Why Travel

As you know, currently the traveling phenomenon in this country is on the level that will get you seasick. Your friends start to travel. People you know begin to write travel journals or even books. Posting travel tips, dos and don’ts, and beautiful photographs on their blogs, twitter, facebook, and every social media that human ever created. Perhaps right now you think traveling is too mainstream. It’s overrated. You start to feel nausea.

The “you need to travel to find yourself” quote you knew from Lonely Planet books, or fellow travelers, or some tour operator brochures, from some country tourism board advertisement, or from random YouTube video; might be just cliché buzzword. And you feel nausea again.

So why travel, what’s so great about that? I cannot answer such question. But I can share you the things I love about traveling.

Being Self Sufficient

When I exposed myself to the unfamiliar world I have to take care of myself, because that is the only option I have. The situation is maybe like decide to leave 9-5 work to build a start-up. I leave my comfort zone. No routines. No dependence. I find my hostel. I carry my own bag. I manage my time and money.

It taught me confidence. To stand up for myself. To make mistakes. To deal with rewards and consequences from my decisions. It also taught me creativity. How I ask for WiFi password to an old Vietnamese lady that cannot understand my language needs creative problem solving just as how I deploy Python app in a very small memory box.

See The World With New Perspective

Like learning new programming language, or reading a book, traveling offered me a new mindset, new perspective, it even taught me how to stay objective. I learned that there’s always a new different way to do something. It may be different from my way. I see new ideas. New opportunities. And new problems. The problems that made me feel meaningless. Walked in dusty road passing the poverty of Kathmandu, which ironicaly is the backpacker paradise, made me realize that I still haven’t contribute anything to the places I have visited.

And yes, it taught me hard on humility. Like the feeling when I stand in front of Himalayan Mountains, so tiny, so insignificant, be humbled by the fact that I am not the universe.

Best Friend To Acceptance

To travel taught me to let go. There is something I cannot change. I learned to leave my command+z. There will always a time when I drop the database I haven’t backed up. Karimun Jawa Ship that left 30 minutes earlier. Heavy snow storm on first day in Copenhagen. Blocked road on Bromo mountain when I only have few hours to enjoy Jazz Gunung. Scammed by Tuk-Tuk driver in Bangkok.

Traveling has its own way to make better me on accepting the things I cannot change. To let go.

The People

Meet people. People from around the world. People with different culture. Different language. Different faith. Have a connection. Hear their stories. Laugh and cry with them. Become richer with these experiences and emotions. It taught me to trust people. Good team work in the office that filled with people with different skills like Nuwira need that attitude.

Believe in humanity. Believe that good people are everywhere. Even in Rome, the city full of pickpockets, some stranger gave back my lost camera.

For me, traveling is always about the people, not how far the journey is.

Why do you travel? Oh, you vomited already?