From Goa to Iran, the joys and benefits of slow travel

I never meant to travel slow. I spent leisurely days reading by the window as the rain poured down, drove my bike along the lush green interiors to old chapels and forgotten forts, slipped into Goa’s afternoon siesta routine, and gradually began to grasp the idea of a susegad life—relaxed, laid-back, contented. A few years ago, in search of Sri Lanka’s Vedda people, who can track elephants by the scent in the wind, I ended up at the Gal Oya Lodge, a luxurious refuge built with local materials in a private 20-acre forest in the vicinity of Gal Oya National Park. At a time when many young people are leaving their villages to seek work in South Africa, the Malealea Lodge has developed rural tourism in a way that creates varied livelihood opportunities—female guides, village bands who create their own upcycled instruments from discarded household goods, the local choir, the village brewer. “I love these mountains and meeting new people,” she said, “and if it wasn’t for this, I would have to leave my village and work somewhere else.” That kind of sums up what “sustainable travel” means to me— an attempt to connect deeply with a destination, while also creating a positive impact on the people that call it home and this planet we all call home.