The Essence Of Travel

The old, musky smell of the diary enveloped Rita and Frankie as they sat with their grandparents to travel down memory lane through a family traveling album. They were sitting in their grandparents' room, flipping through the pages and gasping at how young their elders looked. 

"We never knew you went to visit the Pyramids of Giza!", exclaimed little Rita. Her grandmother smiled. 

"Look here! Look at Grandpa and Grandma standing next to that man wearing that funny costume!" laughed Frankie.

His Grandpa laughed and asked, "Do you know who he is?".

"He is a Kathakali dancer. Kathakali is a form of traditional South Indian dance found mostly in Kerala. The dancers wear heavy jewelry and they have to wear a ton of makeup as part of the costume." he explained.

"Yes, and did you know, the whole attire itself weighs about 35 kilograms!".

The children exchanged astonished glances. They continued to look at the album, and see the different places their parents and grandparents had once visited!

Something that astonished them was how their grandparents answered and their questions and narrated the interesting incidents as if it was only yesterday that they were young travelers exploring the world.

"Grandma, how do you still remember what happened back when you were 30? And how come you know all about the history and traditions of these places?" Rita asked.

"Dears, this is a really good question. You see, in our young days, your grandpa and I used to travel almost every month. We visited different places in our own country, as well as far-off lands. But we didn't do it just for the purpose of taking pictures to show you all. We did it to increase our knowledge about different parts of the world. Every country had a different feeling, and that was what made us travel so often. Travelling helps you learn different things from the most unbelievable places. The dress, food, culture, festivals.... everything is bundled into a marvelous world called Travel. And that, is the best feeling in the world," Grandma explained.

"Yes, and we had a special custom-sort-of-thing we always did before going off to a new place," added Grandpa. "We would take a notebook and discuss all important features of that place. We would write down the Traditions, language, food, festivals and currency of the place and some other extra information that would make our journey much more interesting."

"Well, that definitely sounds fun! Do you think you could help us do the same thing before we depart for our trip to Bhutan tomorrow?" asked little Frankie.

"We would be delighted to!" Grandma said happily.

The grandparents smiled at the children and the children exchanged excited glances for what would be an amazing travelling experience now that their Traveller Grandparents had given them so much insight on how travelling helps us learn so many things.