12-17-2016, 11:02 PM
I'm watching another travel show, this one "Raw Travel". The format is the usual, you take an engaging and open-minded young--not always so young--guy or gal and you send them to the heart of a place or region on the Earth to bring the experience of being there back to you.
People ask, what would you do if you had the money? Some would buy stuff--big stuff obviously, we're dreamin' here; some would give to the poor. Doesn't have to be exclusive. I would give to some poor, and leave enough to travel. I've been lucky enough to have been a few places in South America, and lots of U.S. It reminds me that since the maturation of the Renaissance, people of means sent their kids off to see the world. And they still do. I think there is nothing that compares to see the places and things of different parts of the world. The cliche is "Travel is Broadening", and there is no doubt in that. To be be well educated in the past usually meant you had traveled. Maybe you only saw Paris, or Madrid, and Rome and those wonders that come from those visits. But contemporary travel and travel shows emphasize the everyday lives and mercados of the people in a place. Gotta love them.
I was lucky to visit Quito, Ecuador, a big city. I visited a smaller town nearby--and was robbed on the bus in the process, but nothing that stuck in my mind. Like the travel shows I learned about the food. In Ecuador, for example, it's all chicken. The geography is up and down, no room for grazing, for beef. You won't see "pollo" on the menus, all dishes have their own names, so I never knew what I was going to be served. They have no social security, so you quickly learn that "begging" is their social security, and how people who have been hurt, or grown old, are beggars. And normal, other poor people give them money.
I guess watching this travel program brought this reflection on. The travel shows now show the good, the bad, and the ugly. And traveling is still broadening, and we are lucky we can do it on TV. In person is better but most of us don't have the means. If I had the money I would take a cruise through the Aegean, through Turkey, and those spots where civilization began, that would be my travel dream.
We are lucky to have this new breed of travel show. Travel, TV or otherwise is more than broadening, it's almost essential to understand your place in the world . . . to me.
Spankster
People ask, what would you do if you had the money? Some would buy stuff--big stuff obviously, we're dreamin' here; some would give to the poor. Doesn't have to be exclusive. I would give to some poor, and leave enough to travel. I've been lucky enough to have been a few places in South America, and lots of U.S. It reminds me that since the maturation of the Renaissance, people of means sent their kids off to see the world. And they still do. I think there is nothing that compares to see the places and things of different parts of the world. The cliche is "Travel is Broadening", and there is no doubt in that. To be be well educated in the past usually meant you had traveled. Maybe you only saw Paris, or Madrid, and Rome and those wonders that come from those visits. But contemporary travel and travel shows emphasize the everyday lives and mercados of the people in a place. Gotta love them.
I was lucky to visit Quito, Ecuador, a big city. I visited a smaller town nearby--and was robbed on the bus in the process, but nothing that stuck in my mind. Like the travel shows I learned about the food. In Ecuador, for example, it's all chicken. The geography is up and down, no room for grazing, for beef. You won't see "pollo" on the menus, all dishes have their own names, so I never knew what I was going to be served. They have no social security, so you quickly learn that "begging" is their social security, and how people who have been hurt, or grown old, are beggars. And normal, other poor people give them money.
I guess watching this travel program brought this reflection on. The travel shows now show the good, the bad, and the ugly. And traveling is still broadening, and we are lucky we can do it on TV. In person is better but most of us don't have the means. If I had the money I would take a cruise through the Aegean, through Turkey, and those spots where civilization began, that would be my travel dream.
We are lucky to have this new breed of travel show. Travel, TV or otherwise is more than broadening, it's almost essential to understand your place in the world . . . to me.
Spankster