There I was, lying on the hotel bed in Cairns, reflecting on my travelling while half dozing off. The trip was only half done. We still had a road trip to Atherton Tablelands in the morning and a full-day tour to Daintree the day after, but I could already feel the recharging effect of this last-minute interstate trip.
The thing was, I didn’t expect this trip to rejuvenate me, especially after a few particularly challenging months beforehand, and for that, I was grateful. My thoughts then beelined to other effects of travelling or the not-so-obvious effects.
Appreciating Home
I have written about this before; I can’t deny that wherever I travel, especially if it’s longer than a week, I start missing home, missing Melbourne ━ from the coffee to the people, but never the weather. Travelling makes me better appreciate my home, life, routines, and rituals back home. I’d go so far as to say that coming home is one of the best parts of travelling.
Budgeting Finance
I have a monthly budget, but I only loosely follow it back home. It’s a different case when I am travelling. I would have started my budgeting processing way before I travel, setting aside a set of money that would cover my trip (flight and accommodation) and things while I am there (food, transport, tours and souvenirs). I then break my travel budget into a daily budget and discretionary budget.
It’s an empowering feeling to have complete control over my spending, even if it’s just during travels.
Exercising Fun
Travelling generally means walking more. Then there are swimming, kayaking, and hiking ━ essentially lots more impromptu exercises. It’s not uncommon for me to reach 10k steps in a day when travelling. Also, we usually stay outside, in the sun longer during travelling, which increases the serotonin level. All these contribute to the feel-good effect.
Learning Effortlessly
It would be hard-press not to learn anything new while travelling because, well, (almost) everything is new. We can learn just by observing and absorbing, be it the food, the culture, the local way of living and everything else in between. Ideally, we get to apply some of the things we pick up while travelling to improve ourselves and our lives.
Socializing Strangers
Travelling, especially solo travelling, pushes me to socialize more, even for survival. It was fascinating to reminisce how much friendlier I became when solo travelling in China; everyone is a potential friend, from the hotel clerk to the rickshaw driver.
Practising More
Speaking of being on survival, the best way of learning a new language is by travelling to the place. It will push you to do so even though I urge that in the smartphone era, it makes it harder for us to do it because google translates, but then again, it’s up to you if you want to take it up.
I say at least learn to say “hello, thank you, you are welcome“.
Pausing Daily Life
This, my friend, is the best part of travelling; it pushes me to pause my life and the 1436 things on my to-do list. Travel is a forced but welcomed escape from it. I know that when travelling, I wouldn’t be able to do any of it, and it’s fine because work and errands can last at least a couple of weeks. For now, with zero things on the list for the day/week, I can rest well.
Resting Mindfully
A travel nap is the best kind of nap, do you agree?
Then there is all this free time to read a book by the pool, practise yoga at sunrise or even sit on the swings. Travel comes with the perk of free time to do the relaxing things that we could do back home but never get around to.
Day Dreaming
It’s weird to say but at times travelling to a place makes you realize that you would rather live there than anywhere else in the world, including your current home. It also gives me a space to daydream about what life could be now that you have some distance from what life currently is. When offered many other alternatives while travelling, it’s easier to question your life choices. Sometimes, you need to distance yourself from a place people’s life work to know that the current life you are leading is not one for you and doesn’t bring you happiness. It is time to make a radical change, however hard it is, and maybe it’s time to uproot your life, at least the situation, or some people out of your life.
Revealing Truth
A friend once said that if you want to test a relationship, you should travel with that person (including yourself).
I ditto that.
Travel brings the best and the worst in you and your travel partners. Since everything is new, you are stripped of your usual comfort and possible facades you apply to yourself and the people around you. Being faced with that truth can be exhilarating but sometimes also jarring. Like the time during a hike in Jeju, I realized for the first time that even though I looked fit, I wasn’t fit at all, and I had to take on exercise.
Also, there are many instances where I learned new things about my friends, my parents and Fafa when we were stranded in new places, away from our “normal” lives, things and surroundings.
Expanding Zone
This could be the most not-obvious side effect of travelling in this list, how travel pushes us to expand our comfort zone. From finally tried a bowl of ramen even though I had long decided it wasn’t for me to strip naked in front of dozens of other women when I refused to do it in the locker rooms growing up.
I now look forward to doing things that I am not comfortable with, especially during travels.
One such thing is dipping myself in the ice-cold River Kemijoki because even though I loath cold water, I know travelling makes me take a huge breath, say f-ing and do it.
Reliving Memories
On the contract of the previous point, this could be the least not-obvious side effect of travelling; that travelling comes with a side effect of reliving the not-so-mundane memories, the best parts of it.
One of the reasons I have this blog is precisely for that.
Writing it here means I get to relive those mostly-happy-always-interesting memories when I share the stories. Also, I would unashamedly admit that some of those Japan trip memories carried me forward when I was at the lowest points during the 262 days of Melbourne lockdown the last couple of years.
Rejuvenating Self
Circling back to the beginning of this post, travelling has the power to rejuvenate us.
I didn’t expect this to happen to my beaten-down-by-lockdown soul in the middle of my trip in Cairns, especially since that wasn’t my first PC (Post-Covid) trip interstate (Sydney – middle last year) nor International (Jakarta – beginning of this year). But that night, something happened; my spirit was replenished in a way I could feel life tipping back to the right side again, the good side.
And if you allow it, I believe it will happen to you too.
Keep on travelling!
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