Comments on: Tour of Duty: Are You a Travel Conscript?

By: Claire Moss

Claire Moss — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:47:35 +0000

Thanks for all the comments everyone! Sarah, I think you've said what I was trying to say far more eloquently than I managed but I'm glad the sentiment came across!

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By: Drk

Drk — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:21:52 +0000

Good Article, these things need to be said. I have thought these thoughts when on my travels many times. On the flip side as I sit at my work desk now, I wonder why I ain't on the road.

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By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:09:30 +0000

Sarah, you couldn't be more right. Traveling is not the way, it's just a life style. And, if it were long-term, in my mind it would only be useful if the experiences obtained helped form a passion to make the "sedentary world" a better place, beginning with the local communities and real people within them.

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By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:04:56 +0000

I can say that I used to have delusions about traveling. I thought that a certain place would make me happy or offer me wonder. As it turns out, traveling is just a part of life, and when it comes down to it, you will enjoy it as much as you enjoy yourself and you will be treated well by others and your environment if that is that energy you carry with you. Traveling can be both fulfilling and empty, bright/engaged and lonely, hard and easy…it all depends on your own passion and what you bring to the table. Traveling with a purpose, self-determination, and resolve – that's the best. Without the bright inner world, all those places you visit and people you meet will seem superficial and fake. The main difference, in my view, between living at home and traveling is that when you are in a foreign place there is more around you that is unusual and by virtue of that is able to challenge your self. But if you ignore all that and just focus on the destination, how would it be possible to enjoy yourself? It's like working all day thinking about the party your going to go to that night as if its going to be that much better than the moment, and then when you get to the party its lame until you get drunk and something delightful happens that gets you back into the flow that you secretly craved in the first place.
I agree with the article and others here…traveling has become so common that it has become impersonal and like a shallow objective to many. I've been there, talking to people in hostels who really don't know what they are doing in a place and seem to be sucking up the experience and not really living a full life while they are there. And I have been that person too.

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By: Henri

Henri — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:47:41 +0000

Great article! I love the way you get to know to this very interesting and fascinating group of people, who are traveling around some foreign country with a strange language and they aren't quite sure why they're there. Wonderful insights and I think the area deserves more exploration. It's a very enjoyable read.

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By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:55:15 +0000

I'm really glad to see that this article generate such passionate and thoughtful discussion– not only about this article, but about other articles we've published on Matador. I'm glad that this online community is big enough (and mature enough!) to welcome diverse opinions and experiences, honest conversation, and a careful examination of our own experiences and opinions, as well as those of others. Thanks for participating in the dialog.

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By: Sarah Menkedick

Sarah Menkedick — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:48:40 +0000

Eva–I really enjoyed your post and left you a comment there. I'm going to link to the same article here that I linked to on your blog, because I think it provides a really interesting, and thoughtful, opposing perspective to many pervasive beliefs about travel.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/a...

Please, continue the shameless promotion! And thanks for your comments.

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By: Eva

Eva — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:36:22 +0000

SARAH! You've absolutely nailed the discomfort I often feel about some of the attitudes in the "travel blogosphere" in general, and sometimes at Matador in particular: the idea that, as you say, travel is "some sort of automatic golden path to wisdom, education and a good conscience" — and that, conversely, non-travelers are part of the problem, almost by default.

In response to both the comment here and the one you left on my interview with Kelsey, I'd like to take a shameless moment and direct you to a blog post I wrote recently: http://matadortravel.com/travel-blog/canada/deva/...

I've been struggling to defend my friends and family (non-traveling 9-to-5ers, almost to a man/woman) in this forum for a long time, and I think in that post I may have finally managed to achieve some clarity on the subject…

Great rant!

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By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:25:44 +0000

Thanks for those thoughts Sarah – I'm right there with you, and hate to think my articles promote the idea that budget travel is the only ethical antidote to consumerism. It's not! Not at all! In fact, as you suggest, travel is essentially unsustainable. Vegetable gardens, wood-stoves, bikes and strong local communities – that's where it's at long-term.

I think travel is inherently educative. Morally laudable? Sometimes, but certainly not always. Looking forward to more – I'm always excited to see your byline.

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By: Sarah Menkedick

Sarah Menkedick — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 04:21:44 +0000

Thanks for the response, Tim, and I apologize if I painted your writing in black and white. My point was really that travel can be educative, progressive, morally laudable, and it can–most importantly, I think–create much-needed connections that show people how their actions at home affect others abroad, but it can also be destructive, and it can perpetuate the same power relations and ideologies present at home. Like Ian said, it all depends on awareness–and, I think, how much people are willing to question themselves and their own assumptions while traveling. That was my point with the Inner Travel article on BNT a few weeks ago (sorry for the shameless self-promotion! Ug!)

Anyway, thanks for adding to the debate, and I think you're right about travel being inherently educative–although for some people it may simply reinforce what they already "know", while for others it might really open up whole new ways of seeing. As an example of the latter, I remember my stepfather, who is really anti-immigration and totally pro border fence in the U.S., coming to visit me here in Oaxaca and saying, with a new sort of glimmer of "getting it" in his eye, "wow, it's really a shame that people like Jorge (my Mexican husband) can't just come visit the U.S." (Technically, Jorge could if we paid enough money and crossed our fingers through all the interviews, but still…) He has started looking at Mexican workers at home, in the U.S., differently, and I think that's a huge progressive change.

Sorry for the rant! I'm off to eat chilaquiles.

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