Traveling Without a Guidebook

Maybe there are some good ones out there. Admittedly I've only tried a fraction of what's on offer. And while I'm making admissions, I must say that there is usually some essential information contained within the guidebooks that the traveler must have before departing.

That said, I want to cultivate an idea of going out there without the Lonely Planet. My reasons are twofold. First of all, the guidebook is by definition part of the global travel industry. From my experiences this has been a synthesis tool which takes local elements and combines them with a generic framework and employs itself in reducing the monetary possession of the traveler to zero while inflating its own multifarious coffers. If a guidebook lists something it becomes, out of necessity, a part of the industry infrastructure--there is too much foot traffic not to service the need. These are Hotels, Hostels, Restaurants, Bars, and Activities catering to an affluent, typically western, sensibility. Everybody looks for the place that hasn't been in the guidebook for long and still has sufficient attractions. These people can see that it only takes a couple of years for the new addition to be worked over. The economy adjusts itself, and a quick, safe barrier of distinction is erected between the town that existed there before, that always existed, and the new tourist infrastructure. This fact makes traveling to a place in the guidebook a less than enchanting experience.

Which leads me to my next reason. Traveling with a guidebook eliminates the sense of discovery that is behind the impetus for travel. When you can read about everything before you go and see it, it reduces the trip to something little more than an act of verification. As well, the guidebook which so efficiently lists out the attractions of a particular place limits the options of the traveler to places on that list. This eliminates chance, which eliminates a certain amount of risk and reward. But most importantly it limits the spatial possibilities of the traveler to a line. A connect the dots game, where the birds eye view from a map should reveal the possibilities of a pancake dropped from a high flight.

The most rewarding experiences that I had in Panama were, with the exception of Kuna Yala, which I found the guidebook entry on confusing and didn't read it anyways, not in the guidebooks. They were the result of a concoction of nerve impulses resulting in a decision that landed me in an amazing place whose images imprinted themselves on my brain and taught me how to think on different regions at a later date (travel is an experience, but so remote afterwards it's purpose can not be in anything at the present, but rather in instructing or cultivating a sense of wonderment which can later be generated outside of the quest situation because wonderment is useful as a mode of thought and essential as a resource for being). Part of this was because I felt like I was discovering something, and when that happened, I felt like I was really traveling.

In North America we embrace information culture (I have recently stopped calling this a worldwide phenomenon because the slum lifestyle is growing around cities growing at the pace of the internet and as a collective experience rivals that of the internet), and so wish to be informed completely on a subject before encountering it. Maybe we rob ourselves of something this way.

A guidebook is helpful. It is a good organizing tool. It is also efficient. It is a good way to trim trip-time down and pack as much into the allotted space as possible. Again, maybe this isn't a good thing. I think that you need some down time between seeing utterly novel and having amazing experiences. Otherwise the act of wonderment becomes common place. These places which should hold some emotional or spiritual or whatever kind of meaning can not dispense them on the traveler because he is still adjusting, sorting through the experiences of the last one.

The answer of course isn't one that is compatible with busy committed lives. Travel longer. That's all it takes. Without a guidebook, you just ask other people questions. They send you somewhere and you discover something amazing on the power of the spoken word, words from a stranger. Or you look on a map and see what draws you. In between inspiration towards inspirational places, walk the streets of the unfamiliar city you're using as a base. As long as you're surrounded by the unfamiliar you'll be traveling, and the brain process will make it all the more worthwhile.