The Gifts of Travel - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 5

actions. Is the latter via fixed prices or through bargaining? The places where goods are
sold are further clues to the extent to which the national economy is integrated or decentral-
ized. What dominates—street vendors, small shops, department stores, bazaars, or malls?
Architecture is another important cultural marker. Slums speak for themselves, as do
the location and style of well-kept buildings. Are palaces and great houses now public
property or still occupied by wealthy families? Gated communities surrounded by barbed
wire and armed police say much about both racial tension and the wide income gap
between rich and poor. Communal longhouses in Borneo and compounds in rural Vietnam
mark societies with strong family and clan ties. In large cities around the world skyscraper
apartments point to anonymity and social distance.
Statues tell their own stories. Who are honored by public statues? Warriors usually
speak to a critical period in a country's history, such as a war for independence, the over-
throw of tyranny, or the apogee of an empire. And if the same historical figure crowds the
statuary landscape, a dictator's secret police may be keeping tabs on the tourist.
Restaurants also tell us much about a culture, not just what is on the menu but how
it is prepared and served. What food is offered? Who eats where? When do people typ-
ically eat? How long does a meal usually last? What is considered the main meal of the
day? And how do prices compare with those in the traveler's home city? In fact, we can
use one particular food to compare the cost of living in various cities around the world with
our own country. For years, the Economist has given its readers a rough guide to world
prices by comparing the cost of a Big Mac hamburger. All over the world, the Big Mac is
built around a set of specifications: a certain weight of meat, size of bun, uniform leaves of
lettuce, etc. By comparing the price of a Big Mac in one's hometown with the price, say, in
Moscow, in Oslo, or some other faraway city, one has a fairly accurate guide to the cost of
living in any “Big Mac city.”
THE GIFT OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins
—Rudyard Kipling, “The Ladies” [8]
All the people like us are We,
And every one else is They.
—Rudyard Kipling, “We and They” [9]
The world population has recently topped seven billion. This vast aggregate of individuals
speaks something on the order of 7,000 languages, of which about 700 are predominant.
The United Nations, which mirrors the world's cultural diversity, contains 193 member