The journey begins

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My love for leisure travel was triggered by intense work travel

Hi, my name is Dhruv and ever since I graduated in the US in 2014, travel has been an integral part of my work life. It started with traveling to different states within the US but work took me to several countries across multiple continents after I moved back to India in 2016. I had my heaviest travels between June 2017 and April 2019 and to date, I have clocked 350,000+ km in the air across 150+ flights spanning 17 countries and 3 continents. I moved back to the US in early 2020. As I’m writing this, we are in the middle of a lockdown, and with people trying a slew of new hobbies at home, I figured it would be nice to document my travel experiences.

I never really traveled growing up so when I started traveling for work, I did not instantly develop an affinity for leisure travel until one fine sunny afternoon over a team lunch in Madrid in July 2017, when my project manager suggested that I should make the most of my time in Spain and explore some destinations during weekends. And that’s when my travel journey really started, with my first official solo leisure trip to Toledo in Spain – a beautiful medieval town with stunning architecture and views. The image above shows one such view. And since then, it’s been one trip after another.

This blog is about my personal experiences

I don’t want this blog to be just another travel guide, going into details about how to spend a day in an exotic city, what bus services you should use, what waterfalls you should see, and so on. Because you can easily find such information online. I would like to make this blog more about my personal experiences and less about facts. That way, I feel it would also be easier for readers such as yourself to connect with me. Sure, I might throw in a fact or two if relevant, but facts won’t be a dominant theme in my blog.

There are reasons you should actively seek travel

Why should we spend hundreds or thousands of dollars or go through the trouble of planning each day of our trip to travel to a destination we probably haven’t been to, instead of say, enjoying a night out with our friends in the town we live in? In short, why should we travel?

Beyond the obvious reason of seeking social validation (yes, we all do that to varying degrees) such as being able to post nice pictures from our trips on a social network so our family and friends can see them, are there other reasons we should travel for?

Yes. Having traveled extensively, I do think there are multiple reasons you should travel. Here are my top three reasons:

1. Travel makes you self-aware

Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve felt stupid or helpless? Travel can give you several opportunities to feel that way. Especially when things don’t go to plan – which can happen more often than you might think – or you don’t speak the language of the country you are in.

The only way to be good at something is to become aware that you’re bad at it first.

adopted from a quote by Victor Cheng, Founder, Caseinterview.com

During a vacation in 2016, I was traveling from San Francisco to San Diego. The bus stopped midway to fill gas while passengers got out for a break. We were asked to return within 20 minutes so the bus could resume the journey on time. I took longer than 20 and consequently missed my bus. I freaked out. And started asking car drivers nearby who were filling gas, if they could give me a ride to the nearest bus stop or to my destination, as the next bus was several hours away and Uber wasn’t available at the time. I asked several drivers over the next few minutes, with no success. Which made sense – why would you give a stranger a ride; he could have a gun for all you know. I started having butterflies in my stomach and sat down with my head in my hands, feeling utterly helpless, and thinking about what to do next. As I looked around helplessly, I saw an American couple getting out of their car to fill gas. I decided to give it another shot but with a different approach this time. I gathered my composure and proceeded to request them for a ride. Besides the usual drill of telling them my name, my problem (I missed my bus), and what I needed help with (I needed a ride to the nearest bus stop or my destination), I also showed them my ID and my backpack to show that I didn’t have anything dangerous. And that worked! I got into the rear seat of their car and as luck would have it, they were headed to my destination – San Diego – as well. Incidentally, we reached my destination just as the bus I had missed was unloading the passengers’ bags. And I found my luggage sitting right there on the curb, safe and sound. I thanked the couple profusely and shared my contact details with them in case they ever needed to reach out to me for help.

As I look back, I learnt that I should have been more careful with catching the bus on time, but I also learnt how one should ask for help and what it means to keep one’s composure. It sounds simple, but it can be unnerving. You need to be not only honest but also understand what concerns the person you’re expecting help from, might have (in this case, it was safety), and act accordingly. I realized I needed to show them my ID to establish credibility, and show that I didn’t have anything fishy in my bag. I realized I was bad at asking for help. But I understood how I could be better at it. I believe this is how you grow.

2. Travel makes you humble

Sometimes, the desire to be in control complicates things. We must learn to let go.

During a 3-month project with a client in Indonesia, a colleague and I planned a weekend getaway to the beautiful Gili Islands. The journey was arduous and involved a flight from Jakarta to Lombok, a 2-hour cab ride to the edge of Lombok, and a 30-minute boat ride to Gili Islands. Before boarding the boat, we got tricked by a local into taking a public boat when we paid for a private boat. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t matter much but let me tell you, it always sucks to be duped, no matter how small the con! On our return journey, we confronted the same guy who had sold us the public boat tickets, however, he refused that he had misled us and told us that he sold us the tickets at the right price. Half of what he said was lost in translation because he couldn’t speak English clearly. We left after some arguments with him, not wanting to create a scene. The islands were beautiful and we enjoyed the weekend away, so we quickly forgot about the incident however, the experience was a humbling one. Sometimes, the desire to be in control complicates things, especially when you’re in a foreign country. We must learn to let go, and learn from the experience. We learnt that it would have been better if we had clarified with him what public and private boats meant, the number of people in each type of boat, etc. But I guess it’s not easy to be on top of everything when you’re looking to relax.

3. Travel helps you better understand people

I’ve realized through my travels that while people around the world are different, they are also a lot more similar than you would think. People in Portugal think just like the people in Dubai. So do people in Indonesia vs. those in Mexico. While differences among people are driven by their history, struggles, accomplishments, food, clothing, and more, the similarities are driven by common goals of making a good living, spending time with family, enjoying with friends, and so on.

Believe in Allah, but always tie your camel

The Quran

Things may not be how they appear on the news channel or how your near and dear ones describe them to you. Prior to my trip to Saudi Arabia, some of my family members and friends expressed concerns about the tough restrictions they had in place. Similarly, before flying to Spain, I heard my folks tell me stories of how people had lost their luggage or gotten mugged. While their concerns were justified because of course, your folks are always concerned about your well-being, I didn’t really find much to worry about in those countries. I found the people of Saudi Arabia to be generally quite warm and easy to work with, and the restrictions didn’t feel overbearing. My time in Spain was memorable and I did not feel uncomfortable at any point. Of course, there are always exceptions, but they shouldn’t push you to generalize for the entire population of that country. Every country has some form of restriction or the other. Similarly, you always need to take care of your luggage, no matter which country you’re in. There’s a saying in the Quran, “Believe in Allah, but always tie your camel”.

As clichéd as it sounds, I became genuinely interested in meeting new people and making new friends. I am quite fascinated by how people around the world live their lives – how they earn a living, what their family life is like, what they like and dislike, and so on. Probably because I feel I’ve had a fairly mainstream life journey myself. I did my undergrad in engineering (probably the most common major on the planet), pursued my master’s in the US like scores of other students, and started working in consulting which again, isn’t an uncommon line of work. So every once in a while when I meet someone who designs jewelry for a living or works with the Discovery Channel, I’m intrigued. It makes me feel that the world is such a big place.

Travel will bring you pleasure, but not happiness.

I’ve rambled a lot about the merits of travel but at the end of the day, it is a lifestyle choice. It is not a necessity or even a good habit, really. What matters is what makes you internally happy. If you find happiness in other ways that do not involve traveling, fair play to you. Travel, with all its merits, is after all a means of external pleasure. If you are not internally happy, no amount of travel or any means of external pleasure will make you happy.

So what are my final words?

Everything in life is a trade-off. You have to pick what makes you happier.

While travel is fashionable and accords you a certain status symbol on the outside, it isn’t so easy on the inside. At least constant overseas travel for extended periods of up to 2 months at a time isn’t, and it certainly wasn’t, for me. While being on the road allowed me to explore several destinations I otherwise wouldn’t have explored, there were things I had to give up. I missed important family events, weddings of two of my closest friends, some important holidays including Diwali and Holi – probably the two most important Indian festivals – and experienced bouts of loneliness. At times, all of these were due to work, and at other times, simply due to being too far away in another country.

Everything in life is a trade-off. You have to pick what makes you happier. So while work-driven leisure travel – as I like to call it – allows you to explore beautiful destinations, meet new people, shop and eat exotic items, earn plenty of airline miles and hotel points and probably transform your social media, it also comes with its downsides.

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All said and done, I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog. But before we end, I’d love to know your thoughts. What does travel mean to you? What do you think you’ve learned from your travels that I have missed and that others should know? Feel free to drop a comment below, share this post with your family and friends, or well, just drop a note to say hello.

#travel #serialtraveler #vacation #pilotpost