What are you
chasing?
Not everyone
wants to take a holiday to new far flung out land where they have to explore
new realms, work out the language, work out the map and so many other things.
They find all that very stressful.
Either they
hire a travel agency who would book all the package, work a comprehensive itinerary for them. They can't go alone so they book group tours. Some way of
extending cohesiveness. Some might prefer so called honeymoon packages where
they travel with their partners and may be family. They are willing to shell
out some pocket change in agent fees in exchange of pure tourist experience.
Some
research for hours at the end on computer trying to create perfect itinerary and do everything that place has to offer before bouncing to new place. They
don't care how the place feels. They just want to see those museums and palace
and tick off that list they have made on paper.
They don't really interact with locals, understand their culture and
they form beliefs on based on little forced conversation they need to have with
their translator or guide or working staff.
There are
others who keep going to same place like a sun dial in their life. Grandparents
home in summer or some farm house in winter or some country they started loving
and wish to visit every time.
Some
countries end up touching your soul where you didn't expect it to touch. It
might be a week in Las Vegas, shopping trip to London, Paris, New York,
Singapore, Milan or Dubai. If they are
cheap - They would go to place like Thailand or India. For outdoors activity maybe New Zealand,
Greece. Spain, Thailand.
Some might want to get lost in Jungles and Safari like Laos, Cambodia, Kenya, Brazil or some other country in Africa.
Some might want to get lost in Jungles and Safari like Laos, Cambodia, Kenya, Brazil or some other country in Africa.
Some would
love those Vistas likes water villa, white sand beaches, diving and snorkeling
bliss like Indonesia, Maldives, Philippines or Bora Bora. They could swim like Mermaid and love getting
tanned.
Every long
term traveler is in search for finding that place where he feels home despite
being on the road. The place where he is at his bliss despite of whatever
cultural or emotional boundaries are present. You as traveler want to embrace the
choice. Many would finish the journey and go back to the land of their
forefathers, accept that they belonged to where they came from and go back to
where they have to back.
They take
longing holiday to same place every year because they want to embrace whatever
emotion that are chasing and found it at that destination. There are few daring
ones who know that they have found their home here and they would like to
settle down as immigrants there. They go through every pain and hassle
imaginable to mankind like dealing with Governments, finding a pay day and what
not.
People ask
me - how do I manage to travel alone for so long? Doesn't it get lonely? I
always tell them - World is my friend. Every place in the world has a
reflective soul who would love to embrace what I have to offer. Freedom from
their regular reality and escape for new experience. I don't know their
cultural nuances and that gives them freedom to be the way they are as I
wouldn't know any difference. They accept my freedom and make it their own.
They are willing to do things with me that they won't normally do in their
regular life.
Question is
always = Why do you want to travel so much? What are you searching for? For
those looking for mere escape are always in stress to go to holiday and when
holiday is about to get over - they stress about going and merging back to
their reality. They pine for those few moments they had in vacation and suffer
through till next vacation.
My
suggestion is always if you feel you have really found your home at the new
place, break your modesty. Try to figure out how you can live there despite of
few pains you have to suffer. Not everyone can live in Maldives in those
expensive resorts forever. But if you really want to make a new home, you can
really find that place where you would do those normal things every day.
For those willing to do that - First step is to stick to routine. Go for morning run. Do your office work for a while. Go out for a while and explore. If you feel you can settle down at the new place - not because that new job prospect you got but because you really want to live there doesn't matter what happens.
For those willing to do that - First step is to stick to routine. Go for morning run. Do your office work for a while. Go out for a while and explore. If you feel you can settle down at the new place - not because that new job prospect you got but because you really want to live there doesn't matter what happens.
If they have
couple of bad incidents, they start hating everyone there. Depending on who you
are - you might have been extremely unlucky. There are people who got robbed in
Vietnam or some other poor nation. But they forget that they might have had the
same issue at their home. Do they leave their home for that? You take it in
stride - good with bad.
Remember
this, You won't go to those museums, palaces or other palaces daily. You would
go when your friends or relatives visit you. Only thing you should worry is the
local language and how the culture feels for you. I prefer wide avenues, big
cities which are easy to navigate. I won't ever live in Tokyo. I love idea of
living in places like Saint Petersburg, Tallinn, Osaka, Las Vegas,
Copenhagen.
P.S The picture is of Northern lights (Aurora) in Bergen, Hordaland, Norway