In the future, a "metaverse" trip may allow you to instantly enter an unfamiliar world, where everything around you is immersive, and you will see, hear, even touch, and smell those novelties.
But the meaning of travel is not just the satisfaction of the five senses, for some people, unforgettable adventures, travel stories with loved ones, and even vignettes encountered in a foreign country are irreplaceable precious moments. The beauty of travel requires a journey to truly understand.
We talked to six friends about what travel means to them to see which experiences resonate with you the most.
"Photographing wild animals is like falling in love with a scumbag"
Nature photographer @Xu Keyi Shirky
Picture | @ Xu Keyi Shirky
Friends often ask me, what is it like to be surrounded by penguins in Antarctica? I blurted out: Stinky. It's an experience you won't have when you watch Blue Planet. Penguin breeding grounds are as full of excrement as chicken farms, and because the penguin's main food is shrimp, the taste of feces is even more fishy. The strong impact on the nasal cavity will also be brought back to the cruise by your snowshoes and tripod, so much so that when you disembark two weeks later, you'll feel empty from losing the smell. What is empty is not only the sense of smell, but also the visual appearance of the penguin, the scene of flexible swimming, and the courage of the parent bird to rush to the predator desperately to protect the chick.
One day two years later, I smelled a fishy smell on the beach in Sanya, and those memories of Antarctica quickly filled my mind, making me shiver in the 30° C heat, like the cold wind of Antarctica blowing through my body. At that moment, I miss penguins, elephant trunk seals, albatrosses and big-winged whales...
I am a nature photographer and a traveler who travels across seven continents, four oceans, the South Pole and the North Pole. I often say indignantly: shooting wild animals is like falling in love with a scumbag, you blindly pay, he keeps failing, very hard to get back a point of return, and when he occasionally appears, looks back and smiles, you will forget the hurt you have been.
In the future, perhaps we can see the brush strokes of the Louvre collection up close, enter the core area of the British Museum without queuing, follow the documentary to see the sunrise of the East Wind Prairie, the Aurora Borealis of the Arctic and the sunset of Santorini... For me, however, the experience of travel is not only visual, it is about hearing, smelling, and touching, which brings me great satisfaction with complex psychological emotions.
"The Old Man and the Sea in Mauritius"
Travel Explorer @ No Two Travelers
Figure | @ No two travelers
Travel is a process that involves you from head to toe. Starting a trip, from booking a plane ticket, to picking the right hotel, to getting to your destination, to waking up in the early hours of the morning because of jet lag, these detailed preparations and physical reactions are all part of the travel experience, and if these links are omitted, it is not a complete trip.
As a year-round traveler on the road, one of the most memorable experiences was in Mauritius. After we caught 3 tuna, suddenly the whole boat began to shake, and the captain and sailors shouted excitedly that we knew a big fish was coming. When the fish jumped out of the water, I thought it was a whale — it was simply too big. The captain said it was a swordfish, and it took us all afternoon to tow the fish on board, and I abandoned all the travel plans I had planned for the afternoon and busied my crew with "cooking" the fish.
After about 5 hours, we finally dragged the swordfish up. The big swordfish weighed more than 800 pounds and was already hanging on the shelves of the harbor, and the auction the next day sold for a good price, and the captain said that the fisherman had not caught such a large swordfish in 25 years. The whole 5 hours of wrestling with swordfish are like a complete interpretation of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea", an extraordinary experience that must be owned by taking a boat out to sea and holding up a fishing rod.
"Reading the meaning of travel with companionship"
Parent-child master @ long-legged sister Friya
Pictured | @ Long-legged Sister Friya
I traveled with my daughter when she was very young, but because I needed to take care of her physical and psychological needs, I occupied a lot of time that could have been used to enjoy the scenery and feel the atmosphere. But little by little the children grew up, we began to go farther and farther each time.
As our daughter fell in love with painting, we always set off with paper and pencil, and began to try to slow down during the journey, to listen with our eyes closed in nature, to appreciate the beauty of architecture in a museum... And record the beauty of the journey with a paintbrush.
We often leave some traces in the picture book when creativity starts. These marks could be a stamp, a small painting, a handful of sand... When they stay in the book, mixed with the smell and mood of the time, they can easily open the memories of that time after many years of picking up and reading again. The mountains of Akita Prefecture were still snowy in early April, especially during the winter of that year, when the Hokkaido area was heavily snowed, with snow even exceeding 5 meters. The daughter sitting in the car seemed to have just woken up from a big dream, her eyes wide open looking at the snowy mountains outside the window, a look of incredulity, and this picture was also recorded by her with a paintbrush forever.
Children are very "small", and there is only simple happiness in the world; after seeing the world landscape, their future will be very "big". Every trip with a child is irreproducible, it determines the attitude we travel at present, and the nutrients we get from traveling now affect our future choices.
"Stay in an exclusive memory"
Hotel researcher @Vincent's Hotel Lab
Photo | @ Vincent's hotel Lab
The hotel brought me not only a pleasant and comfortable stay experience, but also many irreplaceable precious memories - in the early 90s, Shanghai's high-end hotels were not my daily observations of growing up in the "upper corner", and I needed foreign relatives and friends to return to China or obtain a five-pointed star for piano lessons to be able to "enter" - Huating is the opening work of the five-star hotel in Shanghai after the reform and opening up, and it is also the first hotel I stepped into. For the first time in this Enlightenment Hotel, I saw a fountain where the staircase spiraled upwards and the interior could be illuminated. The Jing'an Hilton recorded my first cup of coffee, and the decoration under the Jing'an Hilton Christmas tree, the electric train that runs along the winding rails through the slightly reduced city, was the existence of a playground in my childhood.
The Palazzo Versace, which I stayed with my mother as a teenager, made me completely fall in love with staying in the hotel, and it made me realize that the hotel is not an overnight stronghold, but a landmark attraction. A great hotel can light up the entire journey and leave an irreplaceable and exclusive memory.
"A keno meal that everything can be baked"
Food blogger @Pan Pan Cat
Picture | @ Pan Pan Cat
When I went to a friend's house in Jino Mountain in Jinghong, I happened to meet a special mountain goods to catch the market day, and the local friend took me to the market, and by the way, I brought some ingredients home to cook. The Kino are the last ethnic group on the mainland to be recognized by the State Council, with a population of more than 10,000, and they live in mount Kino. This market day is one of the entrances to learn about Keno culture.
At the market, you can see the vegetables, fruits, smoked dried beef, dried pig lungs, sausages brought by the villagers... Herbs, wild fruits, and mountain snails picked from the mountains are all ingredients that seem very novel to us who are foreigners.
A friend's home has a kitchen, but the yard still retains the traditional fire pit. The Kino people are inseparable from the fire pit, which is their eating habit, chicken, fish, air-dried meat in the grill net to nourish the oil. Foods that are not convenient to grill directly, after seasoning, wrap and grill with banana leaves, and roast roast mountain snail beef and steamed brook fish shrimp. Rice is cooked in bamboo tubes over fire. Chicken soup into the bamboo tube, with banana leaves as a lid seal, baked out of the bamboo tube chicken soup, the taste is very delicious.
Without personal experience, it's hard to imagine that the Keno kung fu dish grilled crab resembles today's fusion dish. The crab shells that live in the forest are hard, and the locals steam the crabs, cut out the meat, scoop them into a meat paste with seasonings and herbs, put them back into the crab shells, and roast them again over the fire, and the cooks even have the style of a Michelin chef.
"Love at dusk in Lisbon"
Travel Couples Player @Hazel Go @Corgi Donna
Figure | @ Hazel Go Na
He and I walked through the streets of Lisbon, trying to photograph every graffiti on the wall, and the colorful trams that drove by were loaded with people of all kinds. I said, "I love Lisbon so much, the new life it bursts out of the decadence, the colors and rebellions that flow from the dilapidated streets, the undulating cobblestone roads and the dangling old trams, the clutter of plants in the corners, the sea breeze." Every time he discussed his feelings, he always squinted and smiled and didn't speak.
We walked for a long time until the setting sun painted the eye sockets with gold edges and framed them. We went to find the world's first egg tart, bought one to share, and walked slowly to the beach with the sunset until the sun set to the bottom of the sea. Night falls hungry, Lisbon roadside restaurants are not exquisite but very down-to-earth, drinking is refreshing, delicious is so much.
I grumbled with hunger and he took me to the first Cruzes Credo restaurant on the right side of Lisbon Cathedral, where I ordered paella shrimp rice! It's the perfect food in Europe that can only be described as amazing, and I say "Wow!" every time I take a bite. It was so delicious! "After you've eaten, drink another glass of cold mint pineapple juice."
In my opinion, no amount of wonderful travel experiences can sometimes be worth a walk with a loved one in an unnamed alley in a strange country. Everything in front of us is passing by with the people we love the most, and we can tread the same path, touch the same plants, breathe the same air, and taste the same delicacies. Every perception is telling me that in this moment, travel and love are there.
Every journey will leave us with an irreplaceable experience, and every memory is precious. If one day, when we look back on the past, we will still be moved by these experiences and are willing to continue to embark on the journey for them, it is probably the meaning of travel.
Edit | soil
Cover image| @ Xu Keyi Shirky
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