We have
found ourselves amid droves of tourists, all excited about having arrived at a destination like the Eiffel Tower, albeit as older
lovers. We have found signs, followed them, and come upon six large charcoal ovens near Ely,
Nevada. What gives you
more satisfaction: on or off the beaten path?
A
Sense of Accomplishment
Either way,
arriving at a destination always gives us a feeling of accomplishment. It is an
achievement to have finally reached that place so many others rave about. We may
have waited so long to save the dollars we needed to get there, sacrificing
plenty. On the other hand, think of the risks we had to take to go off-the-beaten
path: driving through a dirt road for miles to reach the Arctic Circle on
Canada’s Yukon, suffering temperatures well below zero to catch the Northern
Lights, or even climbing Mount Everest at the peril of death.
The
Feeling of Amazement
More than
this sense of accomplishment, we get the undeniable feeling of amazement when
we reach a destination. When I got a glimpse of the Roman Colosseum, I marveled at the engineering feat
built to today’s standards 2,000 years ago. At the Arctic Circle, I could not explain the feeling any
better than with these words I have that capture the moment: “Sometimes you
find yourself in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes in the middle of nowhere,
you find yourself.”
The
Feeling of Disappointment
Other times,
however, I was forced to sigh,” What’s all the fuss about?” When I laid eyes
upon the Manneken Pis in Brussels, Belgium, that tiny statue of a little boy
taking a pee into a pond below, I was utterly disappointed; even more so when I
found out later it was just a replica! But I didn’t say anything aloud. The
huge throng was seriously engaged in taking masterpieces of a souvenir photo.
But the
disappointment is even much bigger when I go through all the trouble and/or
take many risks to reach somewhere off the beaten path. For example, to get to the
Chigu Salt Mountain in Tainan City,
Taiwan, we had to
ride the expensive but fast bullet train from Taipei in the north and then take
the only bus, where the driver, conductor, and passengers didn’t speak any
English, to the outskirts of Tainan. This same bus went back only once, late in
the afternoon.
Comments on its
website like this more than express our disappointment: “Honestly! I had to
spend 1 hour and 10 minutes on the bus to get there! And the last bus left at
18:10! What for? for a mountain of “salt” black of air
pollution…nothing very amazing there! “
Finding
a Saving Grace
We didn’t
want to wait four more hours for that one bus, so we called for a taxi. The
driver, noticing we were hungry (the museum only had coffee), stopped, got out,
took something out of the trunk, and gave us the most wonderful cookies we have
ever tasted. Had we not gone to the Salt Mountain, we would not have met this extraordinary
man! In Brussels, Bill’s saving grace was Belgian beer; mine, Belgian
chocolates, and ours, waffles.
The question
is not whether I would prefer to go on or off the beaten path. I will keep on
doing both and you should, too. It doesn’t matter how much expense or
preparation we need to get to either. We can never guarantee anything in life.
What matters most is to always have the right attitude when we get there. Then you
may feel a sense of accomplishment, amazement, or a saving grace.
