Category: Travel Philosophy

Being No.1 at something. Living large. Charles Veley has done something of both. A 30-something guy who’s made it, he prides himself as “the most traveled man” in the world.

Charles Veley is head of MostTraveledPeople.com, a sort of “Guinness Record of Travel”. Over time, the members of MostTraveledPeople.com have sliced up the world into 872 locations: countries, states, regional autonomies, archipelagos, you name it. According to this select group, if you visit all 872 sites, you can claim to have seen whatever there is to see. Charles Veley has chalked up 822 of these sites to date.

If challenging Charles Veley for the title of “most traveled man” is your thing, be advised that it will not suffice to just showing off your skills as a photoshop virtuoso. To validate a visit to a site, you have to show a passport seal and produce credit card vouchers that corroborate you’ve shopped at the site in question. One additional requisite that will give your visit authenticity is to step with both feet wherever you go.

Personally, this is not the kind of competition that tickles my fancy. Eating a local treat at a destination does not a visit make.  As we’ve said here many times before, traveling is much more than just going somewhere. Traveling is about getting to know people, living experiences, seeing things calmly or enjoying some place till the crack of dawn.

If you want to read more, check out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/feb/28/charles-veley-most-travelled-person?page=all

http://youngglobalcitizen.com/post/3344906969/most-traveled-man-in-the-world

“The trip of a lifetime” is a dream that many of us share but few of us dare to undertake. What’s the reason? Many times it’s not possible to do – in the best of circumstances – during the month we have off from work. Why? Well, if it were, most of us would have done it already.

When we speak of the trip of our dreams, we imagine surroundings and a routine very different from that which we live daily. It is an exercise which requires, above all, time.

In western society, we believe the biggest obstacle to taking “the trip of our dreams” is “breaking” with our daily lives – work, social relations, etc. Let’s not kid ourselves. Most of us would kill to break with our existing lives. Ten hours of a low-paying job, a 2-hour traffic jam, a  sandwich-on-the-run just to return to a 1.000-euro, heat-less studio where we’ll just gripe to our flat mate that things are going “same-ol’-same-ol’”.

In my opinion, the greatest hindrance to leaving is the fear of coming back. We’re overwhelmed with the scary idea that our “re-insertion in society or at our first job interview we’ll find ourselves facing the following query:

-”I don’t see what you’ve been doing for the last year (or two or three) anywhere on your c.v, could you explain that?”

Unfortunately, many companies won’t find any of the following replies valid:

-”I was exploring an infinity of unexplored corners of the world”; “I was breaking stereotypes”; “I was checking out realities diametrically opposed to mine”; “I was learning to reason things without defining them by the dictates of any one society”. (I’ think that’s important).

Painful as it may seem, this is reality. To come to terms with it, let me propose a solution: try to make your trip be significantly co-related with your profession. Naturally, this will only be possible if your profession is also your favorite pastime. If it isn’t, don’t go and mess up your trip.

Following are some examples to help inspire you:

Iosu López: Journalist by profession, this 29-year-old quit his job to embark on a trip that would take him from Alaska to Ushuaia. His premise was to travel only by land to complete his Panamerican journey and to record the many adventures of his trip on his blog. Upon his return, with all the material collected during his 11-month odyssey, he produced a documentary that caught the attention of Fnac. Today, he is a special envoy for the biggest Spanish media agency in New Delhi.

Kepa Acero: Surfer. He travelled around the world living by the slogan: 5 waves, 5 continents. For five months he spanned the globe searching for the perfect wave on each continent, an adventure which he shared with readers of his blog. When he got back, the Basque Television Network ETB dedicated a program to his trip. He has also published an article in the well-known magazine, Surfer Rule.

Lara Dunston and Terence Carter have been travelling since the late eighties. Together they have visited over 60 countries. It’s an adventure which has allowed them, among other things, to work for Lonely Planet. Their last project, Grantourismo, is a trip around the world which during 12 months will take them to 24 countries. The cool thing about this project is that it came about thanks to collaboration with Home Away Holiday-Rentals, which offered them lodging at the apartments the chain has around the world. In exchange, the couple writes about their travel experiences in their blog,and mentions the apartments they stay at.

As you can see, Internet can be a great ally for making that dream trip of yours not only a memorable travelling experience but one valuable for your professional career as well.

Experiences

During the last few days, I’ve come across picturesque places such as the Chiloé islands, thanks to tips like the one I received from a female traveller in Ushuaia. These islands and their rocky coasts form an unforgettable palate with the sea-blue and verdant fields that surround them. Here, you can savor a wide assortment of fish and shellfish, though Curanto, a traditional dish consisting of shellfish, meat, potatoes and vegetables, deserves special mention. As does the hospitality shown by local folk.

Advice

When you embark on a long trip like the one I’m in the middle of, it’s necessary to know how to cope with local weather conditions. Having updated weather info can make your excursion fly instead of flop especially when rain or clouds are in the forecast. If you get hit with a bad day, perhaps its better to take the day off, something a long-term trip will allow you to do. Try getting a weather update from the nearest toruist office, the hostel you’re staying at or check a few websites belonging to people whose livelihood depends on being in the know about the weather like farmers and forest rangers. If you’re in or around Patagonia, check out http://www.windguru.cz/es/

The Learning Curve

During my trip I’ve gone from rucksack-packing problems which included taking forever to do so to learning how to pack quickly and even having room left over to include a few extras. An economist would dub this evolution: the natural fruits of an experiential learning curve; )

But, more importantly, is learning how to the adventurous ropes of co-existence. During my university days, I had the opportunity to share a flat and make new friends. On this trip, I’m living together with lots of people, but in a different way: I spend 2-3 days on the average with each person. Many come and go leaving behind nothing, others offer good times and a useful tip or two, others you learn quite a bit from, while still others you look forward to meeting up with again, picking up where you left off and preserving a relationship that would be a shame to lose. Which is why I’d like to thank right here and now all those people who it has been my pleasure to know during this trip.

Xabier Albeniz

Music is a great travelling companion. There are moments when music can help us disconnect and enjoy a much-needed respite of peace and tranquility. Moments in which an artist’s catchy lyrics allows us to dream and imagine or be inspired. Moments in which a certain rhythm intensifies an emotion, like evoking the feeling of a lingering kiss. Or moments when we recall our loved ones, and feel recharged and better equipped to fight off any hint of melancoly and solitude. Lastly, there are those moments – like in a good movie — when a dull landscape is transformed into an unforgettable setting. Yeah, music is pretty cool ally.

But music is more than that. It also helps us express — admittedly, using the sounds and words of others — those messages we find impossible to communicate in an elegant way. That’s why we decided to use the Trourist page on Facebook to fire at you the following question: “Which song do you think best sums up the Trourist philosophy? Replies to date have come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and we’ve gathered them together on this Spotify list so you can sign up, get on board and contribute with your own opinions.

I’m going to propose something … Imagine your next trip takes you to Colombia and you have an opportunity to stay at the least touristic part on the Caribbean coast in cozy huts run by local families. These groups of families are composed of Tayrona and Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta natives, who formerly earned a living growing cocaine illegally and, who now thanks to a government initiative, dedicate themselves to ecotoruism and the cultivation of organic products.

During your visit you will not only be able to live firsthand the culture and the social reality of Indian families and communities, but you will also get to live unique experiences such as a clandestine visit to a genuine coke factory. Yeah, you read right. Of course, you’ll also be able to partake in more conventional activities like trekking or kayaking, always in the company of local folk, for whom tourism represents a source of positive impact from an economic, environmental and social perspective.

So, what do you think? If you’re turning green with envy, I’m going to suggest a site to visit: VÍVELO. VÍVELO is a web site which promotes initiatives like the foregoing. They call these types of experiences “Positive Impact Travel” and their social objectives are twofold. On the one hand, they contribute positively to the economy, ecosystem and preservation of local communities in developing countries (fair play becomes fair tourism here). On the other hand, they make it easier for Europeans to travel responsibly and minimize the negative impact which tourism can generate on the planet and its inhabitants (making the experience a genuine one).

This Jack Kerouac autobiography sends us back in time to post-war America: as readers, we join a group of youngsters — fearless of breaking with society’s traditional values — while they hit the road to embark on a trip that will become more than just a trip, but a lifestyle. A lifestyle in which the destination takes a backseat to what happens along the way.

We travel to Chicago, Denver, L.A. and Mexico DF, but that’s the least of it. The main stage, remember, is the road itself. We’ll go on long trips in which improvisation plays the lead role and a slew of experiences involving sex, drugs and jazz take place.

At times, the graphic description of diverse situations can make you feel like you are in some jazz haunt in San Francisco listening to a black musician blow away on his sax. It was during one of these moments that I was inspired to compile a list of all those players described by Kerouac in his novel and include a playlist of their music which I happily share with you.

When you ask someone what they would do if they won the lottery and they say: party or go on a shopping spree, I kind of feel pity for them. Travelling is the ideal combination of having fun and learning. A form of learning that is both good for your personal as well as your professional life.

No one will argue that travelling helps you grow as an individual. When we visit foreign countries we get to know new cultures, new customs, but we also become aware of how much we have in common with them. Travelling always helps to eliminate stereotypes and foments tolerance. Ignorance and a lack of knowledge, in turn, are the ideal ingredients for a broth of fanaticism.

Travelling also offers multiple advantages for our professional lives. It enables us to develop different takes on things, from products not available in our countries to new advertising approaches. When we travel we become genuine trend hunters. In addition, we get to practice and improve our oral expression in other languages, make new contacts, break routines…

Which is why I think it’s super-cool that in some countries, especially those of Anglo-Saxon ilk, young people are encouraged to take a year off before beginning their university studies or right after completing them. It’s an investment guaranteed to pay off handsome dividends. People don’t think twice about spending 10.000 euros on a car, but they do hesitate to spend money on a trip that can change their lives for the better.

I often stop to wonder: what will taking a trip be like in the future? Perhaps influenced by sci-fi classics, I imagine space ships flying over buildings, tele-transportation machinery…Oops, I’m getting carried away here. I really want to talk about something a little closer to the present, so much closer that in some cases it already exists.

Without stepping away from the living room, seated opposite a giant plasma screen, it is possible “to be” on any part of the planet. We can navigate its streets, the inside of buildings or museums with an image quality that paradoxically is even better than the real thing. We’ll even have gadgets that enable us to duplicate climactic or atmospheric conditions that truly exist.

Those who dare to fly, will be able to use all kinds of intelligent objects such as phones, glasses, lenses, etc, which will offer an amplified virtualization of all that surrounds us. As we walk down a street or enter a building, we’ll have access to all kinds of information: what did my friends do when they visited this city, where are the biggest crowds right now… (someting similar to what’s shown in the following video).

In any case, regardless of whether you’re at home or at the destination, any point in the world will be transformed into a number of things if we use the time factor. That is, we can go back in time and relive moments from the past. Thus, those of you who travel just to see, could save yourselves a ton of money in transportation and just stay home.

But the real challenge will be living emotions and experiences. No matter how well we are able to interact from our house with a hologram shaped as a Japanese cook showing us how to prepare genuine sushi or a human-like robot who takes us to some paradise-on-earth location, the magic of travelling can never be replaced. New technologies help us know more, aid in our becoming more time-efficient, but will never substitute for an improvised conversation with a cook at a Tokyo sushi eatery or the laughter of that necklace vendor you encountered on a beach in Rio de Janeiro. Travelling will always be more than just seeing new things and places.

As a traveller, most of the instructions and advice I read on travel web sites bores me. People are always pointing you towards the typical tourist traps, instead of unveiling  new and undiscovered treasures which promise fun and rewarding experiences. I’m not the only one with this pet peeve. The character I want to introduce to you in the following lines not only goes by the name of Joël Henry, but goes the extra yard.

Joël Henry is not just any tourist. He is an experimental tourist. In the mid-90s, while dining with some friends, this journalist who writes for the Art channel decided to apply his love for games to his love for holidays. So it was that he founded The Laboratory for Experimental Toruism (www.latourex.org), an entelechy compiling travel ideas devoid of conventional touristic restrictions.

Among his proposals are such gems as getting to know cities by only visiting the last stop on a subway line, catching a train precisely at 12:12 and getting off at the twelfth stop or discovering by yourself and in-depth the K2 area of a city’s map. Whether you think his ideas are stupid or just plain zany, no doubt you’ll agree that chance and random selection often improve the quality of one’s travels. I confirmed this for myself during our ExperienceLess venture, months ago when we launched Trourist.

Going over the top for a moment … who would be willing to choose their next destination from a list of places where a crime took place a year ago? Pushing the envelope a bit further, would you prefer instead to set loose a cricket on a map for a minute or so and then embark on a trip following its aimless wanderings? Now it’s your turn: do you have any wild, out-there experimental tourism recommendations that you’d like to share with us?

I know for certain where you’ll be.
(And also where you won’t).
You won’t be where a murmur is missing,
or in the cold silence where melancholy fills
the lifeless streets found in every city,
Nor will you be where today is like tomorrow,
Nor where the ambience has the insipid air of a Monday morning,
Nor in a photograph where you look awkwardly out of place.
You will not be alone seated in a chair,
a bridge that links you to that other world
constructed by smiles and conversation,
Nor will you be locked inside the four walls of some room
Nor waiting on an endless line without not knowing why
Nor will you be oblivious to what is going on around you.
No, I don’t have to go looking for you.
I know where to find you.
You’ll be in the spotlight of a battle,
or anchoring aweigh at dawn,
dreaming with your eyes wide open,
feeding your most venturesome spirit,
and experimenting until surprises leave you breathless.
You’ll search for that something
which makes your voyage special.
Oh yes, my dearest TROURIST friend,
I know for certain where you’ll be.