What are your travel inspirations? You may be inspired by books, movies, songs, travel programs on TV, your friends, your parents… Or some people are just born to be travelers, adventurers – the wanderlust has been lurking in their gene since the day they’re born – and they probably would become the travel muse for many others.
Travelling can be a very personal experience. It’s easy to tell people where I’ve been to, what I’ve done and seen. But there is something in this whole experience that has turned my world upside down (in a good way), that I found it too complex for me to articulate in words.
During my working holiday in Australia and many other travels that followed, although I haven’t experienced much of a cultural shock (perhaps I’m quite adaptive to new environment) or homesickness (well I just don’t), I could feel something striking me – my body, my soul, my thoughts, my values, my perceptions… every single day. I could feel the adrenalin running high even if it was just another day that I went to work normally, took a walk casually, or did nothing particular at all.
It’s just DIFFERENT. But somehow I can’t really tell what exactly it is. I think it’s something very personal, something that you can only understand if you feel it on your own. I think all I can do is to share my stories and encourage people to take their first step so that they can feel it by themselves – to make my travel more than a personal experience by trying to influence people in a positive way.
And so, here are my inspirations that I want to share with you:
THE ALCHEMIST
It is a very popular novel written by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, a fictional story about a Spanish shepherd who embarks on a journey to Egypt after having a recurring dream of finding a treasure there – and it’s a journey of following his Personal Legend.
There are so many words of wisdom in it that are truly mind-blowing and inspiring. It just hits you. It makes you face and admit the fact that there is something you want deep in your heart, but you’re not going for it because of your fears, your excuses, your blind conformity to the norms – and that you choose to kill and bury your dreams instead of chasing and nurturing them.
But it’s better late than never. Although it’s not like I left everything behind and set off my journey right after I finished reading this book, its influence on me is like a seed rooted in my heart and during all these years, it kept growing and finally blossomed into the courage that I needed most to take my first step.
MY WEIRDO-WANDERLUST FRIEND
If you have a friend who always inspires you to explore and challenge you on what you think you’ve already known, don’t ever let him/her go! Wanderlusts are usually weirdos. They think and act differently. Roy is a good example. We knew each other at school but we didn’t really become friends until we had left school. We always have great talks and jokes, and the topics range from nonsense to meanings of life.
Nearly everything he says or does is challenging my understanding of normality. He makes me believe that it’s ok to be weird, to be different. And of course, he’s a traveller – perhaps the craziest one I’ve ever known in person.
He didn’t give a shit about suspending his studies, falling behind when other people have finished university and started working. He just said, “I have to go to (where where)” – and he always does what he says. He’s been to China, Japan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, UAE, Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Cuba, Mexico, USA, Morocco, Spain, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, Thailand…
He travelled a lot and shared intriguing stories, talked about all the other even weirder people he met on the road, and he always encouraged me to travel. Though I didn’t take my first step until years later, he has always been my inspiration.
I asked him to send me postcards from every place he went to, so that I could “see the world” while I didn’t have the guts to do so. Reading all the postcards he wrote me was a real enticement. Witnessing all his travels was a real pain in the ass, I mean, I hated myself for being such a coward. He is sort of a “driving force” to me – urging me to be more than a normal person doing ordinary things.
PEOPLE I MEET ON THE ROAD
And so finally I went on my own journey when I was 28. Better late than never! Thanks to all the inspirations that have driven me to go on the road. But the further you go, you may find yourself losing grip of what once fuelled you up for this crazy ride – because we do get astray sometimes. But when you travel, you meet other travellers. They are your new inspirations. They have stories to share.
They may have been lost before too. They may have been into deeper shits than you could ever imagined – and they tell you how they got through it, or how they not got through it but they’re still in one piece, so, no worries!
Meeting people, making friends along the road, we share stories and experiences, we learn from and help each other. You see crazy people doing crazy things and you start to believe that nothing is impossible. They give you the courage, and they fuel you up again so that you can keep going.
MYSELF
The longer time you put yourself out there – beyond your comfort zone – into the unknown, you will soon develop your own philosophy. I always say, “The first step is always the hardest. But once you take that step, everything will just work out.” – I swear it’s true, because this is what I’ve learned during my journey.
Before I set off, I spent years worrying about what would happen during and after a working holiday. Would I be able to find jobs in Australia to sustain my travel? Would I be scammed? Would it be safe? So I quit my job for this, what am I going to do after this? Would I become broke and jobless? These questions can go on and on, but the fact is you won’t get the answers even if you ask for a million times.
I had all these worries before I set off, and I even had a thought of backing off before I got on the plane. But believe me, once you’re there, most of the worries will be gone, because you don’t have the time to worry about things. You’re already there, and you will probably find that things are not as bad or difficult as you imagined.
But of course, we are not always lucky. Shits happen. But you will soon learn or be forced to adapt to changes, to solve problems, to fix things – because you’re either moving forward or you just fuck off and go home. You will learn to work things out instead of worrying.
It’s all about trial and error. I kept trying and learning. I did things that worried and scared me, and every time I overcame my fear, I became stronger, more positive, more confident. I push myself forward. I am my own inspiration. I am my own muse.
Where do your inspiration come from? And what would you do to inspire and encourage the others?
Keep Walking On 