I like watching Samantha Brown's shows. She goes to some really cool places and stays in great hotels. If you are not familiar with her, she has a few different shows that air, fairly regularly, on the Travel Channel. One of her most popular shows is Great Hotels.
On the other hand, I have never made it through an entire episode of one of Anthony Bourdain's shows. Bourdain also has some shows that air on the Travel Channel. He also travels to some interesting places. But he, and his show, are a bit more edgier. With Bourdain, things do not all tie together in a nice, neat package at the end of the show. He goes to places most tourists would never even think about going to; and he meets the most interesting people, who truly capture what that place or city is all about.
It hit me while walking the backstreets of the Garden District on a recent trip to New Orleans why I have never made it through a Bourdain show: it hits really close to home. Watching Bourdain travel around the world is sort of like watching what I would imagine I would want to see and experience if I were in his shoes.
Sure, I'm not nearly as brash or as crash as he is. But I do share a number of characteristics with him and his personality.
But more importantly, I like to get off the beaten path and experience a city or place for what it really is, behind the main tourist drags, underneath the glitz that a city tries to portray to its visitors. Sure, I like to see a city's hot spots and important landmarks. But I also like to experience places that I travel to for what they truly are: with all their warts and also their wonderfully new way of looking at and doing things.
I can watch an entire episode of Samantha Brown's shows with no problem. I enjoy learning about places I want to go and hotels I could only dream about staying in. But those are accommodations that I do not really want to stay in, when I stop and think about it.
What I want to stay in is places where I get to know local people . . . and fellow travelers. I do not really want to spend half a day in a spa, as Brown often does. I would rather spend that time wandering streets that most tourists have never even heard of. That does not make me right or wrong, nor does it make the tourists who flock to touristy places right or wrong. It's a matter of opinion, a matter of taste. Different strokes for different folks.
I guess I have never finished a Bourdain show because it forces me to see or think about how I actually travel and who I really am. As we all do, I often do not want to take the time or the effort to see myself for who I truly am . . . and evaluate myself for who I truly want to be. But I am going to try to do that here, on my travel blog. I will try to describe things a little more like Anthony Bourdain than Samantha Brown-because that is simply who I am.
This is my travel blog. I want to describe my travels. I want to share what they have meant to me. And hopefully, along the way, I can be of help to fellow travelers out there.
And maybe, just maybe, the next time a Bourdain show comes on TV, I might just sit down and make it all the way through it.
I took this picture on my recent trip to New Orleans, on a sidestreet in the Lower Garden District. I love it. I think it really captures what I love about that city. And I think it captures what I love about travel . . . and a little bit of who I am:
No comments:
Post a Comment