Experimental tourism

[Sar]

I was really inspired by an article I read in today's Sunday Times about a growing trend in tourism & felt others here may be interested.

There’s the hitchhiker you may have spotted on the M1 with a sign saying Mongolia. Or the lovers who flew separately to Venice so they could spend the weekend trying to find one another without the aid of a telephone. In rural France there’s a man wandering about wearing a horse’s head, and up mountains and below oceans the world over there are men taking photographs of themselves ironing. We all love an eccentric, but what is going on? Is everybody going la-la?

Think you’ve seen everything worth visiting in Paris? Try it again with a Baedeker guide — providing it’s at least 100 years out of date. Want to make your holiday snaps more interesting? Then get into “counter-travel”, which requires that you take pictures with your back turned to landmarks such as the Taj Mahal or Big Ben. “You increase your receptiveness”, says Henry. “It’s all about having fun, trying new things . . . You work out a set of constraints and you stick to it, and that is your sole purpose for the period. You are open to all the surprises that will pop up along the way.”

Citing Dadaism and surrealism as his influences, Henry dreamt up the idea in 1990 when he decided to spend a weekend in Zurich with a group of friends. They would not meet up but only compare notes on their return.

Another of his challenges is exploration by Monopoly. You arrive in a city, buy the local version of the game and visit the streets, stations and jail by throwing the dice and following the game’s rules

Oliver Wright is a convert. At 31, he is typical of many young Britons who have travelled extensively, backpacking around our shrinking world. A former advertising executive, he has visited Mongolia, China, India and Nepal. He quit his job 14 months ago and now says: “Random travel is my life.” Last month he saw a Ryanair flight advertised to Haugesund, Norway, for 5p each way plus tax. Taking only a tent, he ended up sleeping on the edge of a cliff, watching four-hour sunsets over the North Sea and talking to curious locals. The purpose of his holiday, he emphasises, was not to save money but to see what fate — and the 5p outlay — would decide.

“I love the sense of utter freedom,” he says. “You can do anything on a whim. The feeling of being free becomes psychologically exciting.”

For further ideas you can visit the website for LAboratoire de TOURisme EXpérimental: Latourex

 

[lies]

Hehe... I should try some of those some time.

 

[Sar]

It just makes me want to go off adventuring, I particularly liked one story about someone arranging a trip where all their friends went to the same city (I think it was Paris), but rather then meeting up the idea was to all have seperate holidays & compare notes & photos when they returned.

Weird!

 

[lies]

I think those tips would work best on a trip close to home though... Other vacations are adventurous enough as it is.