more.
And museums are fun, too. I particularly enjoy small-town museums where concerned citizens banded together and asked everyone to clean out their attics and then display the relics and the town's history for all to see. None of it is "important" or earth-shattering, but there is something charming of seeing locals proud of their history and ancestry in small towns like Hull, Illinois.
But travel is its own reward, and sometimes just stopping and sitting somewhere is enough. On the Blue Ridge Parkway, we will pull off at one of the "balconies" and throw out the awning and chairs (and even the carpet) and make a light lunch or even get out the cocktail shaker. Most people zoom in, look out the window, take a photo and zoom off. Gotta make Roanoke by five! These sort of folks are often frustrated by the 35/45 MPH speed limit there. How many hours does it take to get there? About a week or so - if you're smart.
It is like the time we spent a day at Dead Horse Point, which overlooks a branch of the Grand Canyon. They've roped it off now, but back then, you could just park by the edge and look out. We put our old Class C motorhome off the road, rolled out the awning and just sat and looked at the canyon for five hours. Again, most cars zoomed in, looked at the canyon for a few minutes, took the obligatory photo, and left. We've found we stopped taking photos as no one ever wanted to look at them.
And the New Yorker article was on-point about this. We went to see a friend of ours who spent a month in Alaska (after driving "straight through" to get there!). He had a slideshow to show us (and some other friends) and it had several hundred pictures, each of which required a five-minute discourse on his part. His wife started to fast-foward through it (as she realized, as we all did, that the presentation would last until the next day, at this rate) and an argument ensued between husband and wife. Mark and I only endured it as we were planning on traveling to Alaska that summer and wanted to see what to expect.
Quite frankly, the getting to and coming back parts were more fun, and we spent a month traveling each way. Yukon territory is much more beautiful than Alaska and unspoiled as well. What's there? Nothing. That's the point. We know people who "drove to Alaska" in less than a week, spent a week there and drove back. What's the point of that? See America - through a windshield!
But again, in America, most people don't have much "time off" for vacation, particularly unstructured large blocs of time. So, you would think that retirees would enjoy "life in the slow lane" and take their time, traveling.
Nope. Most of the folks we know who are "snowbirds" either by dint of owning two homes or having an RV, drive "straight through" from Florida to New York, in two days at best, driving 10-12 hours a day. It is a recipe for a blood clot in your leg or a stroke - something you'd think a 70-year-old would be concerned about. You try to tell them there are things to do and see in-between and they shut you down. "I have a doctor's appointment next week! I have to get back!" The idea they could reschedule the appointment or just leave earlier is beyond them.
It is an unshakable mentality. They never even vary their trip - taking the same roads and staying in the exact same motel along the way. "The Red Roof Inn at Emporia, Virginia is really nice!" - and like every other Red Roof Inn on the planet. But that's the point for them - they are the original accidental tourist, hoping to see nothing that challenges them.
There indeed some folks who should never leave home.
Does travel or tourism (and they are two different things, in my book) enhance your life or make you a better person? Maybe, maybe not. I think having visited different States and Countries, I understand a little more about other people and their cultures that I would have, staying at home. It is easier to be empathetic to folks after having met them in their own environment. This isn't to say that spending a week in Paris makes you a Francophile, only that it gives you a glimmer more of what is going on than the fellow who stays in his hometown all his life.
Speaking of France, that reminds me of a fellow I met who made very good money running oil rigs in dangerous parts of Africa (which is to say, Africa, I guess these days). He flew over every other month and changed planes in Paris, often spending a day or two there. We were telling him of some fun obscure places to visit there and he waved us off. "I never leave the hotel. I want nothing to do with those frenchies wearing their faggoty little hats!" A regular ambassador to the world, I guess. Gimme all dat oil! Screw your local culture!
People like that shouldn't travel.
