Basho takes travel writing in a different direction. Instead of the suspense, terror, drama, tears, surprise, and pain of some of the other narratives you've looked at, here you'll see a gossamer narrative wavering between poetry and prose that the headnote says - and rightly so - is "best described in Zen Buddhist terms."
For an extensive Basho biography, see http://www.uoregon.edu/~kohl/basho/life.html. There are links to a variety of resources, including a list of prominent nature images, located at http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/barnhill/Basho/matsuo_basho.html.
Interestingly, there's a beautiful photo essay about Basho, including images inspired by this text, appearing in the February 2008 issue of National Geographic. Check it out - it's absolutely stunning.