While visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia, our tuk-tuk driver wanted to show us Kbal Spean, a place sacred to Hindus and far from the crowd of tourists swarming over the ruins. He took us on a back road through villages without electricity. Signs in fields warned of land mines left behind by the Khmer Rouge. We saw no other tourists and it is truly one of the most amazing travel memories I have. This photo is from that ride.
There are a lot of places that are horrid, miserable, ugly and boring. Even slightly dangerous. With the exception of places that deliver certain death or lifelong imprisonment, I want to see them all. I never listen to people who say “Don’t bother going there.”
However, we are attracted mostly to the places that get a little less tourist traffic. Places that are remote or filled with locals. I had to borrow this understated gem from Paul Theroux’s travelogue “The Pillars of Hercules” which I’m reading for the second time. It nicely sums up the Travelina’s travel philosophy.
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