I had been to travel writing conferences, and book festivals, but until this past weekend I had never been to a travel writing festival.

It seemed about time that travel writing got its own celebration. And a wonderful celebration it was. (Put on for the first time, and pulled off with great elan, by Jackie Dutton of the University of Melbourne.)

Of course I'm biased, since I participated. I gave a talk at the start, which unfortunately caused me to miss Elaine Lewis's session about her time running an Australian bookstore in Paris (which she charmingly records in her book Left Bank Waltz).

Someone questioned my remark about the declining popularity of travel books, noting that in Australia they are doing very well. I had noticed that, actually, on my visits to Melbourne bookstores. I told him that in the big chain bookstores in the States, the shelves of travel narratives had gotten smaller over the last few years. And -- though I didn't say this -- we don't have travel writing festivals.

In the afternoon I caught Angus McDonald's slide show of Indian hill trains. His stunning photographs -- accompanied by classical Indian music -- beautifully transported his audience to the subcontinent.

Since Melbourne is the home of Lonely Planet, three of their authors conducted a lively conversation on the workings of guidebook writers.

Sunday I taught a four-hour workshop, which made me miss more interesting authors: Arnold Zable, Josiane Behmoiras (on a subject dear to my heart: slow travel), Robert Dessaix. But my students were fascinating in their own right, revealing, in brief asides, travel experiences that humbled my modest exploits. (One woman casually mentioned a few years spent in Ethiopia.) I once wrote a column calling the Germans the "world's best travelers" but I may have to change that to the Australians. (I haven't heard of any travel writing festivals in Germany.)

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On Sunday the oh-so-knowing New York Times Style Magazine was devoted to Travel, and one of the articles was about how travelers are no longer satisfied with the sights, they want to meet the people.

There were two aspects of this news that were interesting. One, it was presented as news, as if all of a sudden we have discovered the rewards of human interaction. Hasn't anyone at the magazine read Paul Theroux? Do they think he's been going on and on about the museums all these years?

Two, the people-to-people exchanges the article discussed were arranged by tour companies, as part of their service. They involved guides taking tourists back to meet their families.

In other words, it was a personal touch made possible through a financial transaction. In which case, the actual meeting would inevitably be a little artificial, not to mention awkward, as an entire tour group invades a local's home.

As every backpacker knows, the best encounters happen by chance, and are usually one-on-one affairs, when the only currency is curiosity.

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