Why I love to travel: 5 best reasons

What are the top 5 reasons to go on vacation? I have always been a vacation lover, since my youth. Hitchhiking and wandering have always hooked me with the joy of seeing new places and meeting new people, learning about new customs and understanding their various cultures. It always seems to bring joy into my step that isn’t as pronounced otherwise. I remember my parents as I say this, as they were the ones who hooked me, nice and good, with the travel bug or wanderlust, from a very young age. I mean… who doesn’t love vacations? Who doesn’t want to fill their shelf with gifts and curiosities from that distant land? We all have different reasons and love to travel. Here you will find the 5 best reasons to travel…

1. It enriches you spiritually

I was born in Calcutta (now renamed ‘Kolkata’), India and as a ritual my father used to save money to take an annual vacation. Income was meager in those days, but my mother also helped save those little pennies until they became a dollar. My father was a religiously minded person, and being a Hindu in India meant I had a wide choice of beautiful and magnificent religious places to choose from: from the religious and scenic spots in the Himalayas to the desert and seaside spots in India. Each place has its own attractions, but the Himalayas have always been special to me. And since then, every time I have stopped a small creature in front of the great and majestic snow-capped Himalayas, something stirs inside me. It is then, when you crane your neck back to catch a glimpse of the smoky snowy peak bathed in golden sunshine amidst an amber blue sky, that materialistic values ​​melt within you to set your spirit free. Free your inner self from being chained within your own surface boundaries to connect with the spirit of the Universe. This is felt by different people in different settings, perhaps watching a mountain stream pass by, or dipping their feet in the salty water of a lazy sea that laps at its shores. It can take place deep in a rainforest surrounded by singing creatures, or at the base of a verdant valley that slopes downhill toward a distant mountain range. It can happen when the sky colors its rainbow after a short period of time, or when a stream of camels heads out into the setting sun of the desert. The spiritual aspect of this is always felt in the stirring of your soul. Traveling keeps the soul happy!

2. It brings you closer to nature

Cozy as we are in our glass-and-concrete homes in sleepless cities, overlooking road signs and the plume of smoke slowly drifting from industrial smokestacks on the horizon, nature walks away from us every day. Or, to put the record straight, human civilization has moved away from the beauty and joy of nature, just as we have moved away from simplicity and welcomed competitive complexity into our daily lives. When did you last see the dew on the blade of grass, or the dove feeding its newborn baby? When was the last time you marveled at the sound of thunder as it lights up the horizon? Or the taste of rain as it runs down your face? When have you looked at the sails of a ship while she floats on a lake, or smelled the roses while the bee scurries from one flower to another pollinating the garden? Isn’t it a must for us to allow ourselves to mingle with nature at times and also show our next generation a more absorbing life involving the deeds and joy of nature, away from our tablets and smartphones? I feel like we absolutely do.

3. It gives you variety in life.

Give yourself a push, not a push. You’ve already been pushing yourself too high, higher with the same set of rules, the same set of life protocols, day in and day out. Bring some variety to life. You don’t have to be on a completely different continent, nor do you have to be on a scenic island. It may be just a few hundred miles down the road, away from the buzz and jingle, away from the maddening crowd. Put the buzzers to sleep, away from your own strict rules. Sleep until noon if you have to, relax in a haystack, swim for half a day, anything that doesn’t follow your usual cycle. Why not spend a day in a local parish or NGO? How about putting on some high heels and heading out into the swamp? Pack for a vacation; carry your family in tow. They also need one; they also need to smell the fresh air for scented berries. Leave your tensions and your problems away and they will disappear. Bring some unknown variety and believe me, life will improve a little when you return.

4. It allows you to meet people from different corners of the world

I remember meeting a Frenchman while traveling to Kolkata in an ordinary railway sleeping car, and he was lying on the top bunk of our train car. There were some initial misunderstandings between him and some rustic locals at the car seat assignment rooster, and neither could make the other understand his point of view. It was my little ‘elementary French’ learned daughter and my slightly French-capable wife who helped sort things out, and for the next two hours my daughter spoke as much French as she had spoken in the last two years. We discovered that she was traveling on foot, and that she had walked from Nepal to India, probably annoyed by her Nepali love for her. I met a Masai guy in Kenya and it still happens to my courier friend, and I’ve given him a bit of support on occasion. In Australia I met a witch who turned out to be a great caring woman. In the United States, I met an Irishman who had more Indian friends than many Indians there. In Slovenia, we recently met an Italian winemaker who knows as much about Indian films as many of us. In Ljubljana I made friends with a ‘gypsy card’ reader who predicted a thing or two for me on my current tour. We are all souls in stay and it is imperative that we meet and express ourselves. It is we who make the world in general.

5. It’s fun.

Imagine sitting in a restaurant in Japan with a group of Japanese friends and they find out that you can’t use ‘chopsticks’! It happened to a friend of mine and I’m absolutely sure it must have happened to others as well. He may have given you some awkward moments, but after a few days he will surely twist the corners of your mouth into a crinkled smile. Again, imagine that you are here in the United Arab Emirates, sitting in a restaurant, and you ask the waiter for some pork chops. No, it’s not funny, not now, not after a week. That is taboo here in an Islamic country!

But, in general, a vacation or an outing is fun. That is, unless you make sure you don’t want to make it funny. Unless you start a herculean drill on how “unboiled” your hard-boiled egg was, or whether the sun is less cold in the shade. Imagine yourself going with the flow, take things as they come, and string them together into a series of memories for years to come. And also some photo sessions especially for Facebook to show your colleagues the time they are wasting. Have fun, enjoy the extra space and time you have injected into your life and breathe for yourself.

Go grab your backpack and put on your hiking boots if you’re going on vacation alone, or fill that tank with gas and pack the family picnic basket if you have one. Call your old friend or text your mom to join. You go – traveling!

Encourage.