What do you see, smell, taste, feel . . . and hear in this bustling street?
© Meredith Mullins

Turn Up the Sound on Your Travel Adventures

Take a moment. Close your eyes. What do you hear?

Silence? Auditory stimuli that provide clues to where you are? Sounds that might remain in your sense memory for some time to come?

Especially when we travel, all our senses are alive. We see. We smell. We touch. We taste. We hear.

Sights, smells, and a symphony of baa’s.
© Meredith Mullins

Travel adventures are enhanced when we are multisensory. Oh, I see. Soundscapes can expand our experience exponentially.

Often, one or more or our senses registers a memory. The vision of the Parthenon in the Athens moonlight or a camel fair in the dusty desert. The smell of French boulangeries as the early morning baguettes are baking. The warmth of the sand on a Thai beach or the humidity of an Amazon jungle. That jalapeño in Mexico City that was just two degrees too hot.

Memories of moaning camels in the dust
© Meredith Mullins

When you make sound a sense priority, what travel soundscapes come to mind from your past wanderings?

Sound Memories

Do you remember sounds as vividly as sights, tastes, and smells?

• The mystical call to prayer in Islamic countries—all the more beautiful when mosques at varying distances add point and counterpoint to the soundscape.

If video does not display, watch it here.

• The multilayered orchestra of voices, punctuated by a chorus of sellers and buyers, in just about any street market in the world.

If audio does not display, listen here.

• Transportation noises, such as the rhythmic metal-on-metal clink of train wheels on the tracks, the woeful cruise ship horn warning of departure, or the Formula 1 engine of a Bangkok tuk-tuk.

If audio does not display, listen here.

There are also the comforting sounds of home—familiar everyday sounds in your neighborhood.

For me, in Paris, that means our friendly accordionist playing on a bridge over the Seine, the clip clop of the Republican Guard horses on cobblestone streets, and the annoying test siren on the first Wednesday of every month that, even when expected, strikes fear in my soul.

The sound of horse hooves on cobblestone
© Meredith Mullins

Putting Your Ears to the Test

Sounds can be elusive—hard to identify or describe—especially without the benefit of the other senses.

OIC Moments offers below a test of world soundscapes. What does each remind you of? Can you identify the sound? Can you identify the continent? The country? Or maybe even the specific place?  Have you heard this sound before? Just how world-savvy are your ears? (Spoiler alert: These are not that easy.)

The Soundscapes Challenge

Soundscape #1

Soundscape #2

Soundscape #3

Soundscape #4

Soundscape #5

Soundscape #6

Soundscape #7

We invite you to make your best guesses on the OIC Moments Facebook Post announcing this blog post, that we’ll be monitoring to let you know how you did.

See how your travel adventures and your sound savvy ears compare with the listening skills of other members of the OIC community. Good luck!

Answers  to the Soundscapes Challenge can he found here.

Thank you to World Sounds and Kevin Barnett for these worldwide sounds.