One of the nice things about not being a tourist in places like Mongolia (as an example) is that you get to see a much fuller cross section of the place you are visiting.
There are those who take the ‘high-road’ by only taking the ‘low-road’ travel options (though unless they’ve walked there from home, this can appear as a bit hypocritical).
In contrast, I feel lucky being a working geologist, because it affords me access across a social spectrum: from mining colleagues and getting more than just your boots dirty to board rooms; from the simplest of tea rooms (or dumpling holes-in-the-walls) to five-star hotels.
Western Mongolia, near the Govi Altai Mountain range (T.A. Moore, 2024)
When travelling I’ve always been resistant to being cloistered only in top-end hotels (rare that is!), though there is a wide variety of people one does meet there, from the staff checking you in to the Member of Parliament or ambassador you bump into at dinner. At the other end, being in the field, whether that is in gers, losmens or simple tents, this gives another perspective, equally worthwhile.
Although there is nothing bad about taking a vacation, especially showing your children the full range of different cultures and societies, there is also something about taking them with you on work (which I often do) and showing them how working people go about their daily lives, just like (and unlike) at home.
Although some ‘professional tourists’ beseech how much they know a place after a week or two or four, I must admit that even after going to places over periods of years (e.g. Indonesia [30+ yrs], Mongolia [3 yrs], China [20+ yrs]) it becomes clear that I actually know very little.
Tim Moore and Micah Moore, Xuzhou, China, 2025
“Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived, precisely where it was he had felt most at home.”
― Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky
But there is satisfaction in my travels that I’m helping to discover new things (if, say, the purpose of a trip is to understand paleoclimate or plant evolution) or find new deposits that help energize hospitals, houses and businesses. There is giving back to those areas and peoples, rather than just being a consumer of their resources for a chance to gawk and say ‘I’ve been there’ on holiday cards.
Trail, Tasmania, Australia (T.A. Moore, 2016)
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