The truth of a place is revealed by its scent. Forget political boundaries — if you want to know what two places or lifestyles have in common, compare their smells.

Tracing a fence along the back of the Allentown Fair last week, past the carny trailers, I smelled India. It was both a surprise and not a surprise. The five or six carny trailers were parked parallel, seven or eight doors crowded down the side of each. The propped-open doors revealed tiny bunkbed berths. The carny crew was lounging around on this particular threatening-to-rain Wednesday morning, smoking cigs and drinking beers on their front steps and in folding chairs between the trailers, a few cooking over propane stoves in the mud. Their shower schedule seemed unpredictable. Thick sewage hoses snaked from the trailer sterns into a concrete tank in the ground. Just beyond their trailers was the holding pen for sheep, goats, chickens, and other animals on competitive display.

As I walked past, the individual smells of these elements combined into the smell of India.

True, it was India’s signature smell, but it’s something more. It’s the smell of a raw lifestyle I thought existed only in India — until I walked past the worst real estate of the Allentown Fair.

What are the smells of travel that stick strongest in your memory? When and where do they float back to you?

Photo by Iecercle via Flickr.