When In Roam

A holiday poster with the caption ‘Stay Hungry for Travel’ caught my eye recently. I felt drawn  to the  words on the poster rather than the tropical blue in the background and longed to get set and go again.

My traveling experiences, though not wide or varied, have been immensely awakening. Whenever I travel, I always  leave my heart at home where it belongs but ensure that I carry my senses to savor and soak in the experience. 

Traveling has not only been both educating and relaxing but has also helped me to disconnect from the mundane.  It’s one thing to go on a ‘no holds barred’ voyage  to exotic locales or cooler climes but a totally different thing to drift though the capillaries of an unfamiliar land and  imbibe its sights, sounds, smells and tastes, to revel in its beauty and  to wonder at its weirdness.

Going on those do-it-yourself trips has tapped into my resourcefulness and taught me to brave unprecedented situations. They forced me to appreciate things that I always took for granted and were, sometimes, lessons- in- wraps!

 Despite the reality of stranger-danger, interacting with people from different cultures and watching them go about life in ways that are similar, yet different, have  inspired me a great deal. New places and people have  snapped open my curiosity and  helped to broaden my mental boundaries. They have transformed, forever, the way I look at the world around.

It takes years to arrive at who we really are and traveling has been my walking stick on that road to self-discovery. You may agree with the English writer George Elliot when he said “Adventure is not outside a man; it’s within!”

I would say it’s a bit of both!