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T H I S+W E E K >Acting on wild impulse
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BY DON GEORGE | one of the things I love about Karl Taro Greenfeld's cover story in this week's Wanderlust is its fundamental zaniness. One minute he was pursuing a relatively normal activity many tourists do in northern Thailand -- taking an elephant-back tour of hill tribes. The next, on a crazy impulse, he and his friend were hiring a guide and setting out on a walking exploration of northern Thailand. This is not normal. But it is pretty wonderful. I don't mean to suggest that you should always dare death when you travel -- and Greenfeld's grand adventure turned out to be closer to the edge than he would have liked -- but generally speaking, acting on wild impulse when you travel leads to all manner of unexpected rewards. Yes, it can get you into trouble. I spontaneously accepted an invitation to fly in a two-seater propeller plane in Africa once and almost ended my way-too-unfulfilled life when the plane made a watery crash landing. (But on that same trip I decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on a whim -- and that remains one of my most exhilarating adventures.) Another time I decided to explore Cairo on foot and made turns that took me into ever more narrow streets, until finally I was literally stepping over people sitting on their stoops. To my eyes, at least, they seemed to be lustfully eyeing my backpack and watch, and I remember thinking, like Greenfeld in the middle of the Thai jungle, "No one knows where I am. I could die here and no one would ever know what happened to me." Still, I survived. I befriended a child who ran up to me, all elbows and wide eyes, and he led me back to a plaza I knew. Oftentimes it's the encounters with people that require a wild plunge. One of my favorite travel books is Pico Iyer's "Video Night in Kathmandu." This book is full of crazy encounters that turn enlightening, but one I remember particularly concerns a pedicab driver in India. The driver invites Pico to his home -- and Pico overrules his cautious instinct and accepts the invitation. As they are proceeding homeward, Pico imagines all the awful things that could befall him and berates himself for his foolishness. But then they arrive, and the driver doesn't lead him into a trap or even ask for money; rather he shows Pico a prized notebook full of inscriptions penned by similarly trusting people from around the world. Clearly, this is one of his most precious possessions -- and it becomes one of Pico's most precious memories.
It may be the wizened woman you encounter in a rocky Greek mountain village, who beckons you into her home and offers sweets and tea and shows you scrapbooks full of pictures of her grandson who moved to Chicago. "Perhaps you know him?" she asks, her eyes shimmering with a grandmother's tears. Wild impulse. Most of my memorable adventures -- the tales I will tell decades from now -- are the result of impulsive decisions. You listen to some little voice inside you, and it says, "Go! You may never have this chance again." And you go. That voice has inspired me to spend a magical night among the ruins on the Greek island of Delos, though I had been (wrongly) told no one is allowed to spend the night there. It inspired me to stop in a village in rural Japan for a locally famous summer festival -- and to clap and clop through the streets with the locals in my own ungainly gaijin version of the village dance. It has inspired scores of encounters that have enriched my life in more ways than I can understand. So I take heart from Karl Greenfeld's adventure, and from the message it embodies: When you hear that little voice, follow it! You can't know where it will lead you, but you'll be glad you did.
Have you acted on a wild impulse? What happened? Share your adventures in Table Talk. - - - - - - - - - - - - Salon Wanderlust is published every Monday evening at 6 p.m. PDT in Salon. Send all reader mail to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com. To receive a colorful weekly update on what's happening in Wanderlust, sign up here. Published articles are housed in the Wanderlust archives. |
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These plunges take all shapes and forms. It may be the intriguing woman who stands beside you admiring a statue in a Paris museum. You pluck up your courage and talk to her, and she ends up taking you to her six-table neighborhood bistro and showing you a side of Paris you would never otherwise have discovered.
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