Travels, no matter how long or short, are always life-changing.
2007 was a year I would always associate with homesickness. It was my first time to be permanently away. What I had anticipated to be an exciting and fabulous experience would turn out to be a roller-coaster ride of adjusting to a new environment (from dry/rainy season to a four-season climate), adapting to a new culture, (which includes strange tastes, unfamiliar sounds, & jaw-dropping sights, i.e. hi-tech comfort rooms with temperature and pressure-controlled bidets & flush-sound option without any actual flushing for those too conscious to let strangers hear them pee) and dealing with the idea of no longer being "home," (away from my friends, boyfriend, and the local parties). At the start, I was very resistant to all the newness being thrown my way but months later, I started to love it.
After being away for a year and a half, I had since moved back to the Philippines. But 2007 and the months that ensued while I was away discovering Japan taught me how fun it is to be in a state of mobility. However, rarely does traveling not involve a hitch; airports are one of the most stressful places on Earth and any bus ride that exceeds 4 hours is hard to think of as being "joyful."
So why do I even bother? Because to me, traveling is not a word you necessarily associate with luxury. Yes, some travels can be luxurious, but a trip that involves staying in a spartan room without TV or AC can still be a trip worth taking if it allows you to bring home something real. More than anything, I think traveling is a way to gain a deeper glimpse of the world. We travel to learn and be awed; to be stimulated by how big and strange, yet the same, our vast planet is.
Let this blog be a chronicler of past and future travels and those other things that fall in between.
