The Amazing Tribal Peoples of India

     We Westerners tend to think of India as one overgrown homogeneous country, primarily Hindu, brown skinned, ambitious, poor and energetic. That may be true of the majority of Indians but it certainly does not take into account the tremendous variety of peoples, religions and subcultures that exist there. Of special interest are the forty million or so folks who are considered tribals. That figure is, of course, a drop in the bucket of the more than a billion Indians who populate the peninsula but their practices are so varied and unique that they merit a visit or more of their own to satiate the interests of the intrepid traveler. I was lucky enough to put together such a journey for myself and it turned out to be a highlight of my travel.

      Most of the tribal villages are in rural areas separate from mainstream Indian culture and often a distance from its vast cities. The more isolated these villages are, the more likely they are to have retained their differences in language, worship, dress and customs. These are primarily people who settled in India well before the Aryans arrived and the Hindu culture was established. Many of them are of Dravidian origin and practice one form or other of animist religions. The tribal villages are scattered throughout the country although there are a few places where one is more likely to encounter a variety of them. And the variations are staggering. Some folks pray to stone formations or to unique spirits, some others worship ancestors; others still wander about with bows and arrows, many of them value women equally or even above males and others provide for bride prices in contrast to the Hindu culture where dowries are commonplace. There are still many who practice animal sacrifice on a regular basis. There are tribals who are virtually naked in dress and others who are covered from head to toe and wear an abundance of jewelry, especially necklaces and nose rings made in tribal villages which specialize in such metalwork. There are patrilineal and matrilineal groups, bigamists and monogamists and even places where women take more than one husband; some communities allow easy divorce and others do not. A visit to their living areas is a veritable journey through National Geographic.

     My trip began in the state of Madhya Pradesh with a visit to the most numerous minority group called the Bhils who number about 7,000,000 alone. I wrote earlier about their colorful Bhagoria Festivals where young people meet, boys convince girls to run off with them to spend trial days in the woods and ultimately take the mates they find worthwhile to the boy's home at which time the family prepares an offer to the bride's family. In that part of India, one can also visit other tribes including the Bhilala, the Ghonds and the Nagdas.  These groups worship their own god, Bhagwan, and consider nature an object of reverence also. They pray to stone images sprayed with oil and offer liquor and animals to their gods. The Bhil's male and female dress for the Bhagoria Festival is incredibly colorful and original.

     Another concentration of tribal life is in Orissa on the Eastern side of India. One can visit there the Kutia Kondh and view the geometric tattoos on the faces and hands of the women so that they will recognize one another in the after world while the men dress in loin clothes even today. This tribe has very elaborate rituals for birth, marriage and death, all of which can be observed on a visit. Another artifact to be observed among the various Kondh clans is the way the villages are laid out. They generally are built with two rows of houses facing a central street in the middle of which stands an altar to the earth goddess who is worshipped faithfully. The clan of the Dongariya Kondh features women who wear three large nose rings as well as men who have their hair bunched up on their head and are decorated with smaller nose rings. They are a fascinating, unusual looking group but the Bonda and the Gadaba who also reside in the general area are even more singular. The Bonda women, according to legend, may not wear any clothing but they have fashioned one of the most unique ways to cover themselves I have ever seen. They are known as "the naked people." This group also practices bride price instead of dowry for the men's families.  The men are known for their violent, warlike manner and carry weapons to protect their women from relatively non-existent animal threats. The Gadaba female attire features gigantic earrings and the women are especially well known for their dancing.

      There are, of course, other places where one finds numerous tribes on the subcontinent, especially in the far North where groups such as the Nisha and the Monpa dwell and the West where nomadic tribes wander the deserts. I have yet to get to those places. Almost everywhere one goes in India, however, a tribal village lies not very far away. The people who live near cities and who trade extensively with the majority culture have become rather assimilated over the years, so the interested traveler who wishes to see the dramatic alternative life styles some of these minority villages offer needs to get going. The world grows smaller as I write this blog.

Gadaba Woman with Necklaces

Don't Forget the Animals

     For the most part, I am primarily interested in the people and the cultures in the Third World areas where I travel, but animal life is extremely varied in such places and can bring thrills and joy to the visitor as well. Some of my most vivid memories have to do with encounters with strange beasts that one can usually only view in a local zoo and thus never come to appreciate the nature of their life in the wild. Meetings on the animal's territory may be fraught with danger but the traveler is typically in a relatively safe transport and, most often, with a knowledgeable guide at such times. The most common kind of encounter occurs on a planned safari with park rangers tracking the animals of a particular area, especially the larger ones which lend themselves to desirable photography. What one happens upon, even with the best of itineraries, is largely a function of luck. I had been on several safaris (Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa) when we took our family on a trip to a site next to Kruger Park. Nothing compared to that experience. We found ourselves about 30 feet from a formidable rhino who was peacefully grazing along and marking his territory. He paid no attention to our presence at all, fortunately, so we were able to spend a good bit of time observing his behavior. We then went in search of lions which my wife and I had seen on former trips we but we never expected to find the scene that unfolded almost directly over our heads. There in a tree, as if arranged for our entertainment, were a group of three or four young lions, playing like kittens on a large branch, pushing each other around and trying out various poses for balance.We could have spent the whole day watching them. I will not go into the rest of that trip but it continued for two days of absolute delight. At the end of our stay while we were packing our van, an enormous elephant sauntered right up to the van. That encounter was closer than I would have desired. The clearly alarmed ranger told us to stand still and not take any photos. He clapped his hands and the animal turned and left. If he hadn't, I surely would have.

     Of course, all animal encounters are not so peaceful or simple. On an earlier safari, I remember waking at night to noise outside our tent. I dismissed it as inconsequential but learned from fellow campers the next morning that a large African buffalo was walking around the tent for quite a while. He had destroyed a large bush just outside the entrance to our tent and was apparently thinking about spending the evening with us. We pretty much missed the whole event and stayed cosy in bed. On another safari, our jeep stopped to view a few elephants from not too great a distance. One of the herd did not want to be observed apparently and came rushing toward us, ears flapping and hell-bent on destruction. We got out of there fast and stopped about a hundred yards down the road- to no avail. That elephant came barreling after us again in a short time and almost reached the jeep before we could leave the area. Not peaceful at all. Usually one can get quite close to these giants without concern but that was the exception to the rule.

     The most exciting animal visit I ever made was to the Island of Komodo where the famous dragons live. As I stepped onto the shore from our small boat, I noticed lines in the sandy coastline and asked our guide what they were. "Oh, those are from the dragons walking the beach that morning. Those lines are markings from their tails dragging in the sand," he replied. That was my first palpable realization that this was the dragon's island and we were visitors to their home. No zoos there. It was calming to be with a group of about 15 other travelers- safety in numbers, I guess- as we hiked to a spot on the island where the guides were to feed the giant lizards we had come to see. They yanked a bleating goat along as a convenient sacrifice. Convenient for us, that is, not for the goat. He would serve as the lunch that brought the dragons out of their shady, wooded hideaways. Just before we arrived at the designated spot, I glanced to my right and, less than 20 feet away, stared straight into the face of one of the dragons. He was about ten feet long, dripping with poisonous saliva from a gaping mouth and he had a tail powerful enough to disable a person. We were both on the way to the special ceremony so the unnerving incident passed uneventfully.

         We watched the powerful lizards hustle out of their forest hideouts to dissemble the goat and compete for every measure of meat possible. On the way back, we encountered the largest dragon I saw that day just sitting on the far side of the path eyeing our tourist line. The guide said just to continue walking straight ahead which I thought was an excellent idea. His only protection for us consisted of a small stick which I am sure would have tickled the monster into submission should he have attacked any of us. "Do they eat humans?" we inquired. "Not often" was the reply "but it does happen." I have felt safer a few feet from a sleeping crocodile or in a small boat floating along in hippo infested waters than I did during our return passage to the shore. Fortunately, I think the dragon was one of those who had just satiated themselves on the goat. He just sat there. At least in the Third World, one can interact with the animals one meets and really appreciate their behavior. Cages are not always a bad idea however.

       Of course, the ultimate animal viewing destination is on the other side of the world. The Galapagos Islands are in the Pacific off the coast of Ecuador and can easily be combined with cultural visits to Peru or Ecuador with their fascinating Indian settlements and ancient ruins The amazing thing about the Galapagos is the incredible variety of animals that dwell in the surrounding sea, on the volcanic islands and in the air wherever one goes. If you want to see the courting rituals of Blue Footed Boobies or the lovely Winged Albatross, admire the immensity of the Galapagos Turtles or step over sea lions sitting along the path before you, swim with seals or have fearless Mockingbirds land on your arm and stare up at you, this is the place to go. It is not easy to get to but more than worth it when you arrive.

Young Lions Playing in a Tree, S. Africa

Getting Down With the People Who Live There

     If there were one word of advice I would give to fellow travelers it would be participate. Opportunities for being part of what is going on around you are omnipresent in the Third World. People in developing countries tend to be less protective of their personal practices and less inclined to secrecy than we are used to in the West. That gives us choices to be observers- to stand around and watch what goes on- or to get involved with the events that take place when we are in some exotic place. I remember many times I have faced the option to get involved or to stand apart. A few examples of this choice which have greatly affected the quality of my travel come vividly to mind.

      In the city of Vientiane, Laos, my wife and I rented a moped one afternoon so we could spend the next day touring the interesting, small villages surrounding the capital. When we awoke in the morning, it was raining hard and that plan seemed to be gone with the wind. I suggested we take the moped back and make the most of the day getting around by cab. My wife looked out onto the street and saw the multitude of moped riders slicing through the nasty weather and she suggested we do as the Romans do. We borrowed a large umbrella, hopped on the moped and drove around all day. Bev was sitting behind me holding the umbrella over both of us which at least gave us the feeling of being protected from the rain, just as many of our road mates were doing. We visited the towns and the temples and did not miss a step. It was sure more enjoyable than the cab I was thinking of renting. We had as much fun that day as on any of our many travel moments. People we saw appreciated our willingness to get out and about in the manner they were accustomed to. We got lots of smiles. It is a good thing the residents provided an example for us of how to see Vientiane.

       Another moped event also occurred in Southeast Asia, namely in the city of Da Nang on the coast of Vietnam. We had an open day in front of us and we decided to go to Hoi An which we had left off of our itinerary even though we knew it was a tempting town to visit. We again rented a moped for the day. Of course we wound up getting lost. The signs were all in Vietnamese, the roads were all in disrepair, and we were the only English speakers we encountered until well into our ride. Finally, about an hour into our misdirected journey, another moped driver saw our confusion and we were able to communicate to him our intended destination. He indicated that we were on the wrong road and instructed us to follow him. He put us on the right path eventually and we did wind up having a great day touring the old Chinese settlements in Hoi An. That afternoon we left later than we might have otherwise to return to Danang. We did make it into the city but that too was quite an adventure. I learned that mopeds did not generally include lights, especially on the back of the bikes. We came into Da Nang in the dark alongside a crowd of mopeds and bicycles, all of which were invisible until one was right on them. After finding ourselves inches from the next driver, we decided not to ride any more mopeds in the dark.

     I wrote in an earlier blog about how a visitor is viewed as an important guest at  many ceremonies in the Third World. I remember several days when our joining the festivities wound up being fun and rewarding to us and the other participants. In West Africa, we attended an event which featured stilt dancers. At one point it was explained to us that the dancers were so nimble that they could bend over and pick up something off the ground. I walked out to the middle of the ring, put a few francs on the ground and returned to my seat. The dancer who was performing went over to the money and deftly bent over on his long stilts to successfully pick it up. He then turned and bowed to me and the whole audience cheered. They had apparently enjoyed not only his skills but my willingness to take the ceremony seriously and to make a contribution to it.

     There are innumerable such memories that occur to me as I reflect on this aspect of travel but I will limit myself to just one more example of participation. On our first trip to India, we were in the lobby of our hotel and we noticed activity outside on the street. We were informed that the activities of the delightful holiday called Holi were taking place and that folks were painting one another with colored powder, yelling and totally enjoying themselves. We were advised to stay in the hotel because "it could be dangerous in the street." My wife and I immediately went back to our room, put on the oldest, most beat clothing we had brought with us and headed for the festivities. Other folks followed our example. We bought several packets of colored powder from one of the many vendors and joined the celebration. By the time we returned to the hotel, we were covered with colors which never completely washed out of our clothing. My wife endured a few breast rubs that morning but that was the extent of the danger we faced. The people who engaged us truly enjoyed our being out there participating in their holiday.  They could not have enjoyed that any more than we did. Diving in to the activities that present themselves along the way may be the best way to enrich your travel experiences.

My wife, Bev, dancing in Cote D'Ivoire

Organizing Your Third World Trip

     I am frequently asked about how I put together one of my month or so long journeys to unfamiliar places. The first, and perhaps the most essential step, is deciding what area to travel to. There are so many interesting places in the world and so few opportunities to visit them that one needs to prioritize possible destinations to make sure the most important ones are the ones we travel to. The choice will reflect the interests of the traveler, the weather at the destination, money, and the pollitical situation at the very least. Once a site has been chosen, I begin a good bit of research. The internet travel sites, guide books, novels and other sources of information help me to select specific places that appear to be interesting. After that step, I generally put together a rough itinerary that includes my desired number of days in a particular site.
Very few guidebooks or internet sites can tell you just how many hours it takes to get from Mopti to Timbuctoo or Cuernavaca to Guadalajara so the next step is to approximate the time for your itinerary and to create a mock itinerary which will be used to send out.


      After I have my mock itinerary, I put it into an email together with a paragraph or two about me, my travel and my interests. I go onto the Net to look for agentss who live and work in the area I want to visit or, occasionally, agents in the States who specialize in the specific country I intend to visit. I explain to them that the itinerary is an approximation and I tell them how much I hope to spend and what kind of traveler I am. I request the agent look over this email carefully and respond to me with any suggestions or information they have. Out of about ten such emails I am likely to get about three back that indicate the agent understands what I am looking for and could provide the guidance and help I seek. The others do not seem to get it and so I have winnowed the field. Using whatever suggestions I have received at this point, I refine the itinerary to make it more realistic and I prepare the next step.


      It is time for the next email. In that message, I send the modified itinerary, give an indication of what hotels seem appropriate, request prices, and ask for additional suggestions. At this point, I let each of three or so agents know that I have made this request to several others and that I will choose the one among them who seems to be the most knowledgable and helpful and whose pricing seems most advantageous. It is important to let each of the correspondents at this point know that you may not select them to arrange the trip. An agent works hard to get timetables, make temporary reservations and find out detailed information to put a trip together. If they don't want to do that because they are not the only ones being asked to do so, they should have that choice. Like any business person they should have the information necessary to decide if they want to do the job.


     The final step is to select the agent I want to work with and which services I want from them. I may just have them take care of internal transportation and a guide, or perhaps make a few hotel reservations or arrange for a self-drive car. Depending on the available facilities, how crowded the season is and the language challenges, I have the agent set up whatever I may not be able to do. Voila! The trip is set and I am off and running. That preparation usually does the trick.

Goat Boat, Niger River, Mali

     

Strange Burials in the Third World

     There are seemingly infinite ways to honor ancestors; traveling in the Third World enables the tourist to observe a wide variety of funerary rites and even to occasionally participate in them. I am always amazed at how diverse man's accommodation can be to life's circumstances and to varied cultural beliefs about the nature of the world. Burials are an excellent example of such adaptations. I remember when my first encounter with exotic differences in this custom took place. I was in a Zoroastrian Temple in Mumbai, India. A guide pointed out a tower near the temple and explained that the Zoroastrian burial custom was to lay the corpse of the deceased person out in the open at the top of the tower in order that it be consumed by elements of nature.  We learned that the practitioners of this faith believe that the body becomes impure once the person has died and must not be permitted to contaminate the earth so they expose the body to the sun and to the birds of prey to be returned to nature. As one travels through the less known parts of the world, similarities between customs and beliefs in different and seemingly unrelated places turn up surprisingly. It was many years later on the island of Bali that we encountered an almost identical custom among the early settlers of that island. The Bali Agha, the oldest cultural group there, do virtually the same thing except that the bodies are laid out on the ground and covered with light cloths in order that they be reabsorbed into the earth from which they came. We were able to visit the Bali Agha cemetery in one of the small communities where they live but access was denied to the Zoroastrian Towers. Of course, the rest of the Balinese also observe burial practices which are colorful and interesting and distinctive, filled with dance and music, so those are exceptional as well. One has several choices on that little island alone.

     I have written earlier about the amazing funeral customs of some of the other peoples of Indonesia. The Toraja who live in the central part of the island of Sulawesi conduct perhaps the most elaborate of these ceremonies. If a person is important and/or especially wealthy, at death he or she is placed in a casket and buried in the ground much as one does in most of the world. The family saves its money for a clearly more important subsequent event, however, to which all of the townspeople and the deceased's family and friends and acquaintances are invited. The grand ritual occurs some year or two later. The ceremony may involve hundreds or more visitors from other islands and from neighboring towns who are provided  for in tents, served all kinds of food, and for whom many animals are sacrificed, etc. The expenses incurred by such grand ventures have bankrupted some families and these events are strongly discouraged by the authorities. They go on nonetheless.

     In Tana Toraja (the land of the heavenly kings) where these elaborate ceremonies are held, this event includes the placing of a carved wooden effigy of the deceased on the side of a cave in a lovely rice field covered valley to stand alongside equivalent dignitaries. These effigies are tended by the living relatives of the deceased including a regular changing of the dress on the effigy. The corpses are then interred in the caves behind each of these figures. Walking through that valley is quite a sight. In other places in Indonesia, the grand ceremony is followed by placing the coffin into a finely constructed miniature home that is a replica of those the people live in. Thus, the ancestors of the people have equal comfort in their afterlife. I have had the good fortune to be an honored guest at each kind of ceremony just because I was there to attend. My presence apparently lent additional gravity and importance to the event so I was welcomed with open arms.

     When I visited a small community of Sun Worshippers on the island of New Guinea, I saw another curious version of dealing with dead ancestors. There, on a series of shelves right in the middle of the tiny village, stood skulls of ancestors covering several generations. They had been decorated in the same fashion as the residents of the village do for themselves when they paint their faces to participate in joyful ceremonies. So the skulls are representations of those who lived earlier in the village. Many people in the Third World regard deceased relatives as the living dead, spirits that protect them from on high in the afterlife or guide them in their daily activities. They take care of these spirits out of respect but also out of fear that they could be harmed by them. 

     On the banks of the holy Ganges River in Varanasi, India, one sees many examples of the much more common crematory ceremonies for the dead. But the Hindus start early on these sacred shores. They bring their dying relatives to the riverside, construct pyres or use the ones that stand there and tend their loved ones as one might do in a hospice. After death occurs, the body is placed on the pyre and cremated with the appropriate ceremonial prayers and rituals. This is something many tourists are familiar with. Less well known is something I came across in Ghana in Western Africa. I was introduced to a common variation of burial that exists there- coffins are often carved to represent something of the person's life or the aspirations of the deceased. I have seen airplanes, bibles, books, race cars and other such items created by local carvers for the deceased to spend their eternity in. While I have surely not seen the full range of ceremonies that man has created to honor the dead, I consider myself fortunate to have experienced such a wide range of burial practices in my journeys. Such customs make travel in the Third World captivating, especially because they are so accessible to visitors who are interested in them. Not only can one observe what happens but often the visitor is deemed to underscore and augment the import of the ceremony. Doing well by doing good, I guess.

Boy in Market, Kashgar, China

What Do We Do In Response to Poverty?

     I was lecturing at a library the other day about the Third World and a woman who had been adventurous enough and curious enough to have visited India, my favorite destination, stated that it was dirty there and she was quite discomforted by the poverty. She did not enjoy her visit because of that. At least she had first hand experience because she chose to go there in the first place. Almost all the other folks who attend my lectures use those visceral aversions as reasons not to go. Are there great pockets of poverty in India and Cambodia and Yemen and Africa and many other places? Of course there are. First of all about a third of the world's people earn less than $2.00 a day. That is poverty. At that level most people can barely afford to eat or build themselves decent shelter or clothe themselves for protection against harsh weather. They are constantly in danger from epidemics or turbulent weather or other environmental events they cannot protect themselves against. They surely have little choice about where to live and very few have access to decent education. In some places poor people are more apparent than in others. In India, because of the dense population, poverty is especially visible.

      Yet few of us actually live very far from folks who are poor, who simply scrape by day to day if they are lucky. We usually protect ourselves from confrontation with that phenomenon by zipping past such areas in our car without stopping or by circumventing the "dirty" or "dangerous" streets by riding on expressways to our destination. Poverty is something that we read about but rarely are thrust into the middle of. Not so for the traveler. In areas of Cairo or Mexico City or Mumbai, we are more likely to be walking through neighborhoods where folks live outside or are clearly in need so we have to acknowledge the existence of aspects of life and society we can avoid at home if we are so inclined. As a matter of fact, travel is an opportunity if it is viewed as such. We can more safely and more genuinely interact with folks who are poor than is the case when we are at home. Travel provides a chance to sensitize ourselves to the existence of such life and to ponder the downside of society and its implications for us and others who do not have to endure such hardships. One of my earliest travel experiences and a true epiphany was taking a young woman to her home in the slums of Acapulco and seeing the conditions under which she lived from day to day-the unavailability of clean water, the sewage floating alongside unpaved roads, hungry babies crying under fragile tents. I knew that, from then on, I would work to help such people in any way I could.

     So that is another possible reaction. Maybe we could label it the Mother Teresa Conversion.  Each time I travel to places like rural Burma or some small African village, I become more and more aware of the hardships that some people have to endure just to go on living. We read about AIDS here but there are places where as much as a third or nearly half of the residents are infected; we are conscious of the existence of hunger even in America but distended bellies and skeletal figures abound in parts of the Third World reminding us how common and how painful hunger is; we see multititudes of children and adults living on the streets of overgrown cities in underdeveloped areas and cannot avoid those scenes intruding into our consciousness. These are people just like us, born in a less fortunate place, heirs to less opportunity, subjected to the whims of their weather or economy or cultures and trapped in their circumstances. Such images and experiences have impelled me to reevaluate what I consider important and what I take for granted. Such scenes can make us more human and help us to grow ethically if we allow them to do so. Visiting poverty can be an opportunity but only if the visitor takes as much interest in it as he or she does in the beautiful buildings or colorful costumes or captivating ceremonies one comes across all over the world. More knowledge and greater intimacy with all aspects of human life can have a greater effect on us than the easier aspects of world travel could ever afford. I don't like poverty either, at home or away. That's why I make an effort to diminish it in any way I can. Visits to India help increase my resolve.

                                                         Beggar, Mumbai, India

Why Do I Write About Travel?

     I don't get paid for the hours I spend writing about travel. Although I have sold quite a few copies of my travel book, What's an American Doing Here: Reflections on Travel in the Third World, I am donating the proceeds to Doctors without Borders, so I surely will never get rich on that project. My blog and the variety of on-line articles I have written are not a source of income either. Fortunately, that is not a concern for me but it still begs the question: "Why write about travel in the first place." Since I spend a good bit of my time on that activity, I do have to answer that question for myself so I'll let you in on it too.

     I know that part of the reason I write so much is that the very act of putting my thoughts and experiences on paper is a rewarding, creative activity. It is challenging to just write, to put information, feelings and opinions together in an organized, coherent way. It is also interesting to see how much of consequence I remember after a lifetime of travel and, perhaps, to test how complex and comprehensive those memories are. This is surely one motivation for me to spend so much time with words and revisions and distribution of ideas. But it is surely not enough for the hours I spend in this pursuit.

     Back to the book for a moment. Since I was not dependent on income from my book, I decided to use the profits to pay the Third World back for what it has given me, and to provide something for the people who have greeted me and made me feel comfortable, people who have been concerned about the quality of my experiences in their locales. It is clear to me that my writing is an extension of that goal but that, too, is only part of story. There were others who have contributed to my lifetime of joy and excitement and learning in out of the way places, namely the travelers I met along the way and the information I gathered from them to make my journeys richer and more successful. Their sharing of experiences helped me make intelligent choices about where to go and what to do. Their warnings enabled me to avoid unpleasantness and even dangers in some settings. Their joyful memories have enhanced my enthusiasm and desire.

      It was fellow travelers who convinced me that Sri Lanka was a wonderful destination even during their protracted civil war. They were so right. Others explained to me what facilities to choose and what to avoid in the Indonesian hinterlands. Thanks to them I missed resting places full of bats and rats for company. Still others pointed out places or activities I eventually stopped for and tried out but would otherwise have been unaware of. Thanks to them, I learned the value of sharing information about such things. Those stories made our travels safer, more comfortable and more rewarding than they would have been if we had not gained the knowledge fellow travelers shared with us.

      That is what I am trying to do for folks who read my blog, my articles and my book. I hope some of the information and observations you read in these publications serve as helpful guidelines or useful suggestions that make your travel richer. I have not been everywhere (although I have been to the places I most wanted to visit) so my blog is not totally comprehensive, yet there are probably places I have encouraged you to visit which you may have otherwise missed. My experiences and thoughts may contribute in some way to your future adventures and that is only payback for the joys I have had enhanced by those folks we met and shared stories with along our respective travel paths. I hope it works out that way. If so, my hours of writing will have been well worthwhile.

A Scene from China

It's Hard Not to Get Noticed

     Americans and other Western travellers in the Third World have trouble not being noticed. Even if we dress according to local customs, our manners and appearance are generally sure giveaways that we are not from the places we visit. Of course, this fact has consequences in how we are reacted to by the residents of those places. It goes without saying that, in locales where our country is unpopular, we may be avoided or snubbed or leered at at the very least. When I was in Pakistan, even before 9/11, I did not feel especially welcomed by the folks who passed by me. There were no outward signs of hostility evidenced but, except for the children, we were largely ignored by the people we saw along the street or in the buildings we visited. All of the folks I requested to take photos of, however, were quite cooperative and did not mind my doing so. Some groups like the Huli tribe in Papua New Guinea just don't like travellers in their midst. There were other areas of the world where it seemed that tourists in general were not especially welcome but that has been the exception rather than the typical reaction to the presence of Westerners. Responses to us did not usually seem to be related to the economic status of the folks we met as much as to the customs and the political outlook of the people. At the same time, I was always careful not to point my camera at scenes of poverty and have people assume that I was photographing their poorest neighborhoods or other things they may not have been happy to have me record. Red light areas, homes on stilts that were falling down, homeless people on the streets, disabled folks, beggars and the like were sensitive things and, even if I wanted to look at such things and photograph them, I either did so at a distance or very surreptitiously. My travel was not aimed at making people feel worse about themselves.

       But travelers cannot hide. I remember entering the courtyard of a large mosque in Egypt soon after Obama's election. The people were excited by that event and the question that folks there asked me often was whether or not I voted for Obama. When I responded by indicating I was a strong Obama supporter, I received cheers, approbation and even hugs in response. They were very aware of what was going on in the States and saw me as representative of those events whether I wanted to be or not. If we carry a camera or a fanny pack, we also mark ourselves as conspicuous and then we may even be regarded as potential targets, especially for those who have little and for whom our camera may represent a year or more of earnings. I wrote earlier about a robbery setup by a couple of peasant women on a back street in a small town in Bolivia as a clear example of this. There have been several others.

      And then there are the more common positive reactions, some quite heart-warming.  There are places in the world where America is popular and visitors reap the benefits of being associated with the country. People greet the Western traveler in such lands with curiosity and warmth. They want to know about you, they want you to take pictures with them, they even want you to visit their schools or their homes. They are interesting in sharing aspects of their own life to a surprising extent. I remember traveling along the Silk Road in Western China and telling my guide to ask at the homes of a few of the minority groups folks we saw along the way if we could talk with them or visit their houses. The answer was an unqualified yes.  We had worthwhile experiences and saw a lot because of the people we interacted with that day. At markets, folks generally smile at us and regard us with as much curiosity as we do them. There were even instances where we were regarded as special guests. In West Africa, we were often greeted as honored guests and invited to participate in ceremonies of importance to the people. In Indonesia we were asked for our our signatures on several occasions so that the people could collect them. Being famous was new to us but it was nice to sample it for the few moments we were in those places.

     The presence of Westerners in remote parts of the world is often as important to the people who live there as it is to the visitors. Our smiles, our flexibility, our respect for the folks we meet is part of the travel equation. We should be mindful of this. Let people respond to us as they may. We should leave them with the impression that we are there because we want to understand them and because we value them as fellow citizens of the larger world. Spreading good cheer and friendship is not only fun, it is a key ingredient of the traveler's footprint.

Driving Is Not Always Good in Karachi, Pakistan

Reading and Travel: A Pairing of Wonderful Activities

       When I was in my twenties, I had the enriching experience of living several years in Europe. I worked there, made friends, participated in all aspects of the culture, learned a couple of languages and immersed myself in the environment. Most of us do not have that opportunity. Such travel is more desirable and growthful than the shorter trips we take where we are mainly observers and rarely have the opportunity to be participants in the activities that go on around us. Living abroad (Peace Corp, foreign placement, study programs, and other such options) is the deepest and most informative kind of travel available because it enables us to become more aware of our own culture by truly experiencing alternative ways of dealing with life tasks and challenges.

   The problem with shorter trips is that it is hard to really get to  know the nature of the cultures where we travel; we tend to find ourselves looking in from the outside. If we do not work in our new locale, we can only watch other folks work. If we do not speak the language well, we do not have easy communication. If we do not stay with families, we do not learn what families do and what they value.

     Since the majority of travellers have to opt for shorter trips, it is important to make these as meaningful and enjoyable as possible. When I decide to go to a particular destination, one of the things I do very early on is seek out books by authors (for the most part, novelists) who write about the place I will be visiting. Good novels are wonderful sources of information about the nature of the societies the story takes place in.
Reading about other locales is a way to learn about the world even if we are not travellers but reading skilled, descriptive novelists also makes for deeper understanding on the voyages we undertake.

       When I was thinking about going to Bahia in Brazil, I came across novels written by Jorge Amado who lived in and wrote about that area. His books were an intriguing introduction to Afro-Caribbean culture, the religion and politics and music that characterize life in that part of the world. When I left for Bahia, I sought out to understand more deeply many aspects of the country that he introduced me to and I felt his writing had enriched my travel extensively. Llosa's War of the End of the World provided additional insight into that region of Brazil. In preparation for a recent trip to Eastern Turkey, I read Orhan Pamuk's Snow which turned out to be a fascinating story set in one of the cities I was to visit. As I travelled through one village after another in West Africa, I found it extremely valuable to have read the novels of Chinua Achebe, the wonderful writer from Nigeria. His characterization of the struggles of West Africa and the nature of life in the villages markedly enhanced my travels. Nagib Mahfouz led me through the streets of Cairo like an invisible guide walking by my side. My trips to India were likewise made more meaningful by an abundance of authors like Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiry and Rohinton Mistry.

     I could go on and on about the relationship between reading knowledgeable authors and traveling to the settings where their stories take place. That combination has helped me to partially cross the bridge between being a superficial visitor and travelling as an insightful observer. In earlier entries to my blog, I suggested a number of ways to make trips richer, more entertaining and more informative. Reading about your destinations is high on my list of recommendations for pre-trip preparation and also for productive activity while you are away. Just as reading before you go makes the travel more promising, reading as you go along makes the books you choose more relevant and enjoyable. It works both ways.

Niger River, Mopti, Mali

Follow Your Own Drummer

     We all carry our personal interests with us when we travel. For independent travelers the Third World provides limitless opportunities to indulge those interests. In an earlier blog, I wrote about my fascination with masks but almost anything can fit into this category. In the world of competitive photography, there is a whole section labelled travel. Almost any photo one takes abroad can fit into this category so if photography is your thing, the possibilities for worthwhile subject matter is endless. But that pretty much goes for just about any aspect of life. What is required is a knowledgeable guide and a traveler who knows what he or she wants to see. Most of us are accustomed to travel within the broad guidelines that travel agencies or "experts" have designed for us. It does not have to be that way. If you are specifically interested in music, you can probably find someone where you are going who can steer you to unadvertised performances. A cellar in Lisbon where aficionados gather to sing the local Fada music or a bar in Dublin that features high quality Irish folk music are available to the visitor if you find your way there. Those stops are unlikely to be written on your itinerary. A village in West Africa where the playing of talking drums or bands of coras will welcome you and provide authentic entertainment and often outstanding dancing. The gamelan groups in Indonesia or marimba players in Guatemala or Zulu singing in South Africa are other examples of musical treats for the traveler. The way to capitalize on these opportunities is to let your guide know what you enjoy most and that you will trade off other potential highlights to go where you want to go.

     You can select almost any focus in the pantheon of human activity to center your travel around. If cooking is your fascination, the opportunities are right under your nose. Again, find a wise guide and make your way into the kitchens of the places you eat or to the hearths of native cooks in their homes. Art is an obvious center of interest for those so inclined. Don't go to the tourist souvenir traps but make sure you do get to the out of the way places where budding artists and sculptors feature their work or to studios where their creativity is activated. Are you interested in cigar making or textiles or jewelry work or mining? Make your wishes clear and follow the expert. Do you desire to see the birds or local animals or insects where you go? You may need a specialist to lead you to such discoveries but such experts are not too difficult to find.

     Collecting is another activity which requires the traveler's asserting herself. First of all one needs to know what items are specialties of the place you are visiting and then find out where to go to indulge your interests. I remember being in the market in Chichicastenango in Guatemala and viewing the hundreds of masks on sale that had been made for the tourist trade in that popular market. They were not at all tempting. It was only after I had engaged a few folks in the market that I was able to get directions to a small store off to the side of the area which featured a much more interesting collection of authentic, older masks. If the specialty of the area is dolls or puppets or glass blowing, you can usually find a factory or workshop where such things are made. There you will see the process and you will have greater choice to augment your collection.

     I was an educator for many years and have an abiding curiosity about how kids are taught, how teachers are trained, and what the school environment is like. On trips to the Third World, I have discovered that, not only have I been able to visit schools, I have learned a lot, been very well received and delighted classes with an unexpected opportunity to talk with me and learn about life in the States. Such stops continually enriched my travel. As I wrote about in an earlier blog, it is important to make the trip your own. (You can't do that if you are travelling on a bus with thirty or so other people.) Do the necessary research beforehand, engage people to help you who really know the area you will be traveling in, and make sure your guide knows that you are not the general public for whom itineraries are pre-designed but a specific individual with particular interests who wants a trip that fits him as a person. You won't be sorry.

Pashtun Tribesman, Gilgit, Pakistan