Five Things Travel Article Readers Look for in Travelogues

chillibreeze writer — Mohini

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I happen to be an incurable travel addict. As a nine year old, traveling by train meant long hours of happy dream time as the fields, the rivers and the hills passed on the way – imaging me walking in the fields, hiking up the hills or scattering bread on the river and watching huge fish come up to feed. Deeper in the dream, I would imagine my little thatch nestling on the hillside with some goats and hens running around the bushes outside. I had a favourite hill on the route, a tall hill with a temple on the peak – a common sight all over the countryside of Southern India. I would tell myself one day I would climb this hill and spend some days on the hilltop with its verdant surroundings and the stone temple in the middle.

A typical city lass, I was charmed by the open spaces and the seemingly unending greenery un-spoilt by buildings, roads or vehicles all around. That scene represented my ultimate idea of freedom at nine. Obviously I was looking for a large arena with no obstacles to stop me from wandering around.

As I grew up, travel became more purpose oriented. And yet, I would keenly watch the people, the spaces they inhabited. Today’s traveler is spoilt – with travelogues aplenty and the worldwide web teeming with information on people, culture, things to see, things to do, where to stay, where and what to shop for, all for the asking. To add to this explosion of information, personal reviews, blogs that give you subjective accounts, dos and donts. Alas, the experience of discovering a new place with all its strangeness and puzzling details is lost. I have also become corrupted by the convenience bug and invariably look up every possible detail of the place I am going to – within the country or outside the country.

My childhood fantasizing of roaming in the countryside has transformed in to reading travelogues and travel directories. If I had to choose five important things I would look for in a travelogue – it would have to many accounts of interesting encounters with the people (the hotel cashier, the road vendor, the ticket examiner – you name it); the places that one could visit in that region giving all the historical or sociological and practical details that one has no time to read when one is actually traveling in the travel guidebook; Accommodation choices; Food habits and the writer’s encounters in that area and of course, what does one take back from the place? All five factors have to be thrilling and absolutely adventurous accounts.

I remember reading in a travelogue on Italy about how the writer, who is an Indian woman traveling alone was propositioned three times a day – first an airport official who complimented her on her dress and then of course – what are you doing this evening – perhaps we could meet for a drink? Then came the newspaper reader in a corner café who moved close to her little round table to look deeply in to her eyes and say – your eyes are sooo… lovely – May I drink my coffee with you? Finally as she returned to her Pensione, the landlady’s son who accompanied her upstairs and of course – if she would dine with him it would make him supremely happy! She wrote that she slept that night, happy and thrilled with being herself – though not for a moment would she have thought of going out with any of the three men! As an Indian woman who is groomed to view all compliments on her looks and her attractiveness from strangers with suspicion, it would have been a liberating feeling to just enjoy being told one is desirable and the ease of saying thank you but no – and the no being accepted with grace!

A reader looks for tips also on how to get the best deals for stay – hotels, home stay places to be tucked away in memory for future use. The writer’s experience of accommodation becomes one’s first foundation to opinion formation of the destination. There was this account I read, again in a travel writing on Italy – when a couple decided impulsively to take off to Naples from Rome which was their original destination – and how once they arrived by train, they spent six hours trudging from one hotel to another to meet with the same ditty – “tutto completo!” and could not believe that in such a large city, a tourist destination they could not find a single room. Finally at 11 in the night, landing up in one hotel where they were sure that they were charged much higher than the hotel’s regular rates.

And then, the tourist attractions – any guide will give you what to see and where to go. But a true blue travelogue writer knows how to add to the usual details with personal accounts – how when one actually faces La Giaconda in Louvre, it is actually a tiny piece, when one actually expects a large painting – what with the larger than life renown the painting has! Or the sight of dolphins in the Brahmaputra – a sight that one does not expect without actually reading about it!

Being a foodie, food travel and the sociology of food in a place fascinate me to no end. Even poor and indifferent eaters I think look for food guides to a place first since what you could get to eat and what you would have to avoid would be priority number one for a wishful traveler. The immense popularity of food travel shows on TV bears this out. Reading of eating grilled “St Paul’s fish” on the banks of the Sea of Galilee where Christ is said to have walked on water or of having bland kebabs of camel meat with little cups of very strong coffee in a Bedouin tent is a thrilling experience by itself.

And then, there is the great need to know what can one buy – the thick coiled gold jewelry from Turkey, the stunning gemstones from Burma, the papyrus wall hangings from Egypt – one does know that these are popular finds. But how to ensure that one knows where to go, how to ask for them, how to know the real from fake, how not to buy the first things that one sees as a traveler, Where you could bargain and where you could pretend to walk away if your price is not met … even if one does not actually travel, reading about these details is a feel good factor, if only to talk knowledgeably about such details in company!

Finally, when one puts down a travelogue after reading, the feeling must be of not of a virtual tourist, but of actually living with the author – same as when one reads a science fiction novel on space adventure, one sees the skies with greater respect even if there is no conceivable chance of ever actually going there!

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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in July, 2011. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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Mohini writes for chillibreeze.

Five Things Travel Article Readers Look for in Travelogues

chillibreeze writer — Mohini

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