Before we eventually started to travel, we had fabulous plans for visiting the major wonders of the world and the adventurous activities we would do.
We imagined white beaches, blue skies and palm trees, how we would stand in awe of The Pyramids in Egypt …
Little did we know that our most memorable travel stories would stem from interacting with locals and the sharing the beauty of their respective countries with us.
We had little concept at the time that the sites and activities were the backdrop to our travels - the reality of traveling comes down to much more than that, in many ways. If you are open to learning, you cannot escape “Cultural Immersion”. Now, we travel to learn more about others, to observe, and experience the story of a new place, and many times this is easiest when we slip off the itinerary, grab the local taxi in the wrong direction and simply allow the travel experience to take over.
Like the time we were vacationing in Seychelles, Mahe Island.
We deliberately forgot (see what we did there ☺️) to get off at the nearest bus stop and proceeded to continue the route with one of the local bus drivers – this was the last bus scheduled for the day. We stopped by a bar to grab some drinks and snacks, stopped to take AMAZING photos at a nearby beach and got to play “footie”for about 5 mins.
He eventually dropped us off at our initial stop, where we went for a sunset stroll and discussed our future travel plans – WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!!!
Cultural immersion can mean many things…There are those who think you have to abandon the mainstream (beautiful beaches and site visits) tourism path to experience travel, but there are moments and opportunities everywhere to dive into the culture…
”Cultural Immersion” is not necessarily rural either. Sometimes in search of a good travel story, we forget to share some of the random moments on the road, the mishaps, the missed activities etc.
Do you have any cultural experiences that you would love to share with us?
We’re all ears ...