Well, we’re finally here, our very first visit. Is it a dream come true? We’re going to do our best to make it come alive.
We sorted through travel guides until one snagged us. It promised: ‘Just what you’re looking for.’ We fell for it. We’ll soon find out.
Forget that we’re bone tired and travel weary. We bought the ticket, took the ride and showed up. Now what? Adventure, that’s what. We won’t be denied.
It’s been a while since we took off, heading out, exploring somewhere new. We need fresh memories; the old ones are worn and withered. We’re planning to one-up relatives and friends with our own photographic show-and-tell and exotic spin on the ‘we’ve-been-there’ stories.
No time to waste, the nap will have to wait. Excitement is out there, not inside, a story of intrigue around every corner just waiting for us. Let’s do it.
Where do we start? Everything’s new, and with our tight budget and time constraint, we have to make the most of it. No down time for us. We’ve read and memorized the travel guides, researched the internet, dog-eared Rick Steve’s ‘been-everywhere’ guide, so what’s left to do?
Ask locals, that’s what. We know from experience that only the locals know where the best-kept secrets are hidden. Every place has them. Our job is to find the right local to ask.
We venture out, need a little time to think, to plan our route. Coffee, a snack, that’s where we start. We disguise the travel guides, hiding them inside a local newspaper. Nobody in their right mind wants to look like a clueless tourist wandering aimlessly around studying street maps and reading an AARP magazine for ideas. We’ve made that mistake too often.
We study the landscape, look for a local to engage. They know the intimate secrets of their environs. It’s OK to read Travel and Leisure, to get an idea of last year’s ‘big picture;’ everyone does this. But not us, we’re looking for the tiny, hidden tidbits of travel, the out-of-the way gems that make trips memorable.
Now you have to be circumspect about local advice. It’s not necessarily of the same quality; some is better quality than others, and you’ll never know until later. Some things are learned the hard way. Like that Sunday in Carlsbad, New Mexico when the truck broke down.
The auto parts clerk seemed friendly enough when referring us to his uncle, a shade-tree mechanic who suggested replacing the entire engine. It seemed somewhat suspect. The whole thing seemed fishy from the start. The next day the Chevy dealer fixed the problem with a fan belt.
Then there was this time in New Orleans when we asked a local-looking fellow on Bourbon Street for directions. We ended up in a voodoo emporium at the end of a dead-end bayou that smelled like last year’s low country boil. It pays to be circumspect when choosing a local to ask.
Proper idiomatic use of adjectives is advisable when asking for advice. Some words don’t quite resonate with locals. Take the time in Istanbul when we asked the concierge for a ‘quaint’ French restaurant. Quaint and French are not in the Turkish vocabulary. The only thing French was the waiter with a blue beret.
Traveling makes everyone hungry, and we are always looking for that special, out-of-the-way place. The kind of place where the owners join you at the table, bring lavish portions and share their aged wine. Things like that. But after the experience in Charleston, be suspicious when any local sends you to a place called ‘Mama’s Home Cooking.’ You’ll be the only turkey that gets cooked.
And never ask a substitute hotel concierge anything, especially their idea of fine dining. That was in Las Vegas where we ended up in a dive with red flocked wallpaper and velvet pictures of Elvis and Sinatra hanging on the walls. Imagine, in all of Las Vegas, we get the classic brother-in-law referral.
Still in all, without local advice we’d never have experienced the Moroccan rug merchant’s shakedown, the curio shop showcasing bone fragments from John the Baptist, a museum with medieval torture devices or the chance encounter with Mick Jagger.
It boils down to the luck of the draw when asking for local advice. But travel is not the same without it. So, if you’re looking for adventure, ask a local and don’t look back.
Bud Hearn
July 24, 2018
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