The Itinerary

To a Travel Agent, reading a travel itinerary is as satisfying as a cook reading a cookbook. And this is VERY satisfying—next to ACTUALLY being there and sitting down to the table, partaking in the plat de jour, wine glasses raised, and spirits lifted.

The travel itinerary recipe is the preparation for the future and a recall of the past. The itinerary recipe is the reoccurring creative preparation for the next meal—the next journey you know you are about to take—NEXT Summer, next winter, and next spring. The Itinerary recalls, and calls forth, all that was absorbed, engulfed ingested—LAST Summer, last Winter and last Spring. The itinerary recipe is the first draft of a dream, a visit, and an exploration.

In every instance, in this creative preparation, the visual image appears first. How is the dish or destination to be prepared and presented, remembered, and anticipated. Color, texture, ingredients, accoutrements, utensils, steamers, woks, walks—ah yes, good walking shoes, and we are off and running.

Timing is an essential factor in making the event come together, without keeping your guests and/or guides waiting. Place mats, silver, goblets, flowers, waterfalls and forests. Natives.

Isolate the salt air, the paper currency, the curry, the herbs, the fish sauce, the sand, the pavement, the jungle and I can tell you where I am in 3 seconds flat. No guessing.

30 seconds into the Itinerary the mouth starts to water, not from thirst, but rather from anticipation, as each ingredient, or destination, is blended, folded, combined, sifted, to perfection, recalled or recreated.

Then, the aroma seems to waft—over the rooftops, permeate throughout the village, and the effusiveness of sesame seed oil identifies the locale: Japan.

Triggering every fragmented image, the destination floods your mind assembling into a totality, complete with every detail, every discussion, every nuance, right down to the scent of the paper bills of every transaction. Egypt.

Coconut chicken with banana blossom and sweet-spiced tea IS viewing Mr. Everest from Pole Three. Nepal. A splendor to behold in every sense.

Not enough for the senses? Embellish, alter, refine, exaggerate—just hopping on that bullet train in time for Kyoto, a little pinch of danger and the elephant is charging us—in Sri Lanka. Or you are traversing along the Great Wall, entering the Angkor Wat, buying Rambutan from the women at the market place.

The real creativity, of course, takes place in the IMAGINATION, in the process, and the appreciation of this exploration. Whether you plan you own itinerary, coordinate your efforts with a Travel Agent or let your travel agent recommend an adventure, it does not matter, for you are on your way. The journey has begun.

Will it be recreated exactly as you remember it? Will it be remembered just how you experienced it, or does the memory reach back into the experience and, recreate it over and over reshaping the details? Perhaps, if you let it, the next journey will exceed every expectation.

When the travel itinerary is served up, every sensation floating from its pages, the mouth waters once again, and the mind reaches back, then we are immediately transported to the pleasure and delight of someplace new or something we will never forget, or something for which we’ve always longed.