Archive for the Travel Philosophy category
A quick tip-off for this morning folks, as we’ve just come across this great idea for a blog.
By getting random people to write in his journal (a Moleskine, of course), the writer of this relatively new site just about turns travel writing on its head. Rather than heading away from home to meet new people and experience new cultures, Write in my Journal stays resolutely put (in Salt Lake City, to be precise) and simply approaches new people from all manner of backgrounds to scrawl a quick memento as they go about their lives.
The result? An unplanned and spontaneous insight into random lives and various backgrounds that is at times harrowing, haunting, uplifting… and just engagingly everyday. And that, when it comes down to it, is what good travel writing is all about.
It seems that the folk over at Road Junky have found themselves in a spot of bother lately.
We recently mentioned their post on cultural idiosyncrasies around the world (such as Albania’s pyramid scheme government woes) but we weren’t the only ones to stumble upon it - and a large number of readers are decidedly unhappy with their findings.
Having ourselves thought the article entertaining (and from our own experiences, containing at least the odd grain of truth in amongst the obvious inaccuracies) we couldn’t help but wonder why it had provoked such violent reactions. For HostelBloggers’ money it was as much a post about the line between stereotype and national characteristic, hearsay and fact… It was hardly portraying itself as investigative reportage, after all!
Admittedly, the subject matter was a little controversial even for a site that tends to be heavy on the frankness, light on the platitudes and rollocks along on a diet of sex, drugs and offbeat writing. But all the writing has the same amused, slightly cynical tone - and that was what caught (and continues to catch) the eye.
Maybe not every one of the ‘culture shocks’ they described was strictly accurate, but where else have we been informed recently that the high-five was invented in Arabia as the best way to greet people from atop a camel?
All we’re saying is, yes, travel writing should be informative and factual. But should it always have to take itself seriously, too?
It’s hard to put your finger on just what makes Notesfromtheroad.com so great. There are the absolutely stunning photos, certainly. And there’s also the love for (and profound knowledge of) the natural world that comes through in almost every post, too.
Author Erik Gaugerhe describes it as ‘the unvarnished, messy truth of travel, told by a regular guy’ but the reality is something rather different. He has an unusual and solipsistic perspective on life, travel, the universe and everything.
Ultimately, though, the appeal lies in the way he conjures up images of bouncing tumbleweed, encounters with bears and awe-inspiring nature in this distinctive, subjective voice.
The night market: it’s hard to think of a more budget travel-friendly institution for the backpacker in Asia. And few are as rich in sights, sounds and smells as those you get in Beijing.
Turning to Hobotraveler.com (a glorious mess of a budget travel storehouse) to elaborate the point, we stumbled on this Beijing Night Markets post. There are some great images of what is, when you get down to it, a pretty unique sensory phenomenon.
The silkworm, the starfish, the scorpions - it brought it all back… And, just as when HostelBloggers were actually there, we tried to be interested and consider it a unique cultural experience and blah, blah, blah… we really did. After a while of gazing at these increasingly weird and wonderful foodstuffs, though, we were driven into fits of immature giggling by one thing: goat cock (see below).
But ’political correctness’ aside, when we thought about it, it struck us that perhaps the right response to anything you experience on your travels is normally always the natural response - even if it is a childish one!
After all, it’s essentially the differences between cultures that make travel so worthwhile. And if you stifle your response to something then, well, what’s the point? You can take it as a given that Chinese travelers in London have been bemused and amused in equal measure by elements of British cuisine. (Like, say, a tasteless, dry ‘traditional roast dinner’…)
Who’s to say that amusement isn’t a perfectly reasonable and healthy cultural response?
We’re not sure if it’s the same in ladies toilets (HostelBloggers haven’t spent too much time hanging around them…) but the walls of your average gents can frequently be daubed in wit, wisdom and, let’s face it, a fair bit of weirdness. Toilet philosophy, in short, is rife.
Anyway, the above can be found in one of the bathrooms of Caledonian Backpackers in Edinburgh. Trying to decipher the spidery scrawl was a little tricky at first, but it did seem to have a point (of sorts) to get across.
It could be suggesting that there’s no sense in traveling according to a strict agenda - always sticking to what you planned (or ‘pictured’). Far better to go with the flow, put yourself at the whim of the ‘unimaginable universe’, and see what happens…
Or it might be saying that the insistence on endlessly snapping photographs on your travels removes you from the moment and prevents you from reaching any greater understanding of what’s in front of you.
Or is it just the disorientated ramblings of someone who’s been on the road too long? We’ll let you decide.
