In the eyes of my friends or even strangers, my lifestyle is something that many covet or envy. My chums usually told me I would love to travel and backpack like you do, experience life and look at this world with a wide open heart but I don't have the courage or determination, not to mention the burdens of harsh realities that life accumulates, car and house, monthly bills and the costly expenses to maintain a fast pace lifestyle in this modern world. That’s why, in this world they are hardly anyone whom can travel like you do.
Every time I hear it, there is a sense of disappointment and sadness. Life is already too short to begin with yet people can’t pursue the lifestyle they want, it’s disheartening. There are people around me whom think that my lifestyle is liberating, trouble-free and some people will even think of it as a storyline for a movie. It’s unrealistic! It’s like a story based on Eat, Pray and Love except I started travelling before the book becomes popular. I can’t figure out what’s my main motivation, I just feel like there are a lot of places in this world waiting for me to visit, cuisines that yet to tickle my palette and strangers that yet to be my friend.
Saying I love to travel is under-rated, the best way to say it is I live to travel. In the beginning, I’m like everyone whom gets excited and nervous for a new destination, doing what the tourist does and buying souvenirs but now backpacking has a different meaning, it’s more adventurous and amazing to travel to an unexplored territory, meeting the locals, understanding their cultures and lifestyle. As my travelling goes on and on, I bought less souvenirs and visit less touristy spots. I know travelling to me has a new found meaning. At the end of every journey, I grow up with new perception; meeting people on the train, peeing in the middle of the road, sharing food with strangers becomes the main reason to reminiscence. Certain places or people make you nostalgic. From the excitement I used to have for travelling slowly turns into a simple minded and ordinary state of mind. I look at this world much clearer without preconceive excitement or expectations.
This few years, my vagabond lifestyle, alter my requirements on food and lodging, just as long I won’t died, that is my motto for travelling. Living in a foreign land, Aa single lifestyle, it’s not easy as everyone thinks, facing troubles or tricky problems, I’ve to resolve it on my own, trying every means to make my trip as cheap as possible. I never find myself choosing this path, leading a non-confined or cliché life. I’m gratified and easily contented. Gratified when my friend asks for my advice in the countries I’ve visited and some even follow my footsteps. I live myself in a map with no specific directions, I’ll let the shore washes me wherever I need to be.
It’s a lifestyle I chose and a choice I made without regrets.
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