A Thought From Kathmandu, The Mystique of Travel
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Backpacker hangout in Thamel, Kathmandu!
Kathmandu.
As a child the name held the same mystery to me as Shangri-La and Timbuktu. Kathmandu was a faraway exotic land that people only visited in the movies. Kathmandu held a mystique that only a place of true adventurers dared to travel to.
In today’s world, Kathmandu seems not so far away.
As we sit in a trendy coffee shop checking our email, talking to friends on Skype and enjoying a refreshing iced cappuccino, I can’t help but wonder if travel holds the same mystique that it held when we first started traveling.
That's a lot of laptops!!
Does it change peoples lives like it changed ours during that first trip to Thailand over 10 Years ago?
Once upon a time, travel was about cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world. We weren’t busy updating our facebook profile or texting friends when we saw something extraordinary. We didn’t even have an email account!
We would immerse ourselves in a culture for weeks at a time without contacting people from home. Our poor families didn’t know if we were alive or well. They had to wait for us to find an international phone and give them a call in the middle of the night.
We would spend weeks with our own thoughts and experiences, building up an arsenal of photos and journal entries only to keep most of them to ourselves upon our return home.
We were the mystery to our friends and families. Our travels now held the mystique that I looked for as a child.
It was difficult to explain to people what we had witnessed overseas. We would come home changed and renewed and nobody understood how we were feeling. We didn’t have a way of telling people our feelings while we were gone and once we returned home it was too hard to explain. The feelings had passed and it was merely a memory.
Things have changed rapidly.
You used to use an international phone and calling card!
Over the years we have watched technology evolve. From that first trip to Guam in the early 90′s when I walked to the USO to find and international phone booth to the next to Japan when international long distance calling cards were introduced. We could actually call home from a payphone. How cool was that? Then Internet cafés popped up and MSN messenger allowed us to have the odd conversation with someone back home if they happened to be online.
Times they are a Changin'!!
Now during our travels we never feel disconnected from home. We write our blog daily giving people a detailed account of what we feel and experience and they know exactly what we are going through. We check our email regularly, we watch new releases that are sold by bootleggers on the street on our computer, we read the news online and we use our cell phone to call our parents. We don’t have to give them an update when we get home, because we talked to them on Skype every week or so during our travels.
The world is shrinking.
Our world is shrinking!
We used to feel a giant change in ourselves when we returned from a travel. Now we wonder, can people really have a giant life change from the simple act of traveling anymore?
Do new travelers come home from their first trip abroad seeing the world with new eyes? Do they have that profound feeling that life will never be the same again? Do they want to continue traveling forever like we do
Is Travel Still Magical to young travelers?
We wonder about the people that have just started traveling. For us every experience was new and foreign. We had never heard of half of the sites and places that we visited over a decade ago. There weren’t blogs and websites to inform us about an amazing world heritage site or an ornate temple. We heard of places from other travelers or from our guide book that we just bought a few weeks before our trip.
Tanah Lot, Bali, Indonesia
We hadn’t heard of Tanah Lot, We never would have dreamed that a shocking festival like Thaipusam even existed, and Bagan? Where the heck was Bagan? We didn’t know the first thing about the tribes of Borneo or headhunters except for what we saw on Gilligan’s Island.
Thaipusam in Malaysia
We felt like explorers going out to places that nobody else had gone. Our friends didn’t go to these foreign lands. We were adventurers. We were doing something unique and different.
The world has become more accessible today. People are more informed, flights are cheaper, travel is easier and more comfortable and remote destinations aren’t so remote. Anyone can hop a flight to anywhere and find themselves an Internet Café or Wifi hook up. Tour groups take people up to Everest Base Camp or through the silk route on a bicycle. Anyone can do anything and stay in touch with their friends and families anytime.
Cycle through the Sudan
It is wonderful that the world of travel has opened and become accessible to the average human being but we want to pose a question. Does travel have the same mystique that it once held? Are people still surprised by destinations and experiences around the world. Is there a mystery to a place and are new travelers changed by travel? Does their first trip abroad bring wonder and awe to their life like it did for us during our first flight overseas.
Looking at the people staring at their computer screens here at OR2K in Kathmandu, I am not seeing a lot of wonder or curiosity showing up on these young faces. But then again, maybe they are finding their own magic in travel. Maybe the appeal of travel today is to share the experience with everyone. We have adapted and we enjoy sharing our travels with the world.
What is so different from what we are doing from what a twenty something college student is doing on their facebook page?
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22 Responses to A Thought From Kathmandu, The Mystique of Travel
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Interesting thoughts, D&D. I was so excited to hear about your Kathmandu stories – as you say, it is the legendary point where the world ends, right? And yet it appears to be one big Internet cafe.
I hope some of those students look up from their screens and check out the surroundings once in awhile. I appreciate the need to check in, but sheesh.
.-= Andy Hayes | Sharing Travel Experiences´s last blog ..Catch a Train: World’s Best Model Railways =-.
Very good question, guys. Unfortunately I can’t answer it as I am also an ‘old school’ traveller. My first year-long trip was in 94-95. I used to actually write letters home! Then on the second trip in 00-01, I had progressed to email, but it was only avaiable if I found an internet cafe.
The world has become smaller. If that is always a good thing? Who knows…
.-= Maria Staal´s last blog ..Can a quirky Family Tree make things Clear? =-.
Hi Maria. I remember I went to Guam to sing on a cruise ship in ’92. I had to walk to the U.S.O. on the island to use the phone. They had 3 wooden international phone booths. I was really young and pretty depressed there. It would have been wonderful to have Skype at the time. We love keeping in touch now too, we are just wondering if the next generation is getting the same feeling of awe that we had back in the day. We don’t really feel a lot of change anymore, but that is probably because we have been traveling for so long. We still love it, but things don’t shock and surprise us like it used to. I wonder what the students are thinking today?
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Very interesting and thoughtful post….I think the idea of going to “far off places” has evaporated for many travelers because nothing is “far off” anymore, as you’ve witnessed.
More importantly (and sadly), I think the mystique of being a “world traveler” is disappearing as well. I can remember being in awe of my great-aunt when I was a child, she was single and traveled all over the globe and I thought that was just the most glamorous thing. Nowadays many people travel all over, so it’s losing some of its glamor.
But on a positive note, I do believe that its still very exciting for the traveler to be seeing new places and having new experiences, and that will never change – even when you’ve been everywhere, the world is constantly changing, so there will always be new experiences waiting.
.-= Trisha Miller´s last blog ..Are You Holding Yourself Back? =-.
Hi Trisha. You are right, it is still very exciting to see new places and have new experiences. And luckily the world is changing so quickly that you can go back to a place in just a few years time and it will be completely different from when you were there before.
Do you know I was just having this conversation with a friend today about The Good Old Days when mail got sent poste restante and message boards were vital information centres and travelers actually talked to each other. But I am also the first to start howling if the internet connection is slow or down!
.-= Dianne´s last blog ..ERUPTION DISRUPTION AND OTHER MUSINGS =-.
Haha, so true Dianne. We too are on the Internet all the time, so who am I to talk:-) We couldn’t function without now that we have tasted what it is like to travel and stay connected every day. And besides, we wouldn’t have this Blog if travel and communication hadn’t evolved, so I think that I like it just the way it is.
This is a great topic. I do agree that the internet and the subsequent ease of access to info and communication has dramatically changed the travel experience…and definitely I think that, that proliferation of information has encouraged more people TO travel. I also think that travel still has the power to change people, perhaps in different ways than it used to.
I also can’t help but think that everything is relative. Back in the day, explorers would sail around the world for 3,4,5..10 years. Literally mapping the world, walking through virgin forest, meeting people and cultures completely removed from their world. Talk about a mystical experience!
I don’t know. I personally feel there are positive things that can come of the world shrinking – for travelers and host countries alike. Perhaps things won’t be so “exotic” or “foreign”, but maybe this will enable people to better see and understand the commonalities between us all; which just might be a richer experience in the end.
.-= rebeccius´s last blog ..Evolution of an itinerary =-.
Great comment rebeccius. You are right, it is all relative and people that are venturing out for the first time are probably very inspired and excited. It is also wonderful that the people of the world are feeling more connected and are starting to understand each others cultures and traditions.
It really breaks my heart when I travel and I see people more in engrossed with their phones and laptops than the actual place they’re in. However, I think it’s great that travel is more accessible now. Just because it’s been made easier doesn’t make it any less enjoyable or amazing…at least for me. It only makes me dream about traveling more, now that it’s possible!
.-= Andi´s last blog ..imgp2629 =-.
Great post & interesting thoughts on contemporary travel. My husband and I are one a one year trip which will be wrapping up in a few months. We spent time in both the backpacking meccas (Bangkok & Kathmandu) and completely off the grid. I agree that technology has leaked into most corners of the world – but there are a ton of areas that a traveler can get to that aren’t plugged in.
After spending some time in the busy backpacking centers (Bangkok & such) and realizing that it wasn’t our thing, we changed tactics. We used the blogs, websites and plethora of information on the net to find the far off places that weren’t plugged in – to get away from the madness – if that makes sense. We would read about regions (India’s NE States, northern Myanmar or some islands in Indonesia, for example) that other travelers had been to & said were unplugged. We’d then set our sites on those places.
Travel wonder, as you described it, is still out there – it’s just may not be in the same places as it used to be. In my opinion, the information out there is good because it can(ironically) be used to find the places that aren’t overrun by people on their laptops sharing information.
Hi Jaime, excellent comments and observations. You are absolutely right, you can easily find places that are off the beaten path and not plugged in. Kathmandu has been around for so long that it has developed into a destination for all types of travelers. That said, we loved having the free wifi everywhere because we could do a lot of work on our blog which we love working on. Blogs have revolutionized travel and have inspired others to go out there and see the world. So it progress comes with the good and the bad. I think that the good outweighs the bad.
It is nice to hear that people still find wonder and awe in travel. I would hate for new travelers especially to be blasé about this great world.
Interesting thoughts, I travelled RTW in 2004/5 and used a simple non interactive website to update friends and family. I dont think that the explosion in web info, blogs etc detracts from ones experience, the reverse is true – it makes far off places more accessible and enjoyable to ‘know before you go’ and I think many past travellers would have voraciously absorbed all the info we now have access to. But I did realise that it is important to put the camera down and look with your own eyes rather than focusing on the lens ‘story’. For many, its the removal from the daily grind of working that makes travel such a liberating and wonderful experience.
Well said, thanks for the thoughts!
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Tough questions, and I think the answer lies in each individual person. I hope I never lose that awe.
.-= Candice´s last blog ..Finally, the Passion Board Unveiled =-.
Interesting questions guys. Even with the internet though, I know when I discover a place for the first time, it’s not the same as reading about it or seeing it in photos. I think there are still magical little corners of even the most well-documented cities and sites that wait for us to discover them.
On a personal note, I know that I couldn’t enjoy life aboard without the connection to my loved-ones back home that the internet gives me.
.-= Alison´s last blog ..Visiting Kew Gardens – London, England =-.
I am with you Alison, I love being connected to friends and family now. We never feel like we are that far away from home. On the downside, when we return home there isn’t that excitement that there used to be I just love the feeling of a reunion, but when you just talked to them on skype a week earlier the excitement wears off a bit.
It is funny that I am reading your post in the Northfield Cafe using their free WIFI…Tomorrow we fly to Varanassi, but if you get this earlier, any good resto you reccomend here? Thanks
.-= Ninfa´s last blog ..Natural Highs on the train to Tibet =-.
Hopefully you get this on time. Ah man, I am in France right now and cant think of the names of everything. We had some great food in Kathmandu. For Italian there is a place right on the main corner of Thamel near Kathmandu Guesthouse. It is on the second floor and yummy. We loved New Orleans as well and there was another great place down the street from the supermarkets on the corner in the square with the Bikram Yoga. It is owned by people from Isreal I think because they had excellent hummus. Great atmosphere too. If you go towards the coffee shop and the Bikram Yoga, it is to the right and up the stairs in an unassuming little alleyway. Hope this helps.
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