Travel Writing Activity

a.) The author hooks the reader by going into a detailed description of where she is and what she is doing. “You are sure with one false step you’ll plummet off the edge.” She also explains why she is climbing to the Kingdom of Bhutan and that she had been there before. The severity of falling attracts the reader’s attention because they want to know why it is so easy to fall and where she is.            
b.) “I’ve got on my thick-soled boots, an ugly long black down coat with a hood, and six layers of clothing underneath.” This quotation not only gets the reader to envision what she is wearing and what it looks like but it gets them to feel how heavy six layers of clothing is by just imagining this.
            “Slight, frail seniors navigate the twists and turns and inclines deftly from memory, in a fraction of the time it takes foreigners half their age.” In this quotation the reader can picture a slight frail senior as she described travelling uphill because of her use of descriptive language.
           
c.) There was no dialogue used in this travel writing piece.

d.) The Bhutanese people live off the land and prosper greatly from their farming. They are of Buddhist decent and have a sacred temple in Taktsang that many people travel to pray/meditate in because it is said that if you go there to pray you will be cleansed and renewed. Taktsang is said to give the people that   visit great blessings for travelling 10,000 ft be foot to reach the temple and   village itself.

e.) I would love to visit Taktsang because I would want to know what it would feel like to be cleansed of your past and given renewal. I would also love to see the Bhutanese’s way of life because it seems very withdrew from modern society and I am interested in how the culture lives primarily off the land. I also think other religions are quite interesting and would want to know more about the Buddhist religion and the people.  

f.) This author is very descriptive when she retells her journey. She touches all the five senses throughout her piece and it is almost as if you are there with her experiencing and seeing the sites she is describing. Her use of word choice engages the reader from start to finish and there is never a dull moment in her story.

g.) Into Sacred Air by: Lisa Napoli:

         

            http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-stories/into-sacred-air-taktsang-bhutan-20120409/
           

                                                 Taktsang Monastery, Bhutan. Photo by Goran via Flickr