Why You Should Make Market Visits a Stop on Any International Trip
They might just change your life
Traveling fearlessly and with an open mind unlocks experiences you couldn’t have orchestrated, yielding not just dinner party stories once you’re home, but moments that could transform you and your traveling companions into better world citizens.
An altered worldview and profound personal growth don’t happen all at once, and of course, require multiple powerful moments layered up over time.
Sometimes you don’t even know they’re happening.
You stop to watch a man mixing a deep purple drink at a food cart in Peru, and the next thing you know, you’re taking your first sip of chicha morada with him and his cronies on the curb. You turn a corner in Mahabalipuram, and a teacher invites you to talk about your country to her students; you spend an unexpectedly powerful few hours playing with Indian children with bright smiles.
Moments like these are woven by serendipity, and when they happen, we take them away like treasures in a locket, wishing we could replicate the experience day after day. There are places, though, where you can set yourself, and like a protagonist entering a setting of a novel, to await a moment of serendipity.
