Essay Explaining Why I Walk to Explore

Mark Gottlieb recently published an essay in the Christian Science Monitor related to how walking can expose the traveler to "the threads of everyday life a tourist might miss." Being a professional writer, he expressed what I have often felt and experienced much better than I ever could. I know there are some of you who read this blog and think I only walk because it saves money on transportation. Others are sometimes confused when I explain that my best travel experiences often come when I am away from the major tourist sites just seeing how people live their lives. He gives his own examples of experiences. Reading the essay brought back so many of my own experiences that have stuck in my mind over the years--coming upon a mourning family with the body of a deceased member laid out on the yard platform in front of a Myanmar home; being asked by two Indian men to join them on their front porch for a soft drink and conversation when they saw me walking down their village street; coming across a shepherd in a Georgian field and being invited to help him herd his flock and go to his home for dinner; having the owner of a 3 table restaurant in Thailand smile after asking if my food was too hot and then telling me, "One pepper!" after I had asked for two peppers when ordering; two children demonstrating their kite-flying skills to me when I passed through their family compound on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia; the family in Argentina at the dilapidated river restaurant where I was eating who were so impressed that I both found it and entered to eat in such an out-of-the-way place that they invited me to their country estancia for the next day; etc. For all of you, I would suggest that you read Gottlieb's brief essay and consider making neighborhood walking a part of your next trip even if it is just to go into another part of your own city where people's lives are a bit different from your own: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/The-Home-Forum/2010/0222/Vignettes-of-a-vibrant-city