by People ask me all the time “how do you travel so much”?
I came across the answer today – I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine ~Caskie Stinnett
The most delightful – and insightful – essay on travel is perhaps this by Pico Iyer – Why We Travel
We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate.
Which is why I never understand people who travel – and then search for the comfortingly familiar – the McDonald’s and the Starbucks, the large impersonal hotel chain, the other person from the same country / city / community, the well-known tourist spots… If the idea is to be in one’s safe comfort zone, then why travel at all?
One don’t always travel to get an out of body experience Charu … sometimes you travel to relax and see new places, be in nature, meet people, eat good food … and that doesn’t necessarily have to yank you out of your comfort zone! The routine is already broken … IMHO!
and sometimes food takes the back seat (at least for me) when I’m exploring places … and at such times I prefer the “fast-food” types from the big chains … fast and quick so that I have time for other things and I don’t have to worry about getting sick or being hungry!
And as for traveling with friends … I think it is the memories that make the journey more memorable – so nothing wrong to travel with familiar faces I would say.
Lastly – if you keep traveling – isn’t that a routine of sorts 😀
Totally true.. i travel to lose myself and in the process probably find myself.. 🙂
I used to travel a lot with my family when i was a kid.. the touristy kind of travelling..
But now i prefer the lesser known beautiful places where nature is still at its best unhampered by the civilization and it is at these kind of places i feel totally at home..