Aziz Abu Sarah - Crossing Boundaries: A Travelers Guide to World Peace

Praise for Crossing Boundaries

Aziz Abu Sarah articulates something I have long believed about travel: that it has the potential to help heal and regenerate the planet not just by protecting nature and cultures but also by promoting understanding and peace. And he rightly reminds us that its not more travel we should be after but the right kind of travelone that treads lightly, highlights multiple perspectives (including traditionally marginalized ones), and fosters personal transformation, which is the key to a better world.

Norie Quintos, independent tourism consultant and Editor at Large, National Geographic Travel Media

Crossing Boundaries reminds us that travel at its best is so much more than selfies and Instagram moments. It is breaking bread and sharing exotic flavors, powerful conversations, and transformational experiences with strangers who quickly become friends and sometimes even family. Whether were on a trip across town or an expedition halfway around the world... history, art, food, religion, and politics mean very little without human connection and real conversation. Aziz Abu Sarah is a guide in the truest sense of the word, ushering in the powerful new age of experiential travel. Read Crossing Boundaries and get off the beaten path to discover your own humanity. Let the adventure begin.

Mark Bauman, former Senior Vice President, Smithsonian Media

Crossing Boundaries is essential reading for any budding traveler. For an inexperienced traveler, its a great handbook of how to navigate your way around the worldfrom avoiding overtourism hotspots to ensuring you are meeting and interacting with local people during your journey. For an experienced traveler, there are lots of important reminders about traveling safely, but more importantly, this book encourages you to reassess your travel style, your attitudes, and your behavior.

I really enjoyed Azizs book as it reflects Intrepids vision, which is to change the way people see the world. Travel is vital to cultural understanding and can go a long way toward limiting conflict and war all over the world.

Geoff Manchester, cofounder and Director, Intrepid Travel

Brimming with humor and humanity, Aziz Abu Sarah is a perfect tour guide. His philosophy of travel penetrates deeply into intriguing places and unknown cultures, but more importantly, he plumbs the warm and vital depths of the human heart. In this book, you can go there with him without ever leaving home.

Geraldine Brooks, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for March

Long before responsible travel became a buzzword, Aziz was showing the world what it was. He is a true diplomat for world travel in the very best sense of the word. One of my fondest travel memories was dinner at his home on the West Bank with our Palestinian and Israeli guides. He showed us not only how to travel well but how to find a wonderful common ground in one of the most divided regions of our world. I hope all travelers read this book.

Jean Newman Glock, travel writer, Top Ten Worldwide Travel Expert (Klout), and CEO, JNG Worldwide

CROSSING
BOUNDARIES

Crossing Boundaries

Copyright 2020 by Aziz Abu Sarah
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, 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, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-8855-3
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8856-0
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-8857-7
Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-8858-4

2020-1

Cover design and interior illustration: Nola Burger; Book production and text design: Leigh McLellan Design; Copyeditor: Elissa Rabellino; Proofreader: Mary Hazlewood; Indexer: Ken Dellapenta

TRAVEL IS A STATE OF MIND

THE FIRST TRIP you take feels the farthest.

When I was 18 years old, I had never traveled to a country outside the Middle East. I only spoke Arabic and some broken English. But despite my limited exposure to the world, I was confident in my knowledge of it. One day, however, I took what felt like the longest journey of my life: I traveled across town to study Hebrew in West Jerusalem.

I had visited the western side of Jerusalem before, but only as a dishwasher at an Israeli caf. At the caf, I didnt speak Hebrew, and no one really tried to speak to me. I didnt have any meaningful interactions with Israelis and never felt like I was treated as an equal.

For the Israelis, I was the Arab who washed the dishes, and that was as far as our relationship went. I worked and went home. I was just hoping to save money to buy a computer. But the job left me angry, convinced that I had nothing in common with Israelis.

When I started studying Hebrew, though, that trip from the east to the west of the city became more meaningful. It forced me to explore my own life through the other side. I remember one of the first days walking to my Hebrew class, when sounds of sirens suddenly cut across the skies.

The sirenswhich you can hear across Israel on Holocaust Day and Memorial Day (for remembering Israelis killed in the Arab-Israeli conflicts)caught me off guard. Suddenly, the crowds on Ben Yehuda Street stopped walking and stood still. This was typical for a moment of silence in Israel, but I had no knowledge of it.

I freaked out. I tried to ask people on the street what was going on, but they refused to talkbecause theyre not supposed to. I was always very into sci-fi books, so my brain went in bizarre directions, scrambling to find an explanation for their odd behavior. Were they being controlled by aliens? Were they robots?