When people travel, what do they see? They see sights, points of interest, experiences they’ll remember the rest of their lives. But when people travel, they forget that they are the most interesting thing.
An American could go to India and see the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal has been in Agra for hundreds of years, and Indians who live there are familiar with it. They are not familiar with an American tourist, and find them fascinating. The American doesn’t realize this, just wanting to see the Taj Mahal and whatever else is on their agenda to see. But to Indians, they see the Taj Mahal every day on their way to work, to school. But they don’t see an American every day.
One of the pieces of advice I give to people travelling isn’t “places to see,” or anything like that. I always tell them “whatever you do, do it there.” If you enjoy going to a bar and having a beer with the boys while watching a game, do that when you travel. If you enjoy going to church every Sunday, go to a church every Sunday when you travel. Doing those ordinary activities you’ll be surrounded by other ordinary people, but to them you are extraordinary, because you are from somewhere else.
You may find them extraordinary because they are from the unfamiliar place you’ve sat on a plane to see. But at the end of the day you’ll meet people as ordinary as your neighbors, colleagues, the baristas who make your coffee. Like Krishna, humans are an incredible universe wrapped in a temporary body.