Traveling Without Traveling (The Importance of Having Intention)

Going from hostel to hostel you invariably run into loads of other travelers who tend to be easy to meet, friendly and sociable but most likely only at the hostel for one night (or at most a few). Social beings that we are, we tend to strike conversations and the first topic is generally the one we all have in common – traveling. I must have been asked at least 100 times: “Where do you come from? Where are you going? When / where did you start your trip and when will you go back home?” Although these conversations tend to be superficial, they serve their purpose well: exchanging interesting and important travel advice with fellow travelers and hearing fun travel stories (and occasionally making a new friend).

From all these countless discussions I would like to offer some observations: the majority of backpackers travels in groups, spends the night in backpacker oriented hostels (where few or no locals can be found) and spends the evenings talking with other foreigners, conversing in their native language or English and ordering international cuisine (e.g. hamburger and fries) from the menu. My point is that the only genuinely local experience most of my fellow backpackers have (or seek?) on any given night, is a bottle (or many) of the locally brewed beer.

The next day they enjoy a (frequently free) breakfast provided by the hostel while enjoying their favorite U.S. TV show on cable television. Then the adventure starts, the day before they probably booked an excursion (generally at the same hostel or the travel agency down the street). The minivan picks them up punctually directly outside the door and takes them to: the beach, up a volcano, through a jungle, a sightseeing tour through town or an archeological site. The tour of course is hosted in English and shared with the new friends from the prior night. The trip concludes in time for happy hour at the hostel and after a long day on the dusty roads the travelers` throats tend to be thirsty. This schedule repeats itself for a few days until all major sights have been seen and photographed and the travelers are off to their next destination (where they are frequently greeted by fellow travelers they had previously met along the way). Again, the point I am trying to make is that this way of traveling strikes me as quite trivial and does not allow for a profound culture submersion. It explains whey I meet so many people who have been traveling through Latin America for months or years and still do not speak a word (maybe a few) of Spanish. They will go home not having had a real conversation with local people, will stay oblivious to the hardships, passions, interests and characteristics of the people visited. In other words, they will have learned little to nothing about the foreign culture (but will return home with a notebook filled with addresses form the people met from all around the world and the impression that they are now quite worldly). Hence, the tile of the article: Most Travelers actually travel without traveling!

Please be clear, I am not condemning this style for traveling (to each their own), hence the 2nd part of the title. I find that most travelers have given little thought to why it is they are traveling or what it is they hope to learn / accomplish. I like to ask the question of other travelers and generally only receive a blank glance in response. There are so many things one can learn and experience while traveling and my advice to other travelers (or anybody for that matter) would be to think about (before hand) what it is you want to get out of an experience. If your goal is drink a lot of beer with other westerners and have a cheap and fun vacation, you should follow the crowd. However, if you are interested in actually getting to know the local culture, an experience of cultural emersion (which I personally find one of the most interesting aspects of traveling), let along contribute to it, your manner of travel should be distinct. Which leaves me with the same conclusion as a prior entry: every traveler will receive from his / her travels the experience they are open to and seek.