#4 - Travel as Pilgrimage

My wife and I were driving down the south coast of Iceland in February. Between the two of us, I’m the driver, and she is, what the kids these days would call, a passenger princess. In the treacherous weather that ranged from a raging snowstorm to swerving winds, music alone wasn’t cutting the driving tension. In scrolling through my Spotify, I came across this playlist I hadn’t seen before called The Daily Drive. It felt apt for the situation especially as the daily drives got longer. What I didn’t know is that this playlist intersperses music with the occasional podcast episode, and extremely luckily, we stumbled on an episode on Travel as Pilgrimage.

Both the interviewer, Niala Boodhoo, and her guest, Phil Cousineau, are seekers trying to live deeper, more meaningful lives. I highly recommend listening to the episode. I would do it disservice in trying to paraphrase its tenets. But, I’ll share the most important bits for the purpose of this essay.

The Tourist and The Pilgrim

Pilgrimage is often associated with a traditionally religious journey. How does pilgrimage apply to travel in the modern day? At the core of his argument, Mr. Cousineau is suggesting that the journey be sacred (to you) whether religious or not. You don’t have to visit the Golden Temple or walk the Camino de Santiago. Going home for Diwali can be a pilgrimage as much as visiting Kurt Cobain’s hometown (Aberdeen, WA) to see the Come As You Are sign. So what distinguishes a Pilgrim from a Tourist? My take - the nature of seeking.

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  Pilgrimage - A poignant, spiritually transformative trip to a sacred place (one sacred to you). A journey you take at a crossroads in life. “A journey you can’t can’t take.”

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  Tourism - The act of traveling to a place for recreation or leisure.

Why be a Pilgrim?

I want to acknowledge that tourism and pilgrimage are not mutually exclusive. Pilgrimage is highlighted as a form of tourism, albeit a spiritually deeper one. Mr. Cousineau specifically tries to talk about pilgrimage from the perspective of how “simple” tourism doesn’t leave you fulfilled. He mentions people coming home dissatisfied from their trips - they can’t quite put a finger on why but something could have gone differently. I know I’ve felt that before.

So pilgrimage simply asks for your attention and intention, when you visit somewhere new. Connecting deeply with the place you visit (even if not sacred to you in your early intention - or your curiosity about a place can in itself be sacred) and making yourself open to something divine happening to you. He says

A pilgrim travels with gratitude, traveling with a sense of awe and wonder, recognizing that this is an opportunity to connect with the divine

Travel is Privilege

I was born in India and hold an Indian passport. India's passport strength ranking is 72 out of 101, meaning I can travel to 74 countries either visa-free or with visa on-arrival, but 124 countries require me to apply for a visa. My friend Ben was born in the United States and holds a US passport with a strength ranking of 9 out of 101. Ben can travel to 169 countries either visa-free or with visa on-arrival - more than 2x my number. Ben and I went to the same college, had the same major, worked similar jobs, and are both upstanding citizens of our countries (and where we reside). Yet there is an inherent asymmetry in our lived experience because Ben's access to the world is far greater than mine could ever be.

Once money enters the picture, this inequality gets worse. Applying for a US visa costs $190 regardless of whether you get approved for 6 months or 10 years. The UK has a more tiered service: $100 for 6 months, $500 for 2 years, $1000 for 10 years. Visiting a country in the EU costs $120 but you only get approved for the duration of your trip - so you must book flights, hotels, car/bus/train before you apply for the visa. And if your visa gets rejected...well you better hope you had travel insurance because you've just paid hundreds of dollars for the privilege of not going to Europe.

And then there’s time. I can almost never be spontaneous. I've missed visiting a friend in Munich for Oktoberfest before because plans got made 2 months in advance (reasonable) but I likely couldn’t get a visa in time. Plans need to be made months in advance, especially with a bigger group involved, so we can all get our ducks in a row.

Travel is a salve in the world. It increases empathy, helps you understand and appreciate diversity, enriches your soul (even without the intentional act of pilgrimage - you still learn and grow as a person). But access to this transformative experience isn't distributed by merit or character - it's determined by the lottery of birth which you then only overcome with financial excess.

Back to Pilgrimage

The understanding of this privilege (or the lack thereof) has only amplified my sense of awe and wonder. On that Iceland trip, when I found myself standing on the Black Sand beaches of Vik or walking the glacier caves of Vatnajökull, I was in awe of nature’s majesty, but also deeply aware that it was a privilege to be standing there experiencing these wonders.

This is perhaps what Cousineau means by traveling with 'awe and wonder' - it's not just marveling at natural beauty or enjoying the cityscapes, but recognition of the extraordinary circumstances that allow you to witness them. The pilgrim's gratitude isn't just for the destination, but for the privilege of the journey itself. And when you know the extraordinary circumstances that allowed this to happen, why wouldn’t you make the most of your time in that place?