World Hum Holding Roundtable on ‘Women’s Travel’

There’s a great discussion going on over at World Hum between four successful travel writers - Terry Ward, Catherine Watson, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, and Liz Sinclair. Written as an email dialogue, they’ve been discussing the benefits and disadvantages of being female traveling solo, the writer vs traveler, returning home, and travel in general. Here's some of what they have to say...

Terry "...When I return from a trip, I usually find myself in a funk because everything is so easy and expected, like there’s some unseen handbook guiding me through my every day—work, work out, wind down, repeat. And it bothers me to feel like I’m living with blinders on at home, when I am so much more automatically open to experiences everyplace else. Why is this?"

Stephanie "...Traveling teaches you the inherent value of a day and the possibility each new one holds within. Writing enables you to share the stories of the people whose paths you cross along the way. Partnering the two is utter bliss... And therein lay the travel writer’s dilemma: you become so aware of how exciting/adventurous/fulfilling life can be, it kills your soul to do anything else!"

Liz "...can no longer “just travel.” I’m writing constantly wherever I go, trying to see things through a reader’s eyes, looking for my hooks, my characters, listening for my dialogue. This is one reason why I started living in foreign countries. I’m dissatisfied with knowing only the surface. I want to get beneath the skin of the culture."

Catherine "...But for days after a trip, I feel as if my feet have suddenly been nailed to the floor, but my body and my soul are still traveling onward. It’s like falling in a big arc, in slow, slow motion. And when I finally hit the floor, I turn into someone else. My values revert. My curiosity shuts down. Pretty soon, I’m watching the Home and Garden Network on cable, snacking too much, putting off doing the laundry and wondering why I’m depressed."

It’s fascinating reading. Check it out…

Part One: “He My HUSBAND”
Part Two: The Feminine Card
Part Three: Arguments and Getting to the Heart of the Subject
Part Four: Being a Woman - Wherever
Part Five: Settling Down on the Fringe
Part Six: Wanna See My AK-47?
Part Seven: Loosing Gender
Part Eight: The Home Dilemma
Part Nine: Girl Power, and the Get Up and Go
Part Ten: Ode to the Mother Road

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