The future of travel that we were thinking about is here.
Once upon a sunny day, I was trudging in the streets of Paris, pinching and zooming out on a Google map itinerary that brought me from The Louvre to Arc de Triomphe and then to The Eiffel Tower. I wasn't too fond of the museum queues, but I did nearly stop traffic at the roundabout to catch a photo for my sister and in front of the Arc. Napoleon wouldn't be impressed, and I was lucky the heatwaves had yet to hit France as badly as it did this year. Who would have known?
Usually, a holiday to a fresh destination requires us to visit 'the greatest hits', because an itch that isn't scratched will certainly distract. But what happens when a destination is no longer new, and it's your fifth visit? The brain wanders and begs for something else, and at the bottom of the barrel could just be what you truly want, if you had all the time in the world.
It might look like playing an arcade game in a local bar, paddling down the river of a nondescript forest - whether in Central Cardamom or Tijuca - or sipping rich coffee on the second floor of a cozy cafe in Taichung.
The tourism boards and commercials of the world are bending their meeting agendas as the whims and wants of travellers change. Because the tides of travel are changing from the greatest hits to travellers transforming into global citizens, wandering everywhere just like home.