From the word ‘travel’, one understands roaming to some exotic location from your comfortable home, doing fun activities, clicking and posting pictures on social media. However, it has much more meaning than these.
Since two years travel is restricted due to pandemic, earlier only reasons were either not getting leave from work or the bank balance :P. We can’t wait when travel restrictions will ease and we can hit the roads again. Till then we have plenty of opportunities to reflect upon & retrospect.
Why travel is important??
If you ask me what I have gained from my past travel experiences?
My travel journey started with training period of my job. My Job gave me golden opportunity to visit different parts of India in one year. Since then I fell in love with diversity of India, its different cultures, cuisines, languages, topography & abundant natural beauty it is bestowed upon.
Apart from bringing beautiful memories, travel helps in holistic development of an individual. Travel is best way to gain knowledge which sitting at home can’t give. In my childhood I used to watch wildlife only on discovery and national geographic channel. During my visit to Australia, I got to see deep underwater coral reef at Great Barrier Reef about which I learned only factual information before. Watching live feeding of freshwater crocodile at Cairns , live dolphin show, penguin walk, clicking pictures with crocodile babies, holding koala ,feeding kangaroos gave me lifetime experiences.
Travel makes you a planner and takes your confidence to higher level. Planning a trip takes thorough research and advance planning. This way we get to learn different city/country in detail. Planning a trip within budget with all fun activities, food etc. surely brushes up your planning skills.
Travelling is important for mental well being. It is essential to take restart from daily routine and visiting new landscape , mountains etc. brings new sense of freshness & inner peace. After each trip, we love our home more which we got bored of before.
Travelling widens our mind and horizon. We get exposed to different cultures & gain insights. Having been to developed countries, one may understand building good infrastructure is vital for smooth functioning of the city. European countries have planned road transportation. There is dedicated road signal for pedestrians, still I remember that ‘thak-thak’ sound it used to make during my visit to Australia. Melbourne is ranked in top happy cities of the world every year. One main reason is health conscious people here. I saw people jogging here and there. It does have beautiful parks & jogging lanes all over the city. Sitting in botanical garden near the Opera house facing beautiful lake view can instantly lift up anyone’s mood.
One saying by Ibn Battuta that I love, which goes something like: “travelling leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller”. He was dead right!
Travelling gives you lifetime of memories and experiences which we don’t get otherwise.
