Deep Travel
Here’s an excerpt from a great article from Lani Bevacqua at Context Travel.
Travel people often cite Mark Twain’s quote that travel is fatal to bigotry and narrow-mindedness. I like to think that if more people just got passports and visited another country where people ate, spoke, and worshipped differently then we’d all be more tolerant.
But, I don’t think it’s that simple these days. We live in a society of convenience, and travel has succumbed. A well-stamped passport does not necessarily translate to an open mind. It’s easy now to hop a plane, even to the remotest of places, be whisked away to an international-brand hotel with its English-speaking staff and remain in the confines of the comforts of home. Somewhere exotic, but not too exotic. The challenge is gone, and with it the promised demise of bigotry.
In Twain’s time, travel was about getting wet and immersing yourself in a place. This was the unavoidable travel experience in the 19th century. Today, it takes conscious effort to transform a vacation into a real experience or what we call “deep travel.”
The idea is that vacation is a time away from it all, but deep travel moves in the other direction. It’s an embracing of things, especially of things that are foreign and often challenging. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good vacation–all-inclusive, family resort, anyone? But, when I travel to learn or to teach my kids, I try to do so as deeply as possible.
Here’s my checklist for deep travel:
- Eat regional food (a lot)
- Meet someone local
- Try to speak at least some of the language
- Learn about the history (a lot)
- Ask questions about current events
- Read something penetrating about the place
- Ask more questions and meet more locals
This type of deep travel can help us cast aside fear and resist what Nicholas Kristof calls “otherizing.” A worrisome result of these attacks is that sensible people may react by closing their minds, letting their passports expire, and meeting intolerance with misinformation. This just feeds extremism.
#I’llridewithyou, Je Suis Charlie, Je Suis Ahmed, and Je Suis Juif are signs of solidarity with the people who died and those that now stand to suffer the fallout. Build on that solidarity. Choose a challenging destination for your next trip. Dive into the history and culture of the place, and be the bridge that brings tolerance and civility in both directions.
If you do, perhaps we’ll meet up this year in Sydney, Paris… or Baga.
Lani Bevacqua
Nora
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