Travelers’ Tales

 Agra, India

 

Stories about travelers are as old as humankind.  

One of the earliest travelers’ tales was Homer’s Odyssey, from 800 B.C.E., the story of Odysseus’ journey home after the Trojan Wars.

 

 

Howrah Station, Calcutta, India

 

From Homer to Dante,  Xuanzang , Marco Polo and Cervantes to Halliburton, to Kerouac, Durell, Theroux, Iyer, writers have taken their readers along on their travels, whether the journey is  fiction, non-fiction, or a combination of both.

 

 

Train Station, Burma/Myanmar

 

“The traveler sees what he sees.The tourist sees what he has come to see.”
- G. K. Chesterton

 

 

Burma/Myanmar

 

He who does not travel does not know the value of men.
– Moorish proverb

 

Kandahar, Afghanistan

 

 

 Sri Lanka

 

 Burma/Myanmar

 

“The World is a book,  and those who do not travel
read only a page.”
- St. Augustine

 

Kandze, Tibet

 

 

Kabul, Afghanistan

 

 

Burma/Myanmar

 

 

Maimana, Afghanistan

 

 

Hindu Kush Mountains, Afghanistan

 

 

Burma/Myanmar

 

 

Kabul, Afghanistan

 

 

Russia

On the Road

Stories about roads and journeys are as old as humankind.  One of the earliest ”on the road” stories was Homer’s Odyssey, from 800 B.C.E., the story of Odysseus’ journey home after the Trojan Wars.

 

 

Southern Afghanistan

 

Madaoua, Niger

 

From Homer to Dante,  Xuanzang , Marco Polo and Cervantes to Halliburton, to Kerouac, Durell, Theroux, Iyer, writers have taken their readers along on their roads, whether the journey is  fiction, non-fiction, or a combination of both.

 

 

Tiguent, Mauritania

 

  The words, “on the road”, can mean many things.  To the salesman, it is a time away from home trying to sell products.  To the explorer, it means setting off on an  adventure.  A road trip for athletes means that they’re playing in a different city.  To a homeless person, being on the road means the search for food and shelter.  To a Buddhist, the road may symbolize the path to enlightenment.  For refugees, the road is an escape route and symbolizes hope and safety.

 

 

Bamiyan, Afghanistan

 

 

Near the Afghan/Pakistan border

 

 

Myanmar/Burma

 

 

Kabul, Afghanistan

 

 

Ahmadi Oil Fields, Kuwait

 

 

Calcutta/Kolkata, India

 

 

Calcutta/Kolkata, India

 

 

Rajasthan, India

 

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

India

 

 

Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA

 

 

Havana, Cuba

 

 

 Calcutta/Kolkata, India

 

 

Bangladesh

 

 

Kabul, Afghanistan

 

 

Porbandar, Gujarat, India

 

 

Angkor, Cambodia

  

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

- Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

 

Kham, Tibet

 

Amdo, Tibet