We all love to travel. We love to spend our vacations creatively, to see new places, to experience the ways of different cultures, to broaden our minds and our knowledge and to enrich our souls in the process. We all love to explore our amazing globe with its moving beauties and enchanting places, to see the many awe-inspiring creations of man and, of course, to have fun.
Unfortunately, vast numbers of us can’t afford the cost of such journeys, and some of us can’t bear the inconveniences, discomforts and fatigue connected with travel. So I am recommending a kind of travel that’s wholly free of trouble and fatigue and holds all the comfort and convenience of home. And, believe it or not, it can be ours at no cost at all. Our cities and towns are mostly global. We have tens of nationalities on the same land we live on, sharing the same air. These people are our partners. Individuals and families from many nations live in our communities. Sometimes they are our neighbors.
There’s no question that if we show interest and concern, and we show a desire to get fully acquainted with their background, culture, and history, we will be able to win their friendship and good will. And when that happens, they will fling wide open to us the doors of their homes as well as those of their hearts. Then we will have it made.
Now we can set out upon our world tours. The various people of our wide world, gladly and proudly, will tell us all about their particular cultures, customs, traditions and histories, entertaining us with their arts and stories, serve us exotic dishes and take us on excursions through their countries by way of travel talks and picture albums.
In all this we will be able to add to our knowledge of our world, and improve our understanding of the billions of its inhabitants everywhere. All the foregoing wonderful and exciting things can be ours just by being good friends to the members of communities from other lands. And, only then, we can carry out our most precious messages to them!
The writer is a Saudi columnist based in the Eastern Province. He can be contacted at ([email protected]; [email protected])
