My personal list of how to get off the beaten track

To all you backpackers and restless travelers out there that want to get beyond the pages of your Lonely Planet, here are some ideas:

- Visit the local cemetery and if there are visitors, ask them to tell the life of one of the deceased. Good for history and traditions, as well as family relations.
- attend a wedding or funeral. One way of working your way in, is presenting your camera and suggesting that you will expertly photograph the ceremony and party in exchange of attending it: gives you the best views and opportunity to ask loads of questions… Easier (and maybe more fun) with a wedding then a funeral though
- go attend a lecture at the university. Just show up at the campus, grab hold of a student and explain that you want to attend an interesting class. Good faculties to try out I found are anthropology, or political sciences, or psychology.
- Pretend to be a student in anthropology and have a questionnaire to ask people with a lot of time (in depth interviews). Fun topics can be: what did you do yesterday? Or sexual habits…
- If you have a camera that can film, pose as a scout for Mister or Miss XXXX (insert country) and have them present themselves and what they think of their country in 3 minutes.
- Go to a hospital, or a retirement home, where people love to have someone to talk to, and again, ask questions.
- Go to the local library and make a little checklist of books. My sample of five books:

• 1984, by George Orwell
• The Koran
  
• It, by Stephen King
• Harry Potter-books, by J.K. Rowling
• Men are from Mars, women are from Venus

- And finally, why not start selling your body for sex and listen to the pillow talk ;-)