Experimental Travel

Today, the significantly astute Chris Dickson beckons us back into the world with his discovery of article article he found in the London Times about "experimental travel."

The concept, developed by Joel Henry, and described in his new book, The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel, is a gift to all of us who believe in fun.

Here are five of my favorite examples of Henry's remarkable revisioning of how one could experience the world:

A-Z-travel

Choose a town to visit from A to Z. Find the first road beginning with A and the last beginning with Z, and draw a line between the two. Walk the length of this line and discover the city alphabetically.


CHANCE-TRAVEL

Insert the name of your home town into the index of a world atlas (if it's not there already). Throw a dice then count that number of lines down from your town. The one your finger lands on is the destination of your trip.

So for example if you live in Melbourne, Australia:
One will take you to Melbourne, USA
Two will take you to Mele, Cap, Italy
Three will take you to Melekess, Russian Federation
Four will take you to Melenki, Russian Federation
Five will take you to Mélèzes, Rivière aux, Canada
Six will take you to Melfi, Chad

GASTRONOMY-TRAVEL

This gastronomic adventure consists of devising dishes and menus created exclusively from ingredients whose name contains a destination. For example Brussels(s) sprouts, Frankfurters, Paris mushrooms, Chantilly cream, etc

MONOPOLY-TRAVEL

Method of city exploration which consists of discovering a capital by following the layout of its Monopoly board. Visit the streets, stations, jail, car park, water and electricity companies, etc all by throwing the dice and following the official rules of the game.


THALASSO-TRAVEL

Citing an invented burst water pipe or lack of hot water, invite yourself to take a bath at the house of your friends. Take with you all of the equipment that you would use in a spa: soap, shampoo, towel, bath-robe, relaxing music, seaweed scrub, champagne, etc.


TRIP-POKER

Trip Poker is a travel game for four people. All you need is an ordinary dice. The game is split into three hands. At stake is a journey with the other players. Each player throws the dice in turn. He or she who gets the highest number wins the hand.

The winner of the first hand chooses the destination of their trip. The destination must lie within a specified distance of where the players live. This distance is calculated by multiplying the number on the dice by 100 km.

The winner of the second hand decides the date of the weekend away by adding a number of months onto today's date. That number is on the face of the winning dice.

The winner of the third hand determines the type of accommodation. Each number on the dice corresponds to an abode, see below.

1. Hotel
2. Campsite
3. In the car
4. In someone's house
5. Under the stars
6. No accommodation & no sleep!