Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Nathan James Thomas, Exisle Publishing, $29.99.
If travel undertaken from a sincere place of curiosity is the opposite of prejudice, then it should broaden the mind, open us up to new cultures and expose us to new ways of thinking.
Nathan James Thomas, author and founder of the website Intrepid Times, points out travel can broaden our mind and challenge our assumptions, and has the potential to make us a better, smarter, wiser and more interesting person. However, it doesn’t just happen automatically. You need to go further, and not just geographically.
“I mean psychologically further. To be willing to listen to the environment around you. To make an effort to learn a little of the history. Pick up a word or more in the local language. Connect on a more meaningful level with the people who live where you visit. Try to see the world through their eyes. And in doing so, deliberately, carefully and purposefully, you’ll expose yourself to something new, and can allow it to change you.”
This new, pandemic-proof edition of Travel Your Way is one for our tricky times, “with barriers and restrictions coming and going at a dizzying rate”. Thomas outlines steps you can take to enhance your travels and get more out of those trips you are able to make, together with firing up your curiosity and courage as you venture out on your travels, which now more than ever, deserves to be done well.
We need to take travel seriously again. In this age of inequality and divide, look on it as a calling and a mission, which could help heal and connect. “True travel requires us to be humble. You cannot travel without first making yourself vulnerable.”
It looks like we had to experience the loss of travel to understand how much we really need it!
