To travel from travail, a journey
or a circle.
Tourists stick out like sore thumbs (or a sunburnt nose). They are
separate from the people and the places that they visit. Over eager
for their annual 2-week dose of happiness, determined to record it
on film, and ill at ease with local people they hide behind their
cameras.
Travelers on the other hand immerse
themselves in places and cultures. Like the first ever travelers –
the pilgrims - there is a reason and a purpose for their trip. They
make new friends and laugh and argue about life with local people.
The traveler broadens his or her mind, sees their lives through
others eyes, and gains new perspectives. They return home with
experiences that have shaped their values. The tourist reinforces
their existing preconceptions, gets a tan, and comes home a little
poorer.
So how do we become travelers?
Travelers fully experience places, rather than merely observing
them. To do this they must first accept them.
Stop making comparisons with home comforts or other holidays. Just
be. Only then can you truly observe new people and places.Fully
accepted a place and genuinely observing will mean we can truly
experience it. Get off the beach, roll up your trousers, and explore
that rock pool.Watch how people interact, learn some words of the
local language and join the older men in the fish market for a glass
of wine.
Take every opportunity to experience new things. Be in your world
rather than on it and live in the moment.
Avoid the habit of knowing all the answers, and cultivate the habit
of asking questions. Recognise that there is often more that we can
learn from the poorest people than we can teach them.
Realise that when you have formed a set opinion about a place or a
culture you cease to be a real traveler.
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