The Tao of Travel

Arizona: Baboquivari Peak, near Sasabe in Pima County. The Tohono O'odham people regard this mountain as the Navel of the World, the place where, after the great flood subsided, humans emerged to populate the earth.

Cuzco, Peru: In Creation myth the word "Qosqo," in Quechua, means "the Navel of the World," and Cuzco was regarded as such by the Inca.

Jerusalem: The Al Aqsa Mosque ("the Furthermost") is dome-shaped to reflect the belief that it marks the Navel of the World.

Mecca, Saudi Arabia: The Kaaba, the most sacred site in Islam, is also said to be the Navel of the World. An Islamic text: "Forty years before Allah created the heavens and earth, the Kaaba was a dry spot floating on water, and from it the world has been spread out" (quoted in Rivka Gonen, Contested Holiness,2003).

Mexico: Pacanda Island, on Lake Patzcuaro in Mexico, has made a claim to be the Navel of the World.

Colombia: To the Arhuaco and Kogi peoples, who call themselves the Elder Brothers of humanity, the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta range is called the Center of the World.

Faroe Islands: Torshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, was often called the Navel of the World by its most famous local author, William Heinesen (1900-1991), whose passionate nationalism perhaps led him to this delusion. He spoke Faroese but wrote in Danish.

Ayutthaya, Thailand: Wat Phra Si San Phet, built in 1448 by King Boromtrilokanath in this ancient former capital (1350-1767) of Siam, was called the Center of the World.

Bodh Gaya, India: It is said that this holy site is the place where the Buddha sat when he was enlightened, which is called Vajrasana, meaning Diamond Throne. It was believed that when the universe is finally destroyed, this will be the last place to disappear and the first place to re-form when the universe begins again.

Perm, Russia: Nine thousand Permians voted in an Internet poll to have a monument built on a spot to be designated Navel of the Earth.

3. The Pleasures of Railways

NO MODE OF TRANSPORTATION INSPIRES MORE detailed observation than the railway train. There is no literature of air travel, not much of one for bus journeys, and cruise ships inspire social observation but little else. The train is effective because anyone who cares to can write (as well as sleep and eat) on a train. The soothing and unstressful trip leaves deep impressions of the passing scene, and of the train itself. Every airplane trip is the same; every railway journey is different. The rail traveler is often companionable, talkative, even somewhat liberated. Perhaps that's because he or she can walk around. This person, this mood, is what psychologists call "untethered"—such strangers are the best talkers, the best listeners.

Train Travel—the Main Line

Anything is possible on a train: a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night's sleep, and strangers' monologues framed like Russian short stories. Anything is possible, even the urge to get off.—

GRB

There seemed to me nothing more perfect in travel than boarding a train just at nightfall and shutting the bedroom door on an icy riotous city and knowing that morning would show me a new latitude. I would leave anything behind, I thought, for a sleeper on a southbound express.—

OPE

Half of jazz is railway music, and the motion and noise of the train itself has the rhythm of jazz. This is not surprising: the Jazz Age was also the Railway Age. Musicians traveled by train or not at all, and the pumping tempo and the clickety-clack and the lonesome whistle crept into the songs. So did the railway towns on the route: how else could Joplin or Kansas City be justified in a lyric?—

OPE