As I wander across Sumatra I plan to occasionally point out journey-details that don’t jibe with the “Instagram-perfect” travel aura that seems to frame most popular travel reportage (a trend that is likely as audience-driven as it is centrally designed).
Two things that stand out about Sumatra after more than a week of traveling here: (a) this place is super cheap; and (b) it’s remote enough that I feel like I have it to myself as a traveler. Unlike the crowded beaches and snarled roads of more popular islands such as Bali, Sumatra feels well off the tourist trail (even as I’ve been visiting its more obvious attractions).
This said, the stunning vistas and bargain prices at places like Lake Toba and Bukittinggi involve a bit of hardship and sacrifice. I traveled 300 miles to the latter destination (from the former) in the share-taxi pictured above, and the roads were so compromised by rainy-season landslides that the trip took 18 hours. The budget-friendly guesthouse-rooms I’ve stayed in have been pretty basic, and often they feature thin walls and “squatty-potty” toilets.
The less-than-Instagrammable realities of real travel aren’t just a shoestring backpacker thing. Often, when I look at a perfectly framed Instagram shot from a place like Santorini or Ubud or Teotihuacan, I wonder how many other tourists were standing in line for that same shot (or, just as likely, how much effort the person in the photo put into making it seem like he/she was perfectly alone — and effortlessly exuding sex appeal — in that pristine-seeming landscape).
As often as not, “the medium is the message” (as Marshall McLuhan pointed out two generations ago) and I’d reckon a big appeal of Travel Instagram (and the glossy magazine travel photography that preceded it) is that it makes us fantasize that we’re the person on the beach, under the waterfall, sitting on the veranda with the perfect meal.
What it doesn’t do as well is give us a peek into the ragged edges just beyond those beautiful images – particularly (and this feels key) the nuanced lives of the people who live there, people whose perspective is a key gift of travel.
Note: “Dispatches” are short vignettes, profiles, and mini-essays written and posted from the road, often in tandem with my Instagram account. For more full-formed writing, check out my book Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, or the Essays or Stories archives on this site. I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page.
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