European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse R travel should be play discovery a Chance to escape the tyranny of schedules. Too much planning strangles that All important element of whimsy and. Can turn travel into., .work.reservations? itineraries thanks but no thanks by Steve silk Hartford Couran flan it vacation hah no matter whore i go on Holiday i take the fact that i rarely commit myself to much beyond the dates of my departure and return. The very idea of hotel reservations gives me hives. L or some travellers detailed itineraries offer a comforting Protection against die cold unknowns of a foreign environment. And organized Tours provide knowledgeable guides and like minded companions. It is just that Tours and itineraries Are not for Quot accidental tourists Quot like myself i prefer my travel experiences raw and unfiltered straight from the tap. I relish the unexpected. Some of my greatest travel adventures happened almost Hylt Luiu e a wrong turn in Bali led to a splendid i Celebration in a Village that is rarely visited by westerners a it. Ham e encounter in Mexico opened the Way to an idyllic swimming Hole hidden in the Jungle next to a mayan ruin and a tip irom a Hosteler in Greece Ltd to a glorious Beach that was Alf hut abandoned. 1 he Joy of discovery makes such. Fml Vitolis finds All the More delightful. 1 Rue there is a measure of risk in courting the unknown not All wrong turns Lead to the right places. But we footloose explorers art1 prepared to Lake a Little had with the Good. Besides those travel trip ups make great horror stories around the slide projector when we finally gel hat k Home. I he main Gripe i have about planning is that too nuke it of in tend1, to wring the mystery out of an unknown destination. Where is the magic it you know exactly what Vonie going to see he lure you oven leave Home w by tile need to know where you i he eating or i inking Dow n eat h night i like hoi guile know ing w hat to expect. An idea destination Lor nay a like a deep Zhuk woodsy Pooi inviting tantalizing unknowable irom Atar. Out e there i wan to poke around the edges we a Tew questions and then jump right in. Awash in the unfamiliar it is tune to paddle about a hit gauge the currents anti Teel the pulse of lift Peculiar to this Pat tit ular spot. C a t my sea legs so to speak. 1 Hen alter dispensing w Illi a Tew must see highlights 1 11 Lake a deep breath and dive Sli Highl Down into the unix plied depth anti Ivy Al in die Delit ions mysteries t ont sealed within. I Don t mean to suggest that i Buzz off blindly each time 1 pack my suitcase. Once a destination is nailed Down i Start Reading guidebooks brochures novels histories tales of exploration. But what distinguishes my research from the obsessive planner s preparation is my aim to increase the Range of choices rather than narrow it Down. I Don t want to commit myself to dining in a restaurant chosen from 3,000 Miles away i prefer going with a smorgasbord of choices. In the same Way if i discover that a Long planned destination is not for me i want an option an Ace up my sleeve once i be reached my destination i m also at Liberty to take full advantage of the local travellers Grapevine about what s hot and what s not. There s no substitute for on the spot information. That freewheeling approach to planning mirrors my Overall concept of what travel is All about. Travel should be play discovery a Chance to escape the tyranny of schedules. Too much planning strangles that All important element of whimsy and what s worse can turn travel into the very Antithesis of fun and Freedom a work. And 1 Ravel has already been associated with work for too Long a time. The English word travel Quot is derived from the French Quot Travail Quot whih Means work. Before planes and trains travel was indeed a demanding Energy sapping pastime today for the fiendishly devoted planner or tour devotee it still is. I Don t care How appealing you find the idea of poring Over your Fieldings Frommert and Fedors. No matter the supposed thrill of studying the medieval history of say Liechtenstein. At some Point the line is crossed it becomes work. And travel a etymology notwithstanding a should be anything but work. Fortified with a Basic understanding of the area i plan to visit i let serendipity be my guide. And if i Iniss a thing or two on the sightseer s checklist of mandatory slops so what alter All who needs to tick tilt one by one those great sights that somebody else Lias deemed Worth seeing not i. And i be Learned the hard Way about those quaint unexplored dates i read Home they Don t exist at least not As advertised. Guidebooks has e their uses but in the pages of any Baedeker a Worth the paper it s printed on the phrase of ered Paradise Quot is an oxymoron. I hat exclusive Little Bistro favored by the of so suave parisians thou know the place with the rave review of read before leaving will be swarmed by the time you get there a and everybody there will be clutching the same Guidebook. To is certainly no secret that the Best and most authentic places often lie off the maps found at the Corner Bookstore i d rather find my own. Sometimes the most daunting task is simply finding a place to stay. But in spite of the occasional endless schlep with a suitcase in Tow and in spite of the occasional sleepless night in some noisy Rattrap unearthing my own digs has been Well Worth it. Even the lowest of lows a sleeping in a vacant lot in Beirut As i once did a is easily forgotten while the memory of a perfect night in a perfect place a the no name hotel in Hawaii s Kaipio Valley a lingers Long after the suitcases Are unpacked at Home. Coping with uncertainty does t unhinged me because Over the years i be developed a few ways to take the worry out of free form travel. To increase the Odds of finding suitable accommodations at the last minute for example i usually opt to travel in the off season. There s another advantage to that you get a far belter feel for a place if it s not crawling with sightseers. When it comes to making those most Basic preparations a deciding what to take the secret is to keep things simple l Ong ago 1 Learned to travel Light or at least to leave Home Light i m an inveterate collector of Folk Art on the Road. If my gear is too heavy to carry easily i leave something behind. More than two bags is too Many. A minimum of toiletries usually suffices. Americans seem inclined to travel abroad lugging barely portable pharmacies stuffed with medications to combat everything from diarrhoea to Dengue fever. Most of the time they re not needed. And if one is local remedies Are often better at combating the local bugs. I never leave Home without two Basic tools a Swiss army knife and a wad of duct tape the Silver sided stuff that Sticks like glue. 1 my final never to be forgotten item a few pairs of earplugs foam ones a not those waxy blobs. The times when i be been stuck next to a shrieking baby on an air plane or near a Colicky kid in a hotel room with paper thin ,, earplugs saved the Day. And a horror of horrors a should i wind up near some Plana Holic griping about How a vacation in t working out As planned i just pop in the earplugs Settle has k and try not to look too smug. 24 St Ripen my Gjuzi in
