Who knows more: a traveller or a reader?
Paulina: Through reading, we all know what a waterfall is, ha? But how will you experience bathing in a waterfall through books? Travelling is much better than reading a book as you can experience things when you travel. But with reading, you are only able to imagine.
Eric: Reading a book is better than travelling because when reading a book we can develop ideas about life experiences from the information we read. Books have been around a lot longer than aeroplanes and advanced means of transportation. You can learn about other people's experiences through their writings, and then you can apply the life lessons they shared and benefit from them.
Peter: Hmm, interesting. I love a good read, but you can never, ever catch the full experience of becoming part of a culture with just pages. You don't get to taste the local cuisine; you don't get to participate in local dances. Travelling broadens your horizons to different types of people and cultures. Read about the Pyramids, watch the History Channel and every documentary there is on them. But if you just read the book, you'll never be able to say “Hey, yeah, I went to Egypt and saw Giza, the Pyramids, and the Sphinx!"
Hans: When we say travel makes you “smarter,” we don’t mean you’re all of a sudden going to become a genius. But travelling will certainly make you worldlier, force you to think in different ways and help you to embrace unique cultural practices. All of these will help you gain more knowledge through experience.
Sue: I like travelling. I’ve spent considerable time and money on travel because I think it is enriching and worthwhile. But I don’t think that travel replaces education. Sometimes we think travel and being somewhere different are progress or even education. But it’s just movement!
Alex: If you only learned about the world through travelling, you would only know a fraction of what you would know through reading. Not to say you shouldn't travel, you should if you get the chance, but it would be impractical to rely on travelling as your primary means of education. Travelling is too time-consuming and too cost-ineffective for that purpose.
Alicia: Recently, I’ve come across a quote on a personal blog: “Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have travelled.” It was attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. How true it is! If you keep reading without experiencing, you will never grow as a person and develop yourself.
Lisa: Travelling is just an eye-feast for some people. In addition, what people see or hear during the journey is probably incomplete and partial, sometimes even wrong. Nothing compares to the knowledge gained from books.