What solo travel has taught me about the world - and myself
But it
wasn't until I started traveling—taking off on long weekends and annual
holidays from work—that I slowly began to realize that I didn't have to do what
everyone else was doing. To be able to define my own 'normal'. So over time I
quit my 9-5 job, stopped living in a big city, gave up a home to return to, rebelled
against the idea of marriage and refused to have children in an overpopulated
country. It doesn't matter if I'm young, Indian or female. The world—or what
I've explored of it—taught me that it doesn't matter where we come from, it
only matters where we're going.
I learned
to stop judging foreigners by their appearance
In 2012,
when I was invited to a cultural exchange program in Bahrain, many people
filled my mind with terrifying thoughts. About life in the Middle East, how
women are treated and how locals can look down on a woman traveling alone.
There is no doubt that women have to struggle in the region (as we do in
India), but no one ever told me that the people of Bahrain - women and men -
are some of the friendliest I will ever meet. I rode with strangers without
lifting a finger; many let me into their homes and lives; some even showed me
their favorite parts of the country. It was in Bahrain that I made the first
commitment to never again judge people by what they wear, what religion they follow
or the color of their skin.
I've since
learned that the world is full of people who are different from you and me—and
when we embrace those differences with an open mind, we move from being
citizens of one country to a country of a shared planet. A planet that is home
to the primitive Orissan forest tribes of eastern India as well as the Welsh
people of Great Britain.
My comfort
zone has expanded in the most unexpected way
As I write
this post after a rejuvenating evening at an underwater onsen on a remote
island in Japan. For the uninitiated, an onsen is a Japanese public bath with
hot water from natural hot springs where only nude bathing is allowed. Some
onsen are segregated by gender and some are mixed – and well, I tried both on
my current trip in Japan!
To be
honest, I said no to a lot of things in my pre-travel days. I was afraid to
assert myself, to challenge the cultural norms that society imposes on us, to
challenge the values I was raised with, and to go beyond what was familiar to
me.
But the more
I travel, the more I learn to face the fears that lie deep within me. And
facing those fears has led me to some of the most beautiful experiences of my
life—like battling my own travel anxieties when boarding a flight to Central
America, overcoming my fear of falling and injuring myself while trying to ski
in Switzerland, and beyond my imagination about nudity and being comfortable
with my body to soak in a hot bath filled with naked women and men as part of
Japanese onsen culture.
So while I
can't write exactly why I travel, I can tell you that I love the world because
it even excites me. glasses for his
exploration, never ceases to surprise, challenging
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