UNIT 13 IMPORTANCE AND TYPES OF

TRAVEL WRITING

Structure
13.0 0bjectives
13.1 Introduction
13.2 What is Travel Writing
13.3 Why People Travel
13.3.1 Foreigners Come to India
13.3.2 Indians Go Abroad
13.3.3 Some Other Famous Travellers
13.4 Why do we read Travelogues
13.5 Why should we write about Our Travels?
k3.6 Different Types of Travel Writing
13.6.1 Romotional Literature
13.6.2-Informative Articles for the Tourist
13.6.3 Articles Aimed at the Business Traveller
13.6.4 Travel-trade Reporting
13.6.5 Articles for the Armchair Traveller
13.7 Different Styles of Travel Writing
13.7.1 Descriptive, Narrative, Expository and Introspective
13.7.2 Reminiscent
13.7.3 Diary Form
13.8 Summing Up
13.9 Aids to Activities
13.10 Suggested Reading

13.0 QBJECTIVES
After reading this unit and about a variety of travellers and their travelogues you
will be able to list
0 the reasons for travelling
the types of travel writing you can attempt
the importance of writing travelogues, and
some of the different styles of travel writing

4
13.1 INTRODUCTION
In this course you have learnt about writing features on various subjects. In this and
the subsequent unit you will read about the ways of writing features on travel for the
Sunday supplements of daily newspapers and magazines.
Assuming that you are fresh in the area of feature writing, in this unit we shall tell
you about some of the best pieces of travel writing and tell you about the insights of
I some of the great travel writers of all times. They will be helpful to you in
embarking upon your own projects.
In this unit the sequencing of the various sections and subections is rather
important and we suggest that you read through rather than in snatches from here
and there. Exercises and activities come-at intervals and we advise you to attempt
I them and give yourself a break after each exercise.
Writing on Special Themes-I
13.2 WHAT IS TRAVEL WRITING
Answer the following questions first:

1) Why do you travel?

.......................................................................
.......................................................................
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2) Why do you think other people travel?

Travel writing is basically meant to help people wishing to visit a place for reason of
business or entertainment. Sometimes it is meant just for armchair reading.
Obviously, this means that your focus for the above will differ from reason t o reason
and result in different types of writing.

13.3 WHY PEOPLE TRAVEL

Now let's read about some of the well-known tavellers of the world. Most of them
have left a record of their travels. You might be interested in learning some more
about them.

13.3.1 Foreigners Come to India

You must have heard about Fa-Hien (A.D. 399-414) the Chinese Buddhist monk,
who came to India during the reign of Chandragupta I1 (A.D. 380-412). Do you
know why he came to India? He came to study the sacred Buddhist texts.

There was another Chinese Buddhist monk who came to India during the reign of
Harshavardhan (A.D. 606-647). His name was Hiuen Tsang (A.D. 600-649). His
journey too like that of his predecessor lasted 15 years and he returned home with
700 religious books from India. He spent the remainder of his life compiling the Ta-
T'arg-Si Yu Ki (Memories on Western Countries) about eighty-four times the
wordage of the Bible.
9

During the medieval times we hear of two famous travellers-Alberuni (1 lth Century
A.D.) and Ibn Batuta (1304-1369). Ibn Batuta, the Moroccan traveller, thought that
his contemporaries travelled for practical reasons-trade, pilgrimage or education-
but he himself travelled for the sake of travelling, for the joy of discovering new
lands and peoples. He made a living of travelling and benefited in the beginning
from his scholarly status and later from his increasing fame as a traveller. He
enjoyed the support of sultans, amirs and governors and thus secured an income that
enabled him to continue his wanderings.

It would be difficult to examine the motives of numerous individual travellers from

abroad in India nearer our own time. Some of them could be pure travellers; some
commissioned by publishing houses to travel and report; some might be ambassadors
appointed by their respective governments to work in India and their travelogues
might be a byproduct of their stay in this country; some came to travelin and write about
India out of curiosity and as a form of self-expression.
 Activity 1
Importance and T i p a
1) Why did Fa Hien and Hiuen Tsang come to India? of Travel Writing

3) How did Ibn Batuta finance his long trips abroad?

3) Give some good reasons for travelling.

13.3.2 Indians Go Abroad

We read about Indian scholars and traders going abroad right through history.
However there are very few accounts of their travels in foreign lands and among
foreign peoples. Perhaps the earliest account of an Indian traveller abroad is that of
Thomas Paremmakel (1736-99). He was a native priest of Kerala. He undertook a
journey during 1778-86 from Kerala to Rome via Madras, Africa,.South America
and Portugal and wrote about it in Varthamahapustakam. He accompanied Joseph
Kariyattil (1742-86) on his mission to the Pope and the Queen of Portugal whose
help they sought in uniting the Syrian Christian Church of Kerala into a single
entity.

, Mirza Ihtesam ad-Din was an ambassador of Shah Alam to the Board of Directors
of the E,xt India Company in London. He was to be accompanied by Robert Clive
who t o o k ~ h a r g eof the five lakhs of rupees-that Shah Alam gave ad-Din for presents
to the members. The mission failed due to intrigues but he observed English life for
slightly less than three years and wrote Shiyarfnamah-i-Wilayat, in Persian an
account of his observations of life in England.

The accounts in Hindi in the present century of the travels of the late Rahul
Sankrityayan, the poets Nagarjuna, Harivansh Rai Bachchan and Agyeya and the
novelist N i m a l Verma are well-known. Vikram Serfi's From Heaven Lake is a rare
account of present day China by an Indian, though in English.

Activity 2
Why did Thomas Paremmakel go on his long journey to Portugal and Rome?

13.3.3 Some Other Famous Travellers

Perhaps one of the most unique of the travellers of all times was Charles Darwin
(1809-82). In 1831 he embarked on a voyage to South America on H.M.S. Beagle.
He maintained a record of his various scientific observations in various lands and on
his return in 1836 began to compile them into a Journal of Researches into the
Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle to be
published in 1839.
Writing on Special Themes-I Travelogues proper did not begin t o be written until the nineteenth century. You
must have heard about Marco Polo (1254-1324) the Venetian traveller in the court of
Kublai Khan of China. He lived there for 17 years and on his return, in a Gernoese
prison he wrote about his voyages that were read throughout Europe during the
middle ages. Marco Polo had also come to India.
The nineteenth century literary traveller R.L. Stevenson (1850-94) also had an
interesting point of view. 'For my part' wrote Stevenson, I travel not t o go
anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is t o move (Travels
with a Donkey). In 'El Dorado' he wrote, 'To travel hopefully is a better thing to
arrive, and the true success is to labour'. The American novel Moby-Dick (1815) is a
sea novel based on H. Melville's (1819-91) South Sea voyages on the whaler Acushnt.
Alexander Kinglake (1809-91) and George Borrow (1803-81) were typical nineteenth
century travellers who cared more for the charms of travel, its adventures and
encounters, its fast changing kaleidoscopic experiences than political o r social
observations on the peoples and societies they visited.
We thus find that travel literature of the world presents a rich array of motives of the
travellers. However, we can safely say that travellers undertook journeys on business, in
search of employment, for the purposes of trade and commerce, and for the love of
adventure.

13.4 WHY DO WE READ TRAVELOGUES -

We read travelogues because we vicariously wish to partake in the adventures of
other people. We read them because we cannot ourselves go on long travels for the
absence of an opportunity, paucity of funds or leisure. the handicap of a poor health
or lack of determination. In short, reading travelogues can be a substitute for
travelling. Sometimes travel literature is meant t o help and advise people intending
to visit a dace for business or leisure

Need it always be so? In some of the above cases, travellers need not read
travelogues at all. But that is not true. Before you yourself are to go on a journey
you wish to know how others experienced the place you are about to experience.
After you have visited a place you wish t o compare your experiences with those of
another persons. Like any other piece of creative writing a travelogue is like the tete-
a-tete of a bosom friend.

A closed mind is like a stagnant pool of water that supports mosquitoes but does not
slake the thirst of the passer-by. Briefly but succinctly Alberuni gives us a valuable
insight and we may read travelogues due to our social, political, economic, cultural,
sociological o r scientific interests. Our interest will decide which travelogue we would
like to go through, for all travelogues are not meant for everyone.

13.5 WHY SHOULD WE WRITE ABOUT OLIR TRAVELS

So far we have answered two questions. They are :

'Why do we travel?' and
'Why d o we read travelogues?'

Now it appears in order that we ask ourselves why we should write about our
travels. Perhaps the answer is not all that difficult. It is a cultural activity. We do not
record facts because we wish to pass on our experiences to the succeeding
generations. We wish them to start all over again from scratch. We want them to go
ahead of us, to learn from our mistakes, t o improve upon our achievements. Only
through such an activity will the quality of our life improve. We write travelogues
just as any other literary piece for these reasons.

The travelogue is a kind of creative writing. Like all creative writing it is a form,
perhaps the best form, of self expression. Through words we express ourselves better
 Importance and Types
than perhaps through colours or notes in music. This is because language is central
of Travel Writing
to our being social animals. We can write well only if we have a rich personality
because in art it is the entire personality of the artist that comes into play. Besides
the personality of the writer it is his command over his language that is of greatest
importance and this is as true of travelogues as of any other form of creative writing

Besides these general reasons there can be reasons peculiar to certain individuals. A
naturalist may like to leave a record of his observations far posterity. It is said that
Johann Kepler (1571-1630) made use of the extensive records of the obsrnrations of
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) of the heavens and they helped him formulzte his laws of
heavenly motion. A naturalist's observations of plant and anima! life can be in the
form of a travelogue, so can the observations of a sociologist. All of us are not
specialists though we may share an amateur interest in a number of areas. A good
travel writer will be a person of broad taste.

The travel writer must have a taste for a wide variety of human activities. When
Samuel Johnson went t o Scotland in 1773 he wanted to find out the impact of the
disarming of the scots by law on their bravery, the impact of Reformation on
Scottish education, the condition of the professors in the universities, and even the
price of eggs. All these were indicators of the condition of the Scottish society.
Johnson must have thought that his observations were valuable and so he recorded
them.

A travelogue perhaps above all is a humanist's document. The travel writer must be
interested in human beings, their follies as much as their greatness. Boswell's account
of his Hebridean journey with Johnsor, is an account of the man Johnson. his likes
and dislikes, prejudices and eccentricities, sympathv and encyclopaedic learning.
Johnson's own interest in Scottish life was a proof of his humanism. O n a certain
island he found the strange custom of a tax on tile marriage of every virgin. At
another place he regretted that the monetization of the Scottish economy had led to
the collapse of many ancient families. Johnson wished to test his hypotheses about
human life when he was among a people at a considerably lower level of
development than his own. His work was not just a detached piece of writing. It was
a product of his desire to improve the quality of life.

T o say this does not mean that the travelogue has t o be a gloomy or passionate piece
of writing without humour, without light. Very frequently the traveller runs into a
situation that evokes laughter and ,perhaps nothing makes a travelogue more
readable than suckpatches of humour, passages of mirth.
There is certainly one more reason for writing about our travels. We wish t o preserve
what, without the help of the written word would float away o n the stream of time.
Just as we can see what we looked like in our childhood or youth if we have
photographs so can we refresh our memory of any rich experiences we had while
travelling over strange lands if we have kept a written record of them. Diary notes of
the sights and sounds would do. Perhaps if you must share it with a friend, record
your experiences frequently in the form of letters and your travelogue will emerge
from your notes and letters.

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13.6 DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRAVEL WRITING

Before you evem begin to locate a n appropriate subject, it is imperative that you
know very clearly .
who your readers are, and
0 what sort of publication you are writing for.

These two factors are important. They determine the types of travel literature that is
in demand today.
You may note the following types of travel writing:

Promotional literature : Brochures, booklets, pamphlets and other materials which are
put out by state and national tourism promotion establishments, with a view to
inducing people to visit a particular area.
Writing on Special Theme-I Informative articles for the tourist : Articles which inform would-be travellers about
interesting places and are meant for publication in a general travel magazine, a
Sunday newspaper supplement, or the travel section of any one of a number of
magazines.

Articles aimed at the business traveller : These are factual articles aimed a t conveying
travel information to this important and growing segment of the travelling public.

Travel trade reporting : This is meant t o carry news for members of the travel trade;
these comprise travel agents, tour operators, people from the government tourist
offices, airlines, and hotels, etc.

Articles for the armchair traveller are elegantly written accounts of visits t o exotic or
unusual places to entertain the reader who chooses to d o his travelling by proxy.

13.6.1 Promotional Literature

The Department of Tourism and the State Tourism Development Corporation
publish a variety of brochures and booklets with a view to promoting travel within
India. Such publications are clearly designed as forms of advertisement o r sales aids.
Your reader, in this case, is the potential tourist.

Your objective is t o persuade your reader t o visit a particular place by extolling

@ its points of interest
the enjoyable activities it promises, and
9 the opportunities for shopping and recreation that the place offers.

Since such a brochure has to appeal to as wide a range of interest groups as possible,
it is necessary to
research your subject well, and
9 give accurate information on relevant aspects of the place.

T o write the text of a brochure, you need to combine advertising and copywriting
skills with an accurate recording of facts. You are, in fact, selling a destination, just
as an advertisment sells a product, so your text should, necessarily, reflect this.

13.6.2 Informative Articles for the Tourist

These might be published in the Sunday supplement of a daily newspaper, in a
Sunday newspaper o r magazine, in general interest magazines that have a travel
column, o r in a travel magazine aimed at the general reader.
Mere again, your target is the potential traveller, but your object is not to convlnce
him t o a particular place. You are, in fact, in the position of an adviser: so your aim
should he to provide as honest and comprehensive an account of a place as possible
Rased on the contents of your article, a family might decide t o spend its hard-tarried
money on travelling to a particular destination. You have, therefore, a serious
responsibility t o discharge, and you must d o it in the hest way you can.
Thus
9 your integrity,
9 your impartiality, and
9 your eye for detail
are what matter most in a n article of this sort.

Look at this sentence, for example, to see how detail can he impartially and yet
interestingly worked in: 'The plain formal eighteenth-century church stands in a little
plaza where a market is held everyday of the week-ices and fruit, little sweet
corncakes cooked while you watch and wrapped up in coloured paper like crackers,
the blue Guadalupe glass, the colour of poison bottles, small crude toys'.

Most important of all, and this cannot he over-emphasised, you must never write
about a place you have not actually visited, hy merely putting together information
from guidebooks and brochures. This is not only dishonest and unfair to your
readers, but will also inevitably show up in the quality of your writing; such a writer
is not likely to get puhlished anywhere.
a) In writing a destination article, some amount of description is necessary even Importance and Types
essential, but the great danger here is the ease with which one can slip into cliches or of Travel Writing
into a copywriting sell that is useful for a travel brochure but disastrous for an
informative article. Take the following passage:
The cultural heritage of the Mughals finds expression in this impressive
fort, which is one of the most beautiful in the country. Its grandeur is awe
inspiring and the many buildings inside its battlements are as lovely as its
exterior.

It tells the reader nothing about the fort except that it was built by the Mughals and
that it is likely to be large. It would be far more useful to write: The impressive red
sandstone walls of the fort encircle imperial pavilions, pleasure palaces and a mosque
built entirely of white marble.
You would, in this way, be quietly passing on useful bits of information: the fort
wall is built of red sandstone; the mosque of white marble; the enclosure houses
pavilions and pleasure palaces.

b) Apart from factual descriptions of places to see and things to do, an informative
article should tell the reader
something about the people of the area,
the handicrafts that one may b'uy, and
the food that is tybical of the region.
Some publications require information on
how to travel to the place to be visited,
details of places to stay in, with an indication of what they cost, and
suggestions, based on personal experience, about the best eating places.

This means checking on all these facts and perhaps jotting down notes while you are
on your travels, so as to make sure that you have all the information you need and
that it is absolutely up-to-date and correct.
On his return from a month's holiday in South America, a young Canadian told us
how frustrating it was t o arrive at bus depots or railway stations, armed with 'up-to-
date' arrival and departure timetables, only to be told that the timings had been
changed the previous day or week, etc.

You can also inform the tourist of where to check for correct travel information,
how to purchase tickets. how much to pay the porter and public transport vehicles.
A!qo, give the approximate distance from the place of arrival t o the major tourist 2

attractions in a city, with important telephone numbers, and some idea of where he
can get medical aid, if necessary.

c) Some magazines, such as airlines magazines, hotel magazines, and some

newspaper supplements. want a little more than jnst destination articles. With the
frequent traveller and the non-Indian visitor to this country in mind, they seek t
enrich a traveller's experience by helping him or her to learn something about ti
culture and environment of a region or city. You might write on the glass painting ol'
Tanjore, the hidri work of Andhra Pradesh for example,or the folk singers of
Rajasthan, or Bengali jewellery or contemporary art, o r wildlife... the possibilities are
endless.

To do an article of this sort requires hard work. It is not enough to merely see a
place or a person. The writer needs to spend a great deal of time on research and or
interviewing experts on the subject-either academics, or in some cases even illiterate
craftspeople or folk performers who have information and knowledge. In other
words, he must he intimately familiar with the subject before he starts writing for a
potential traveller.

Considering the multiplicity of Indian languages, it is always a good idea to explain

any non-English words used in the article. There are_different ways of doing this.
You may use footnotes or brackets, or you may even incorporate the explanation in
the sentence itself, without making it arrest the flow of the narrative.
Writing on Spedd Themes-l d) A relatively new but fast-growing segment of tourists today falls into the category
adventure traveller' These are generally young tourists whose main interest is trekking,
mountaineering, water sports, wildlife and so on. Information about such activities is
limited but is now steadily increasing. You could do a piece designed specially for travel
agents, or mountaineeringsocieties or state tourism agencies. But youshould make it very
clear to your readers that you are merely collating published information. A better way to
handle subjects of this sort is to actually experience the adventure for yourself and then
report on it, with details of equipment required, routes taken, facilities available en route,
etc. Ideally, you shall already have an interest in, say trekking, as only then you would be
able to write about specific treks with the would-be trekker in mind.

Read carefully :
A) There are few things as delightful as an amble through Vijayanagar's 26 square-
mile area on a winter's day, with frequent stops to examine royal palaces, and
harems, the soaring stone temples, with their intricately chiselled images, the
water reservoirs, market-places, elephant-stables, mosques and gateways, each
with its own wonders to be discovered. The city is built beside the Tungabhadra
river in an extraordinarily undulating terrain of enormous rock and boulders.
The stone structures are built around and within the landscape, as if they've
grown from it, rather than being imposed upon it from without. In the early
morning or late evening, the city's natural environment casts its spell over
visitors, tempting them to linger meditatively besides a carved palace or to sit in
awed silence within the pillared hall of a temple
B) Perhaps the greatest joy of travelling in India is the seemingly inexhaustible
number of little-known and delightfully different places that await discovery. This
is true of every part of India, and nowhere it 1s more evident tnan in the South.
where a hospitable coastline has encouraged visits from every seafaring nation.
The Romans came, and so did the Chinese, the Arabs, the Danes, the
Portuguese and the French and the British. And, each group that touched Indian
soil left an impress which has lingered, helping to shape cultural and social
forms that are both varied and utterly unique.

Analyse these passages as writing meant for the general tourist, and try to see
whether they succeed in (i) arousing curiosity, (ii) giving interesting /useful
information (60 words each)
.......................................................................

.......................................................................
(No answers provided)
13.6.3 Articles Aimed at the Business 'Traveller
The business traveller is a very important member of the travelling public and he or
she requires information to fulfil clearly defined needs. In general, the business
traveller has neither the time nor the inclination to visit monuments o r centres of
culture. What he or she wants to know is what sort of facilities are available in
centres of commerce and industry across the country. He would like to read articles
that give him up-to-date information on hotel accommodation, special packages and
offers, restaurants and cuisine, airlines, travel and ticket details, and other facilities
that can help endure the strain of frequent travelling.
k
The business traveller seldom has the time to read descriptive or informative pieces.
What he or she wants is facts, up-to-the-minute reports on airline and hotel services
and other such useful material. Here, the job of the travel writer is to- be in frequent
touch with the organisers of these services and facilities and to report on them as
accurately as possible. The public relations departments of airlines and hotels are
always glad to provide assistance and information to a travel writer, and
it is the job of the writer to collect such information,
to verify it by seeing or sampling the facilities available in order to report on them
to his reader.
In articles such as these, the style should be clear and concise.
 13.6.4 Travel-trade Reporting Importance and Types
of Travel Writing
1
I
In its widest sense, the term travel-trade includes travel agents, tour operators,
L governmeRt tourist offices, airlines, and hotels, since all these exist only because
i people travel. There are several publications whose purpose is to disseminate
information for and about members of the travel trade. These are highly specialised
trade publications which usually rely exclusively on their own staff to provide all
their material.
Like other publications dealing with news and information, travel-trade magazines
receive material in the form of press releases and photographs, and their staffers
keep in touch with professionals in every area of the travel industry. If you choose to
enter this sphere of travel writing, you will be dealing with
very specific segments of travel news;
personalities in the travel business;
policies and plans affecting your readers; and
the professionals in the travel line.
i) What are the different types of travel articles current today? (50 words)
ii) How does a general informative article differ from a promotional article? (50
words)

(Re-read above section for hints)

13.6.5 Articles for the Armchair Traveller
There is a section of the reading public which is intensely interested in exotic or
unusual places, but prefers to avoid the dislocations and discomforts that such
travelling often entails. This is the readership for which you should write first-person,
anecdotal accounts of particular journeys. Among the best known travel writers of
this genre are Paul Theroux, author of The Great Railway Bazaar, Jan Morris, whose
books on Venice and New York and whose collection of essays are classics of their
kind, and Eric Newby, author of Slowly Down the Ganges and A Short Walk in the
Hindu Kush.
Accounts for the armchair-traveller
are usually in the first person, and
deal with the writer's experience of people he or she met along the way, unusual
forms of transport used, exotic places, interesting experiences, etc.
The object is to re-create, as vividly as possible, unusual travel experiences.

However, a mere recital of your travels to an exotic destination &in be crushingly

dull.
Thus
a writing a travelogue requires a preful selection from a mass of experience, and
a style of writing that is both lively and distinctively your own.
It may seem an easy thing to do, but is, m fact, the most dficult because you have
to be honest and yet filter out all the boring bits so that your article is readable and
enjoyable. Write-ups of this sort are also rather difficult to get published unless the
subject is especially interesting, and the article exceptionally well-written.

To get a taste of this kind of good writing take a look at this brief passage (on a
Tunisian oasis) written by Aldous Huxley ('The Olive Tree, London, 1947).

A fertile oasis possesses a characteristic colour scheme of its own, which

is entirely unlike that of any landscape in Italy or the north. The
fundamental note is struck by the palms. Their foliage, except where the
Writing oa Special Themai-I stiff shiny leaves metallically reflect the light, is a rich blue-green. Beneath
them one walks in a luminous aquarium shadow, broken by innumerable
vivid shafts of sunlight that scatter gold over the ground or, touching the
trunks of the palm trees, make them shine a pale ashy pink through the
subaqeous shadow. There is pink, too, in the glaringwhiteness of the sand
beyond the fringes of the oasis. Under the palms, beside the brown or
jade-coloured water, glows the bright emerald green of corn or the
deciduous trees of the north, here and there with the huge yellowish
leaves of a banana tree, the smoky grey of olives, or the bare bone-white
and writhing form of a fig tree.

- -

13.7 DIFFERENT STYLES OF TRAVEL WRITING

Depending on the kind of type of travel writing you are interested in attempting you
will accordingly have chosen your style. Naturally, if you are writing for the business
traveller you will have to be brief, to the point and factually correct. If you are only
giving an account of your own travels and not trying to advise others on the best
places to visit etc. your writing will be reminiscent.

13.7.1 Descriptive, Narrative, Expository and Introspective

Descriptive : as the word suggests, is merely a description of the place you have
visited. It will describe the scenic beauty, the journey, the season or the weather, local
conditions and populace and some local
Narrative : like descriptive, will give a linear account of when you went, then what
happened, then what happened ...until you return to your starting point.
Expository :gives a detailed explanation in addition to giving a detailed description of a
visit to a place.
Introspective : will give an account of your own personal feelings and reactions to a
place. How you felt, what you saw etc. are covered in this.

13.7.2 . Reminiscent
When you have visited a place and have come back home then you write an account
of your travels. Everything will be seen through the eyes of your memory. The
details may not be very sharp or even very correct. You may have a streak of
personal emotion running through your writing. "When I saw the small houses
huddled together I went back to my childhood village. How happy we were then. It
is only now that I realize that the people who had lived there were not really very
prosperous ..." The description of the visit takes second place to the emotional
reactions.

13.7.3 Diary Form

As is again obvious, diary form travel writing may actually be a day-to-day account
of your travels, noted down in a diary. The accounts may be jottings. "8 May 91.
Went to Lucknow by cousin's car. 9 May 91 Nothing special. Went shopping to
Hazratganj and picked up some lovely silks. 11 May 91 Again went shopping to
Nazirabad. Lovely chikan work you get. 12 May 91 Visited the zoo, the Imambara
and the Residency. What a lot of energy my hosts have!"
This account may be later expanded, keeping intact the linear progression but
records of visits to cousins etc. may be kept to a minimum if one is writing a travel
piece for publication.

13.8 SUMMING UP
In this unit we have asked some of the basic questions that a newcomer to the field
of travel writing will naturally ask and have tried to answer them. We have also tried
 Importance and Types
[
'A
to introduce you to some of the famous travellers coming to India end also going
abroad from here or travelling elsewhere in the world. In an organized manner, we
of Travel Writing

helped you in surveying the area of travel writing so that you may be able to make
up your mind ,about your own place in it. We don't live in a void, much less a
creative writer in whom live all the writers of the past and from whom spring all the
writers of the future, as one novelist said. A writer is an 'immensely complex and
continuous character* and this unit tries to place you in this tradition.

By doing so the unit also helps you in crystallizing your own views, discovering your
own predilections and deciding upon your strategies in travel writing.
In case you are interested in reading some travelogues you may go through the
suggested reading and try to look for them in some big libraries.

13.9 AIDS TO ACTIVITIES

Activity I

1) Fa-Hien and Hiuen Tsang were Buddhist monks who came to visit the Budhist
holy places, to study the Buddhist'canons and take back the holy relics or books
back to China.
2) Ibn Batuta was entertained by kings and governors who also gave him sinecures
and presents.
3) People travel in order to discharge the duties assigned to them by their
employers; to study; visit places of worship; on commission from publishing
houses or newspapers to write about certain areas; and to go away from insipid
familiar places to tourist sites for rest and relaxation.

Activity 2

He accompanied Joseph Kariyattil, who sought the help of the Queen of Portugal
and the Pope in unifying the Syrian Christian Church of Kerala into a single entity.

13.10 SUGGESTED READING

Here is a list of books you may like to read now or later. Most of these would not
be available at the study or regional centres. You may find them only in big libraries.
The list is only meant to facilitate your study and is not meant to direct it into any
particular channel. Follow your inclination but none of the books suggested is
compulsory reading for this course.

1) H.A. Giles, The Travels of Fa-Hien (1877)

2) Al-Bruni, Alberuni's India :An Account of the Religion, Philosophy, Literature,
Geography, Chronology, Astrnwromy Custom, Laws andAstrology of I& about A.D.
1030. 2 vols. in 1. Edward C. Sachan tr., Repr. of 1888 ed. Coronet Books.
3) Ibn Batuta-Travels in Asia and ~frica.1325-1354, Repr.of 1929 edition, 1%9,
Kelley. (ISBN 0-678-06523-3)
4) Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo Ronald Latham's tr. from French 1982,
Abaris Books.
5) William Foster (Editor) Early navels in India 1583-1619, (London, 1921)
6) William Cobbett, Year's Residence in the United States. of America, 1%9, Repr. of
' 1819ed.(ISBNO-67840516-8)Kelley.
7) Arthur Yanng, Trove& in France a d Irdy, 1976 (DBN ~ ~ 7 2 0 - Evmn)
3 ,
Writing on Special Themes-1 8) Vikram Seth, From Heaven Lake (ISBN 0-7089-1290-7) Ulverscroft, 1985.
9) Paul Theroux, The Kingdom by the Sea :A Journey Around Great Britain
(ISBN-O-395-34843-9) HM, 1983.
10) Paul Theroux, The Great Railway Bazaar (ISBN 0-345-301 10-2) Ballantine, 198 1 .
11) Paul Theroux, The Old Patagonian Express :By Train Through the Americas
(ISBN 0-395-52105-X) HM, 1989.