The Lost Art of Travel
During the pandemic, we took the time to re-evaluate the vision, mission, and values of Chickenfeet Travels.
The three things that we stand for are:
Authenticity
Respect
Transformative
It just so happens to spell out ART. Chickenfeet Travels is the ART of travel.
As with all things, it started to make me reflect, contemplate, and, let’s be honest, judge how most people travel these days, and the conclusion I came to is that the art of travel has been lost.
Since the introduction of smartphones, we have lost:
connection - sitting in guesthouse lobbies or at bars and restaurants to meet people (tourists and locals) to genuinely meet and share dialogue about where you're coming from, where you’re going, and share in the excitement for each others’ experiences and crazy stories;
courage - going places…well, just because. Now, we follow blogs, guidebooks, and Yelp reviews rather than “taking a risk” and following our own gut and our minds;
trust in strangers - which is really ironic because as social media seemingly brings the world together, most individuals have never felt more alienated than ever
And since the boom of Instagram and especially TikTok, people do not travel for themselves anymore rather people seem to travel:
to see Insta-famous destinations
to post on Instagram
because of FOMO
With all the information available online, planning a trip for yourself is easier. Finding the best avocado on toast is straightforward. Figuring out how to navigate to a faraway waterfall is a piece of cake. Booking an airport taxi is two clicks away. But the most important element of travel is now missing: meeting people and conversing.
I was lucky enough to have started backpacking in 2007 at the beginnings of the age of technology and information. We only had travel guidebooks that we could buy for $1 at the night markets to navigate with, we stood in line to use hotel computers purely to send email updates to our families not to look up things to do, and we gathered with strangers for meals and in common areas.
Talking to strangers is the most important and memorable part of travelling. Talking to strangers used to be so important because it was the only way to learn about secret places to go, exchange contact details of guides, and in some cases, to figure out where to go to next. There was a genuine interest in making new friends. It did not matter how old people were, where they were from, what they did for work, as long as you could speak a little bit of English, everything worked out. Only two things really mattered: where you just came from and where you were going to next.
Talking with strangers is fundamental to travelling. What are we here for if not to learn from one another through building connections, telling our stories, and growing together?
Aristotle the legendary Greek philosopher said, “Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual.”
For me personally, I want to come back from every new adventure with an answer better than “I saw a really nice waterfall” or “the beach was sooooo nice” or “the coffee over there was just as good as here, but so much cheaper”, or my favourite “yeah, it was good”. I want to come back with stories. Stories about how poetic the language of the Montagnards in the Central Highlands of Vietnam is; second-hand ghost stories about the mystical and magical happenings in Bali; learning about the 40-step process to making a ceremonial sarong from ethnic minority groups in Indonesia; or learning how someone’s life changed through positive impact tourism in remote areas of northern Laos.
If we want the stories, we have to connect with strangers, have the courage to do things not on Joe Schmoe’s Top Ten List of Whatevers to do in Wherever, and we have to trust in people that things do work out for the best.
The founders of Chickenfeet Travels learned the art of travel through decades of experience. Chickenfeet Travels was built on slow travel throughout Southeast Asia and we want to be the internet’s best friend when it comes to travelling in Southeast Asia.
As the old adage goes: “it is not what you know but who you know”. And Chickenfeet Travels knows the most hardworking, generous, and funny guides in Southeast Asia. You will be connected to the right people in the places you want to explore, and dropping right into something that feels so familiar because we have already done a bit of an intro to the guide you will be travelling with and the trip itself.
Some of the guides we work with, we met as far back as 2010. We continue to work and grow together. And to be completely honest, it also took an entire pandemic and 2 years of not travelling to truly see how great they are at their jobs. During the pandemic, we always WhatsApp all the guides we knew, but it was hard to plan ahead or to talk when nothing was happening. But when we reconnected in person, it was pretty magical getting to know each of them all over again, how they managed, and how their families had grown. We were always too busy talking business to properly dive into the personal stories; however, having gone through the shared misery of the half-dead travel industry, we could commiserate, and we started to plan with hope and excitement again.
These are the top three things I learned from moments of re-connection:
The guides we work with pioneered travel in their regions - shaping how people travel since the early 2000s
They saw opportunities of collaboration and inspired people to build small businesses to support their customers’ experience.
Most of them have hustled hard from very humble beginnings and made a name for themselves, and are now paying it forward to the next generation.
It took all of us a break from our everyday adventure-filled lives to realize: the contrast between what it feels like for our customers to live a stationary life, the impact that we have made over the years within our respective communities, and how much knowledge and expertise we have collected over the years. I have been slow travelling since 2006, that makes 18 years of experience; and some of the guides we work with have more than a decade on me.
Chickenfeet Travels and our network of local guides have a deep love for travel and exploration. We take pride in what we do, and we want to share all that we know. If I may, I speak on behalf of the guides we work with, they truly love showing off the beautiful landscapes in their backyards, re-telling their favourite stories for the 100th time, and if you earn their trust and respect, they will bring you to their personal favourite spots to eat.
The art of travel has been lost and diluted over the last decade and Chickenfeet Travels wants to make it easier to connect travellers with authentic, transformative experiences that pay respect to the people and the environment.
What are you waiting for?
