Sunday, August 28, 2016

Why travel?

Not for sheer amusement, nor to brag about it with your friends when you are back home, nor to show your boring pictures.
This is my honest view.

I know that nobody would say they travel for one of those reasons, but....they do! I remember when, back in those days, we produced tons of slides and then we struggled to have all the equipment ready to entertain a terrified audience of friends! The most common comment by the person showing the slides was "here we had so much fun"....

It really doesn't matter how one prefers to travel, whether in a group tour or with a deluxe travel company, what is important is how one travels.

I would highly recommend to start with an open mind and forget your world and habits for a while. Many travelers I've seen tend to look for the same things they have at home. Italians, for instance, always complain about not finding good pasta...Really, it happens more often than not.

I think that there are a few qualities and steps to be taken which make a trip worthwhile:
  • having read books about the region one visits, and written by authors native of that place
  • choosing a book to read while traveling
  • an open mind attitude
  • curiosity for the "otherness", rather than judgment. To compare the "new" with your own traditional world destroys the pleasure of traveling
  • interest in discovering the local music and knowing the instruments it is played with. Same for textiles and other forms of craft
  • human beings! Here it gets tricky. There are ways to approach them and ways that are bad. It is very annoying to be the center of interest and picture taking followed by a complacent look of the photographer and a quick thank you look. Since humans have the same feelings in every corner of the world, it is a good rule to think before acting and to remember not to do to others what you would not done to you (or something like that...!)
  • knowing a few words of the language used in the country one visits helps creating a thin but important bridge with the locals
  • get loose! Try to find time to explore on your own, meet whomever is on your path, be surprised in silence!
On a trip anyone of us can touch somebody's heart and mind. When traveling we become ambassadors of human relations and we can offer something to remember or...not.

Traveling is one of the best things that can happen to you! and since it is so relevant for  your mind and heart it becomes really important to be the best of you when reaching out to other worlds, whether around the corner from home or days away.

Our world has become very fragile. Who knows for how long it is still here for us. Tourism is becoming a huge threat to our planet, and no traveling format is safe anymore. When we go out discovering untouched sites it is the beginning of the end for it. When we approach a member of a far away tribe, his or her life is changed forever, often for the worse.

I would say that traveling on own, or in a small group of like minded friends, with the consciousness of what is right or wrong, it is the best. Speaking against my business interests, going solo is, probably, the best in terms of leaving the least tracks behind your passage. If you know how to travel well!

Please, remember that each footstep and each selfie can pose a threat to the object of your interest! Since I'm passionate about wildlife and animals in general I want to mention this, an example among many: by taking a picture too close to a mom bear means she gets scared for her cubs and attacks you and then she has to be killed as "dangerous" for humans. Who is dangerous here? I'm biased, yes, I know. And happily so!

To sum it up, traveling means pleasure for the traveler and often destruction for the destination.
Let's try to create a balance between what we take and what we give and leave behind our passage.

So the title of this blog has changed to: How to travel.