Travelling

Tasting Your Travels

After viewing, testing is the next most obvious sense to use on your travels. But many of us, including me, do not always do this very well. In fact, I think using your palate to experience a new culture is a skill you really have to practice.

As well as getting yourself accustomed to the likes you would not normally find at home, for example, being able to eat really spicy food in Korea or strangely textured raw seafood in Japan, you should do some Research before you hit the road. The real local food is sometimes difficult for travelers to find, because we do not know what to ask for.

Surf the web to find examples of typical local foods, and pay special attention to dishes that might belong to just one particular city or region. If you note down some names you'll have a good chance of being able to eat authentically by asking around in restaurants once you arrive. Too often I've returned from a trip somewhere, only to have someone ask me if I'd tried some unusual meal I'd never heard of. Arm yourself with information before you go.

And a side note: tasting might not only involve food. My niece and nephew from California visited Australia last summer, and reported that the water in the Indian Ocean tastes significantly more salty than their Pacific Ocean water.

A Sense of Touch Your Trip

Using the touch is actually a shadow, but we tend to think it over later. Walk through a fabric stall in a market or even a supermarket and you'll probably notice yourself reaching out to feel the texture of an object in front of you. Make it a more intentional practice and start comparing and contrasting what you feel.

Have a Nose for Your Journey, From the Beginning

There ...