Traveling to learn

travel writing, why we travel — By Bob Riel on September 28, 2006 at 3:23 pm

The magazine Transitions Abroad is published for travelers who want to learn about the world through their experiences on the road. It focuses not only on independent travel, but also on studying, working and living abroad. The magazine was founded in 1977 by teacher and journalist Clay Hubbs. This month, he is a featured interviewee on Rolf Potts’ website. Some excerpts:

How did you get started traveling?

In the early sixties … my wife Joanna and my son Gregory and I went toodling off across North Africa and the Middle East in a used VW van, following the path of Alexander the Great. It was a wonderful trip — filled with many adventures and breakdowns — in which we fell in love with that part of the world and with travel.

Joanna’s second pregnancy brought us back to the West before we could reach India, so in the mid-sixties we returned — this time with two kids and a new bus. And this time we included the length of the Soviet Union in our itinerary.

What travel authors or books might you recommend and/or have influenced you?

Over the years I’ve recommended hundreds of books and authors — always those that describe ways to learn about (and from) a culture from the inside.

Travel, like literature, is educational, challenging and very exciting. The transitions or changes that result — and here’s my pitch! — affect us profoundly and for the better: the mask falls and we no longer see only what our culture has conditioned us to expect. Any writing that facilitates what I have sometimes called life-seeing travel I welcome and recommend.