|
Travelers come in many different
varieties, from the once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon tripper to the vagabond who
has spent years on the road. One thing
travelers across this travel spectrum share is the traveling tale. How you tell your story can reveal a lot
about what kind of traveler you are. But perhaps more revelatory is how you
listen to the stories of other travelers.
Four years ago I joined the ranks
of International Traveler. I spent four
days in London living in a hostel
and two weeks in Croatia
learning about my ancestors. When I
returned home I was happy find my official World Traveler membership kit
waiting in my overstuffed mailbox.
Inside was a membership card that looked like a passport (clever!), a
pocket sized photo album capable of holding 14,000 of my favorite travel photos
to share with anyone I meet, and a small rucksack to carry my newfound travel
elitism. I could hardly wait to put on
my white shortsleeved shirt, black necktie and pants, and go door-to-door and
recruit new members.
Along the way I was greeted with a
variety of responses. Some were
interested in hearing my stories and looked at each of my 14,000 photos. Others seemed to not be interested at all and
slammed their front doors in my face.
The worst ones of all were people who had also been on trips, but not
trips that I thought were as interesting as mine. In most cases, they could not stop talking
about the Caribbean cruise they took ten years ago or the all-inclusive resort where
they were waited on hand-and-foot. The
World Traveler Club surely must not recognize these sorts of trips as
membership-eligible, I thought, and returned home to read the Rules and
Regulations.
After a few hours of reading I was
dismayed to find nothing disqualifying dime-a-dozen trips from the Club. I called customer service and was quickly
connected with an operator.
“I want to complain about
something in your Rules and Regulations.
I don’t think that a luxury cruise or package vacation at a resort
should qualify for membership.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“Because it is not real
travel. You aren’t doing anything you
couldn’t do in Florida or California. These people are just lying around and if
they are lucky, they disembark the ship a few times to buy souvenirs of the
sights they didn’t have time to see.”
“Did you read your Rules and
Regulations?”
“Yes. I read everything.”
“Well you must have skipped over
the Travel Commandments section. The
last one is: If thou are a teller of
travel stories, thou must listen and feign interest in all travel stories told
unto you.”
I hung up the phone and knew she
was right.
* *
*
The next day I left the photo
album and the rucksack at home and returned to the house that I had suddenly
fled last night. The same middle-aged
woman answered the door. “Oh, you’re
back. Is everything all right? You left rather quickly.”
“Yeah, I apologize for that. I’m back because you didn’t get to finish
your story about your cruise to the Bahamas.”
“Oh right, so where was I…so then
we got all dressed up and had dinner in the banquet hall of the ship, and it
was really a great meal, and my husband smiled like I had never seen him smile
before. And after dinner it was time for
dancing and karaoke and I sang ‘Love in an Elevator’…”
I smiled as I stood on the
porch. “Would you say that this cruise
changed you as a person?” I asked.
“I would say so. Jim and I had never been outside of the
country and it was nice to expand our horizons.
Every time we see a hurricane alert I think about the poor people that
live on those islands.”
I listened for awhile longer and
thanked her for her story.
|
I always try to be completely understanding (tolerant?) of people who choose to travel in ways different from me. For me, it always boils down to how I travel, how I look at things. I am not defined by my budget or my luggage, but by my eyes- if they are open, I will experience something new. If they are looking for the familiar that takes me back home, I won't have moved away.
Great story - I admit I have felt the same way about people whose overseas travel experiences consist of cruises or package tours that speed them through 17 countries in 3 weeks. And even though I would never want to travel that way, they were at least open-minded enough to leave the country and exposed themselves to things they wouldn't have if they had never left home.
Interesting one. I often wonder if I come off as too arrogant when discussing my travels, like "my way is the only way to go." It's just hard to take a step back when you're so excited about the places you've visited.
Nice post - it's easy to diss the cruise crowd, but any bubble break is better than nothing.
What a great post! The fact that someone dares to leave the confines of their bubble should be applauded, and not snubbed.
I loved this, thank you! Every time I hear someone re-hashing the old tourist versus traveler thing, I feel like they are trash-talking my grandma. Which is uncool.
"...and a small rucksack to carry my newfound travel elitism." That's gold.
Different travel strokes for different traveling folks, for sure. I liked this post, too, and also agree with Lola...we should applaud anyone and everyone who travels. But I do think that there is an important difference (not one to be derided, but one of which it's worth being conscious) between traveling and trying to replicate your own culture/life/experiences and traveling and trying to be comfortable with your own ambiguity, ambivalence, discomfort, and wonder in meeting people/things/experiences so distinct from what's familiar to you.