Karen Gershowitz - Travel Mania: Stories of Wanderlust

P RAISE FOR
Travel Mania

Travel Mania is a godsend. Its the perfect way to imagine Im a seasoned traveler, without having to leave the comfort of my living room couch. Gershowitz who responds to the suggestion lets go by packing her bags, hasnt quite turned me into a travel junkie, but she has hooked me on reading about a woman who just cant sit still.

CHARLES SALZBERG, two-time Shamus Award nominee and author of Second Story Man

Buckle up! Travel Mania is pure adventure and passion, circling and crisscrossing our exotic globe, ever eager for the next horizon. From those pre safety-belt days in the back seat of a DeSoto to the uncertain risks of traveling during our present-day pandemic, each leg of Karen Gershowitz life-long voyage is fueled with insights and intimacy, humor and poignancy. This is no mere itinerary or travelogue, but an inside passage.

MARC NIESON, author of Schoolhouse: Lessons on Love & Landscape

Karen Gershowitz suffers from the only travelers disease thats fun to have and be around: the compulsion toward travel itself. This book is full of terrific stories, revealing with richness and particularity not just places and people, but the traveler herself complicated and often conflicted, comforted by certain traveling companions and people met on the road, driven to distraction by others, but never daunted, never able to resist the pull of another journey. This book was a delight to me during these times of shutdown and is an inspiration for the times to come.

LON OTTO, author of A Nest of Hooks, Cover Me, and A Man in Trouble

Prepare to be swept around the world in the capable and enthusiastic company of KG. You will climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, poli-poli, eat the famous-for-its-revolting-smell durian in Malaysia, trek through a scirocco in the Sahara, watch bribes being passed on Moscow sidewalks, ride a felucca on the Nile, and spend New Years Eve in Saigon. Wherever she goes, Karen is an astute observer and willing experimenter. You are in for a treat.

CHRISTINE LEHNER, author of What to Wear to See the Pope and Absent a Miracle

No guided tour here. The only fitting description is: page-turner. Karen gives us wondrouswhether white-knuckled or resplendentnuggets. Her own growth as a global citizen winds through the decades and essays and leaves me wishing I might have trailed along at least a few times. Im already looking forward to dipping in repeatedly, and without booking a single flight.

CAROLYN LIEBERG, author of West with Hopeless and Calling the Midwest Home

Alone or in the company of others, Gershowitz navigates the world with an open heart and a sense of adventure. This collection covers impressive ground, and whether shes rocking out with Moroccans to the Blind Boys of Alabama, struggling up the slopes of Kilimanjaro, or doing business in Asia, her sharp eye brings the wonders of the world in focus.

MARILYN JOHNSON, author of Lives in Ruins and This Book Is Overdue!

As a travel-industry professional, Ive watched the world shrink as access has grown. Gershowitzs lovely travel memoir is a look back at a time when faraway places really were far away, distant cultures were very different, single women travelling alone were an unusual sight, and travelers with open hearts had extraordinary experiences. Travel Mania made me appreciate current travel opportunities even more.

SUE SHAPIRO, former President of NY Skal, former President and CEO of GIANTS consortium

TRAVEL MANIA

Copyright 2021, Karen Gershowitz

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, digital scanning, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please address She Writes Press.

Published 2021

Printed in the United States of America

Print ISBN: 978-1-64742-126-7

E-ISBN: 978-1-64742-127-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021900223

For information, address:

She Writes Press

1569 Solano Ave #546

Berkeley, CA 94707

Book design by Stacey Aaronson

She Writes Press is a division of SparkPoint Studio, LLC.

All company and/or product names may be trade names, logos, trademarks, and/or registered trademarks and are the property of their respective owners.

Included photographs are from the authors personal archive. Names and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of certain individuals.

To my mother, Mary Lotker Gershowitz,
who taught me to be curious about the world.

All journeys have secret destinations
of which the traveler is unaware.

M ARTIN B UBER

At a farewell dinner the night before I left on a one-year journey, a friend proposed a toast: May you have a few really terrible days, when it pours, and you get stuck in a laundromat or inch along in a ten-mile traffic jam. Youll need those days to remind you how great the rest of the trip is.

It was a reminder I didnt really need. Ive spent many hours, sometimes days, bored while waiting for delayed flights or stuck inside in beautiful places unable to get out and explore because of relentless, torrential rain. While traveling in Thailand, I tore my meniscus climbing onto an elephant. In Guatemala, our Land Rover was stuck in mud so deep and viscous it took six people almost an hour to extract it. Across the world Ive experienced terrifying taxi rides, pickpockets, and run-down hotels in dicey neighborhoods that have put me into a state of tense alertness. But no matter what mind-numbing or frightening events have occurred, my enthusiasm for travel remains undiminished. I am very lucky to be able to explore the globe. When Im on the road, I wake each morning eager for the adventure to begin.

I was seventeen when I boarded a TWA flight bound for Amsterdam, my first solo adventure. I didnt return for three years. Traveling became a passion. At least a couple of trips are always in some stage of planning, and Ive got a backup list of another two or three. No matter how many places I explore, my list of must-visit destinations only gets longer. For me, travel is an addiction, but one for which I dont want treatment. Ive even compiled a list of places that will be easy to negotiate as I grow old and frail.

When friends are looking for a companion to explore some remote or bizarre destination, Im often their first choice. They call prepared to twist my arm to convince me to, say, go camel trekking in the Moroccan desert in the summer when its 110 degrees or to tool around the Galapagos Islands on a decrepit fishing boat or explore the extreme northern tip of Japan. My usual answer is, Sure, sounds great. When were you thinking of going? An out-of-the-way destination, especially one I know little about, is my personal drug of choice.

When I cant find anyone whos able or willing to come with me, I travel alone, often picking up traveling companions along the way. Some have become lifelong friends.

What is my favorite place? It is an impossible question to answer. At almost any given moment, I am enamored with the scene in front of my nose. Spectacular beauty, astonishing accomplishments, and warm, generous people intermixed with outrageous schlock all captivate me. Over six decades, Ive experienced over ninety countries plus all fifty US states and all ten Canadian provinces. There are many cities that, over time, Ive been to a dozen times or more, allowing me to witness major change and subtle shifts. As time has passed, Ive learned to look more deeply for the less obvious things that define a culture.