intellectual stimulation: battling boredom while abroad

“I understand that it’s hard to find enough intellectual stimulation. We’re very isolated from our natural environment where people get our humour and character, and locals in this part of the world tend to treat conversations with foreigners in a different context than they would with someone who lives permanently in their surroundings. When our time in a community is pre-determined to be temporary, I sense that many people remain detached, knowing we’ll be gone before long. It’s as if the only things worth developing are ideas and friendships that will continue in their physical time and space.” (p. 265)

No matter how incredible our surroundings, boredom is something that can attack any type of traveller when we’ve suddenly got more time on our hands than we’re used to.

For the backpacker who wants to get out of the tourist hostels and talk with locals, markets and parks can hold some appeal, but you can only go so many times to the same place, especially if you don’t speak the local language, before you crave something else to do.

When couchsurfing or travelling alone, the middle of the day can be a killer, as most hosts and locals are working, rooms in hot countries are sticky, cinemas and bookstores may not even be open, and the wait for dinner and nightlife can seem to drag on.

For people volunteering or staying in rural areas, we’re often surrounded by people with minimal education, which can lead to great insights into everyday life and culture, but deeper conversations are often few and far between.

When we’re used to being surrounded by work, computers, advertisements, noises, and other inputs without having time to think or react to them, some people need a meditative break. But with so much time to ourselves and no enforced schedule to follow, a trip to another temple to think alone may be the last things we need to occupy our minds.

So what do you do to prevent yourself from getting so bored that you start following up on work that you’re supposed to be taking a break from? For me, I try to create holidays with a particular focus or purpose; as of late, it’s been researching cooking and culture. This gives me the chance to interact with different locals, learn about the food, write about the experiences during the quiet afternoon, and go out in the evenings to meet whoever I can for conversation and culture. I try to learn or accomplish one new thing a day, and planning and achieving that usually leaves little time for boredom.

It’s not always easy when you’re visiting a country with few advertised cultural inlets, but even going to regular tourist destinations like an art gallery, for example, talking to the employees rather than concentrating on the paintings on the wall can create meaningful conversation and get you invited to someone’s house for dinner, and into a different circle of society.

Finding the local dance or theatre company, and asking to attend one of their rehearsals can put you in contact with a wealth of people who may have some experience travelling overseas (and often the ability to communicate in multiple languages as a result), and it will give everybody the chance to share and hear a very different perspective on their country and continent that leaves repetitive questions like ‘Where are you from?’ and ‘Isn’t Canada cold?’ in the dust.

I also find every website, cultural centre, and events calendar that shares free or subsidized things to do, and I go to as many as I possibly can. If you’re in a place long enough, you start to see the same people, and eventually strike up a conversation, or at least feel like you’re surrounded by familiar people.

The main idea here is to try to go out and find the opportunity to interact with people who are doing things that interest you, and give them the chance to share their passion with you, rather than expecting the mere fact that you’ve left home for an exotic destination to make every day magical. That can happen by chance (or by travelling with a special someone that makes contact with the local population an afterthought), but in my experience, the most memorable times have come my way when I made some effort to increase the odds of an interesting encounter.