The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL, May fourteenth, embracing culture shock.

It's surprising how the best journeys have a way of altering entrenched perspectives and introducing new ways of thinking about life. Yet, the cultural shock of encountering unfamiliar landscapes, languages, attitudes and food can be a jolting therapy. Often, for the first few days in a foreign city, different smells, sounds, even shifts of sunlight can be unsettling. Foreign crowds may seem ominous, the traffic chaotic. Then there's the frustration of being unable to easily accomplish matters that might be mundane at home. Foreign attitudes about punctuality, politeness, even personal hygiene may be annoying.

Unchecked, this culture shock can be a disorienting, debilitating, even paranoia-producing perspective that can keep travelers cringing in the cocoon of their hotel rooms. So much of what defines luxury travel these days are amenities designed to shield participants from undiluted culture shock. Walled, all-inclusive resorts, high-rise hotels and air- conditioned tour buses do offer insulation from the local environments. There's nothing wrong with luxury or comfort, unless they blot out any trace of what make a someplace special, make it different from home.

Without that variation, what's the point of going anywhere? And when that parallax occurs, every journey can be its own reward. Culture shock can break a trip. Or make it. So learn to travel simply and independently. Immerse yourself in foreign culture. Rather than avoiding culture shock, embrace and enjoy it. Like any good epiphany, apart from making a particular moment of a trip special, it might change your vision of home when you return.

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