So why do so many people like to travel? It is not always easy. Long TSA lines, over-crowded attractions, delayed flights, and lost luggage. The glamor of it all is certainly a bit tarnished. In fact, many popular cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Venice have taken steps to try to dissuade tourists. Just a suggestion to these city planners from someone who grew up in Minnesota … sub-zero temperatures, feet of snow, and clouds of mosquitos. The streets will be empty. I digress. Despite these hardships, many of us are still inflicted with wander lust. While waiting for one of those delayed flights in an overcrowded airport in Athens, I asked myself … why?
Can I Get that Mastodon Rug in Blue?
In order to secure the essentials for life, our earliest ancestors often found it necessary to travel. The very first tourist might have ventured over the next hill in search of a mastodon to feed the family … and a nice rug for the cave floor. Over time, these “hunter / gathers” began to look for variety. Not mastodon for dinner again? At the same time, the tribe on the other side of the river was fed up with Woolly Mammoth. With the simple exchange of leftovers, commerce and trade began to flourish. Eventually even the tribe across the river was fed up with mastodon and it became necessary to travel even further afield. Rumor has it that on the other side of the mountain, the Jones’s had developed a great saber-tooth tiger hotdish.
Don’t think that these “hunter / gathers” aren’t still prowling the countryside. Visit any popular tourist destination today and you will find an ample number of entrepreneurs ready to satisfy this primal instinct. On a recent trip, I actually overheard a member of a large tourist group nearby exclaim that “my entire vacation will be ruined if I can’t find something to buy”. Seriously? Perhaps it is this basic survival skill that drives us to secure the best Norwegian cheese slicer. I don’t have to look any further than our bathroom to reflect on my own experience. The walls are ordained with an eclectic mix of artwork that we have picked up on our travels around the world. However, if this primal urge to gather was truly the motivation to travel … why would Amazon even exist?
Beach Towels and Umbrella Drinks
With all of this hunting, gathering, commerce, and trade … people began to burn out. Somewhere, an unidentified person can be credited for first uttering “I need to get away”. I doubt that it is coincidental that the development of the Industrial Revolution was followed shortly after by the golden age of leisure travel. The idea of relaxing on a beach with a nice fruity umbrella drink is universally compelling and certainly a primary reason for many people to travel today. Equally universal is the inability of any intelligent two-legged creature with opposing thumbs of actually configuring one of those crappy beach chairs on the first try.
With the growing challenges of travel, fewer and fewer idyllic tranquil palm tree lined beaches, a finite number of crappy beach chairs, and an ever demanding “all access” 24 hour on-demand lifestyle, there seems to be a diminishing benefit. It is getting harder and harder to actually “get away”.
Prepare to be Boarded
Perhaps the most dangerous development in the history of travel are those intent on conquest. The objective of spreading an ideology to other “uncivilized” cultures has often been the excuse for many to wipe out entire civilizations. In this day and age of Instagram, real-time twitter posts, and an unfathomable number of selfies filling data storage devices around the world … perhaps we are experiencing a new conquest.
Visit any popular tourist destination today and you will see hordes of people racing to a specific spot to get the exact same photograph that all of their friends have taken. Decorum, civility, and an appreciation for different culture often replaced by a crowd of pushing and shoving selfie sticks. While the intent may not be the same as those early crusaders, the impact is equally concerning. Small fishing villages are being replaced by the ubiquitous and sterile strip malls filled with the same brands available in the places that everyone needed to “get away” from. I must face the reality that by traveling to countries “off the beaten path” I too must be contributing in some way to this very conquest.
“To Explore Strange New Worlds. To Seek Out New Life and New Civilizations” … Captain Kirk
Among the early tourists, a few privileged members of society felt compelled to learn about new and distant cultures. Throughout the earliest civilizations, members of the upper classes of society often embarked on journeys to far off lands. Not to say that all of their motives were pristine. Those primal “gathering” impulses were certainly active when the early explorers “discovered” the sites of ancient antiquity and left with ample treasures for their bathroom walls. Exactly where are the Elgin marbles from the Acropolis? Athens? Nope.
“Travel Changes You” … Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain died one year ago this month. On the day after that, I wrote an article and said “We never travelled because of Anthony Bourdain … but he did influence how we experienced places that we went.” He certainly influenced places that we went. For goodness sake, we went to countries just to go to specific restaurants that he had visited !! In reflection I’ve come to realize that we did travel because of Anthony. However, there was one other person that influenced why I travel. Michael Palin.
Around the World for 30 Years
Being a Monty Python zealot, I followed each member of the troupe. So, when Michael Palin began his first journey around the world, I eagerly watched and became a fan of all of his future adventures. Obviously, Michael has a wonderful sense of humor, an innate curiosity, and an engaging personality. He also surrounded himself with an incredibly talented group that produced some stunning images and great stories. However, what resonated most for me was the effort to show, understand, and adapt to daily life in different cultures. After all, where else could you find a segment that involved seeking out a rubber plug for a bathtub in Russia.
Why Do I Travel ?
In the end, this is why I travel. The opportunity to figure out how to pay an electric bill in Mexico, buying laundry detergent in Crete, finding an address in St Petersburg without a GPS, getting garbage in the right recycling containers in Paris, eating street food in Cambodia, visiting a mosque in Turkey, navigating public transportation in Latvia, finding the only store open on Tet in Vietnam that sells Diet Coke, and yes … even figuring out how to unfold one of those crappy beach chairs in Thailand.
I like to see what daily life is like elsewhere. It broadens my perspective and reminds me that even Klingons probably need bath plugs. I try to come away from each trip better informed, taste the local cuisine, and try to leave each place as it was. Finally, whenever possible, I remember to pick up the perfect cheese slicer.
