Please Comment: Both Sides of the Postcard

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Both Sides of the Postcard by Laura Rikono The Importance of Travel Writing

Got wanderlust? Social media sells the destination. Travel writing tells the story

The sand is white and soft. The palms sway gently. The turquoise water glitters. The happy traveler reclines on the lounger and sips something sweet. Everything is wonderful, everything is bliss.

A few moments later, the happy traveler nods with satisfaction, puts down their drink, and reaches for the latest grisly noir crime bestseller.

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Why do we even travel? For the moments or the stories?​

The photo above was taken on a remote island in the Sulu Sea. What follows is a diary entry written in the same place, possibly even the same day. I have translated it from the original German, but not from my eager, cocky, dramatic 21-year-old self:

The sandflies in the mangrove toilet are bad, swarming as if over a corpse.
We’re diving again, but not until later, so I took the rubbish to the burning pit. Something was moving in the palms ahead. Monkeys! A whole troop, high up by the coconuts.
The light from the house is mirrored in the water below us. Little sketches of light on inky black.
Things got hairy after the second dive. We were on Eagle Reef to do a last line point survey. Buddied with S. We ascended and waited for F and K, but suddenly the wind started up. It had been a calm evening, but it got scary-stormy pretty quick. R had to jump out the pitching boat to help us back in. Honestly thought we’d sink on the way back. The bow kept submerging, and R had to bail water continuously. B’s a good cox, but even he looked shattered by the time we reached Camp.
N stung by a stingray today.
L took his backpack from the rafters and found a new t-shirt. He looks startling. On the island, you recognize people by their clothes as much as their faces.
Last night we caught a tail end of the typhoon. The roof almost flew off and you could barely close the door. Impressed with Malaysian house construction.

If taken today, the photo would be just another social media post in which none of those written details would feature. These days, we’re so busy presenting perfection that we edit out the parts that matter.

It’s like the difference between the front and back of a postcard. Social media and travel literature both stir wanderlust, but one highlights the beauty of a destination while the other explores its messy, honest complexities. One praises escape from the mundane, the other describes the adventure of the human experience. One side attracts, the other side engages.

What are we losing when our travel experience is whittled down to curating a collection of picturesque destinations? Quite a lot, because of one fundamental truth:

Perfect Moments Make Boring Stories​

The snapshot of paradise on the front of the postcard attracts the eye, but what we really crave is written on the back: the mishaps and hijinks. You could bore people with a hundred stunning sunsets, but wouldn’t you rather tell them about the time you ended up in a fish market at 4am with a crew of tipsy scholars?

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I’d love to hear your own back-of-the-postcard moments! What happened when your perfect trip went sideways?

Paradise Found #BeachLife #WhiteSand #CoconutPalms #NatureLovers #BucketList #TravelWriting #Explore #Adventure

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