As I am writing this post, I am on a few-week long trip to Central Asia. In fact, I am in a small town of Karakol in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan getting ready for a 2-day trek. It’s a fantastic region, and since it has done away with visas for citizens of most countries, it’s teeming with young, ambitious backpackers doing “the ‘Stans”.
You know the type. Usually a 20-something male traveller who thinks he’s as cool as the number of stamps in his passport. He’d casually mention his recent visit to Somaliland or North Korea. Chances are, he was a part of a big party group of similarly-aged youngsters who happen to have the cash to spend on a carefully taylor-made tour equipped with a guide and a driver. Some of these folks even make a goal of visiting all the countries in the world by a certain age. And why not, nowadays, it’s really just the money plus time factor. The rest is, well, relatively easy to arrange depending on the nation you want to visit next.
I won’t lie – I used to be kind of like that. I am certainly proud of my 75+ count of countries visited, even though some of them were just for a day or even half-day, as in case with Monaco or Liechtenstein. But lately, I have realized it’s really not about the country count.
Travelling to me, has become more about absorbing the atmosphere of every country, every city I visit. And for that, you really have to spend some time in a given place. Exploration of something off-the-beaten-path is getting harder and harder in our age of budget airlines and visa-free countries. And while I support the freedom of movement, I can’t bear the thought of mass tourism replacing the true explorer spirit, when you either don’t know what to expect the next day on your journey or have dived so deep into the realm of your new place, it will take a reverse culture shock for you to get back to your “normal” life back home.
Personally, I have had only a handful of such travel experiences. Northeast of India comes to mind, as well as Myanmar back in ’08. Then again, I have recently met an older English gentleman who has visited it back in the 80s and has plenty of stories about it, far better than mine. Imagine a trip to a faraway land without Trip Advisor, Wikitravel, or even a Lonely Planet! Yes, thousands of people traveled that way – as hard as it is for some of you millenials to believe. Word of mouth, locals’ advise, and yes, travel agents were your best friends back then. But what a sense of adventure it must have been.
I sometimes wish I could do it like that. That way, every place you visit would feel like you are the first person there ever. But alas, my own travelling bug was caught well into the digital age, although I still refrain from looking at sights’ pictures in advance of my visits. I prefer them to surprise me, whether in a good or a bad way.
And what about the ‘Stans? Well, they were off the beaten path until quite recently, although Western adventurers have visited here for centuries. Some lost their lives here for various reasons. Fortunately, the average backpacker can easily visit here now and enjoy all the Silk Road cities and magnificent mountain scenery and not risk a local shah’s or emir’s wrath. But do try to engage with the locals’ lives more as you explore these countries, and take my advice: veer off the Lonely Planet trail every now and then.