Travelers vs Tourists

Living on a ship for 4 months is a lot like participating in a social experiment, where you take people out of their natural "habitat", place them in this temporary reality and see how they respond to different stimuli. There are so many continuums on which we can classify people in a non-discriminatory or hurtful way to compare and contrast passenger's reactions to a wide variety of issues. There's old/not so old, rich/not so rich, conservative/liberal, and so on. The difference between this ship and any other situation where a group of people are gathered together, we're together EVERYDAY for 4 months. We see each other at the buffet, out on excursions, in the Souk (marketplace), in the theater, and in the (name 100 more places). Even beyond the circle of people we now consider our friends, we have lots of short elevator-like conversations with other passengers about whatever's going on that day. There's always a buzz about something.

For example, about 2 weeks ago now, we were on Komodo Island. That night, every passenger was charged a $60 "immigration fee" on their folio, whether or not they got off the ship. The ship was pretty well divided ....some said it's a world cruise and there will always be unexpected fees so Hakunah Matatah. Others were ready to start a mutiny about the unfair way it was communicated and charged. I was encouraging people to "Let it Go" and in fact, started belting out the chorus until they stopped complaining. Harsh but effective 😉. I've mentioned a Viktor Frankl quote in a previous blog, but it's so appropriate in this context as well. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Another continuum that I've seen manifest itself is Traveler/Tourist.

The Traveler at one end of the spectrum is a fearless, experiential, savoring of the different culture's people, food, sights, smells and customs of whatever port we're in. They're generally organizing their own excursion personalized to how they want to experience the city or town we're visiting. Some excursions are as simple as hiring a taxi driver to take them around town, some excursions are more involved and preplanned through Viator, TripAdvisor or ToursbyLocals, the latter of which I have heard good things about. Some ports aren't planned at all. Our friends Lanny and Sandy definitely qualify as Travelers, even renting their own cars in many of the ports of call we've visited. We had the pleasure of joining them on many of their adventures. Travelers still see all the major sights, but deprioritize the amount of time spent on the "major sights" in favor of the "the-path-less-traveled" sights, the hidden alleyways and the local venues. It reminds me of my favorite poem, which I keep posted near my desk at home and which is really a traveler's love song.

The Road Not Taken Robert Frost - 1874-1963

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

The Tourist is a different beast altogether, although they can look the same from a distance. The tourist focuses their time and attention on the major sites, often using a ship's excursion to facilitate and pursue that goal. Sometimes it's particularly hard to distinguish between a traveler and a tourist because some of the planned excursions are VERY adventuresome, like helicopter tours, parasailing and physically challenging hikes. I think the operative word here is "Planned". As I said in a previous post, planning to be spontaneous isn't the same as being spontaneous. Tourists have a plan and generally don't leave much to chance.

Neither one is better than the other, though it would appear I have glamorized the Traveler. I didn't mean to. It's just that the Tourist is the most common, the majority of this ship in fact. Everyone knows what a tourist is. But the traveler isn't as well known or defined. For me, I would liken the difference between a traveler and tourist to a woodworker vs a person who make things out of wood. The latter sets a plan, purchases the materials and executes the plan. The former acquires a piece of wood and allows it to tell him what it wants to be....what it was intended to be. In the same way, the tourist sets a plan, prepares appropriately and executes the plan; but the traveler will approach the port and let the port lead him/her to best it has to offer, and he/she follows willingly.

You might be wondering where I place myself on that continuum. I don't know anyone at either extreme, but I would place myself at about 60% traveler/40% tourist. Being a geocacher lends itself well to the "traveler" in me, but also the foodie in me will have me trapsing up mountains if I suspect there's a unique taste experience awaiting me at the destination. I yearn for that unique twist in each port that somehow allows me to experience it in a more intimate way than simply visiting the major sights and buying souvenirs. But it's hard because the tourists outnumber the travelers by quite a bit, so most of the local options are directed toward the tourists. It takes intentionality AND accepting some risk to go off the beaten path. But I can say, some of my best memories in all our travels are when we broke free from the standard itinerary and explored the unexplored. I remember well when my wife and I went off in search of a geocache in Montenegro, where we'll be again in a few weeks. A short hike off the main trail took us outside the wall that surrounds the city to a very small church, potentially unused....it really wasn't clear. But it was exquisite in its simplicity, and it had a peace about itself alone in the countryside but not lonely. My wife painted a "portrait" of it for our home and we love not only the simple beauty of it but also the memory it stirs of a time when we took the road less traveled.

Till tomorrow....