Eat, Pray, base your travels on someone else’s experiences

Eat Pray Love movie promo photo

Unless you’ve been living in a place where popular media does not go (like with my mother), you might have noticed that Elizabeth Gilbert’s surprise hit memoir “Eat, Pray, Love” has been made into a movie starring Julia Roberts…and it’s getting released, on slightly different days, around this time in lots of different countries.

The book 9and presumably the film) divides Gilbert’s life-changing journey into three segments: robust Italy (the “eat” section, where Gilbert reports on various types of gelato and pastas), spiritual India (the “pray” segment…she lives in an ashram for four months), and relaxed intimate Bali (where she learns to “love” again).  Having seen some of the aftermath of the book so far (for example, if you look up any kind of trip to Bali, now you will find guest houses advertising ‘Just like in Eat, Pray, Love’ — and even Ketut Liyer, the traditional Balinese medicine man she studies with, has taken advantage of the popularity of the book to advertise himself as having been in it), I’m interested to see what happens when the movie has been out for a while.  I expect a giant influx of inspired travelers to start visiting Italy, India, and Bali, swamping the local economies with a need for spiritual experience and life affirmations.

India has always been the destination of choice for those seeking enlightenment, although now might be a bad time to find it there, given the giant influx of population for the Commonwealth Games.  But I wonder how many small ashrams will suddenly find themselves burgeoning with people who yearn for fulfilment as portrayed by Julia Roberts?  I wonder how many people will assume Bali holds the key to their hearts instead of just a bunch of drunken Australians getting beads put in their hair?

And truly, does it matter why you go somewhere?  I find my first inclination ot be all snotty and say “Well, if you were a REAL traveler, you wouldn’t go somewhere just because it’s in a movie.”  But really, if you want to go somewhere, why does it matter where you got the idea from?  Who am I to feel superior because I wanted to go to Bali after reading “Tales of a Female Nomad”, instead of “Eat, Pray, Love”?

Where do you want to go, and what made you want to go there?