Virtual Travel

Travel is on our mind right now, especially trips to distant lands. But if physical travel is out of the question right now, we will just have to satisfy your wanderlust in a more creative fashion. Pick up a novel set in an exotic location. Stream a documentary about one of our must-see spots. Get the ingredients and prepare a dish from our favourite dish or country. 

You don't have to invest a lot of time or money to give yourself an escape.

"Late at night when my body is asleep,

my mind seems to travel through time,

I never know who I will see,
Or if the people I meet, have a message for me.

As I travel in the land of no time,
thousands of years, pass through my mind,
faces with smiles, and eye's full of tears,

one thing in common, year after year"  by Tom Maxwell.

Why escape? 

We always used to think, travel was about going places. But after Coronavirus pandemic we have come to accept that we can easily travel to any destination through conversation via either Zoom or Skype, with someone,somewhere in the globe with prior consent and preparation.

The thing that never came to mind before, was that we could travel through our life stories,our experiences,our joys and our sorrows and we may be able to experience a world through words, without actually being there!

This travel is as powerful,if not more so,than physically packing our bags,getting on a plane and travelling the world. This is not for the affordable few, but accessible to anyone and everyone alike. No worries of passports,visas,health conditions,hotel or tour bookings,or even, dietary requirements. Of course,no special travel foreign exchange or  budget needed. 

You show up on Zoom after making the prior web/email connection at a allotted time for your visitor and yourself and be ready to share each of your stories as you dive into a conversation that matters,to you and your overseas visitor,another human being,in another far flung land, with a different time zone and perhaps, a different dialect.

Naturally, you need to have access to other similar "explorers".

Perhaps, the first topic of conversation, discussion would be how they are coping with the isolation during their "lockdown" or their quarantine.

You may have wanted to go for Christmas in Bondi Beach,near Sydney but instead could now connect with someone another part of  Australia.  He or she may have been laid off,another victim of COVID-19. They may have a story to tell you that say, they could stay afloat for a maximum of 6 months without support on their savings to live their usual lifestyle,but were really worried what they would do after that. They may relate how they were careless with their hard earned saving for a deposit for a home. They may relate with trepidation how the pandemic had now made them "super careful", in fact extremely frugal and worried. 

It may well be a raw human, authentic conversation into a painful moment that millions are going through all around the world. 

Our walls, and their tales

 For well around thirty minutes our quarantine walls in both our destinations were ripped down and we may be able to connect with people we have never known, seen or heard of in advance of your Zoom connection. They or we may be utter strangers in the different corners of the globe, whether it be San Francisco, Osaka,or nearer home in Frankfurt,Germany.

What  can you talk about with strangers?

With the Presidential election in the US,your conversation may well meander about American politics, or an opening introduction of an easy topic of conversation exchange about the local weather.

We might be able with permission, to obtain a unique insight and perspective connecting with their school going children laid off at home,from our imaginary world tour of Osaka,Japan. Perhaps, we may have researched that they are fans of the child band "Paprika".

Like all children, they would be delighted to hear from us, with our British accent, about how we celebrated "Halloween" or Guy Fawkes night, whether children in UK were able to go "trick or treat" and whether we had the usual "bonfire" at our homes?

In our last imaginary tour, we land in Frankfurt,Germany. The topic of conversation is the vaccine which was tried and tested at the Pfizer lab in UK. They may want to know the views of whether commands popular support for widespread distribution in early December?

The parents in Germany may be more interested in talking about what each of them had in common and what made life different for them at this time?

Meeting such diverse people with various backgrounds and ideas on a virtual world tour sitting in our chair at our home will be an innovative way to inspire us and expand our perspective of the topics we pre-planned to talk about.

In an odd way, it may resemble something we may have pursued in our childhood days of having "Pen Pals" around the world with similar interests,like stamp collecting, or sports fans, who would exchange correspondence with us. 

Of course, most of what we could view on our Virtual Tour of the World in 30 minutes,or more, is to chat to a few selected strangers. Our discussions, our conversations may circle back and forth on how we are all coping with life in the current pandemic. 

How we are able to distance ourselves from our social circles of friends and work mates to socially isolate during this pandemic, is only the tip of the iceberg? 

In our virtual world tour of countries and their peoples,we are able to visit these places and gather some perspective, without  literally getting there.It is truly exciting to connect in this mode of travel to feel the unity in diversity of the human race.

Victor Cherubim