In one line: Inspired by a journey that’s ahead, and for anyone else who is feeling called to exploring a new place with a fresh take, this is an insightful and easy read.
“We travel initially to lose ourselves. And we travel next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can in our ignorance and knowledge to those parts of the globe whos riches are differently dispersed. And we travel in essence to become young fools again, to slow down, and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” – Pico Iyer
- Travel/Vagabonding is a personal act that demands the realignment of self
- Simplifying – stop expansion, reign in routine, reduce clutter
- “I don’t want to hurry it. That itself is a poisonous 20th century attitude. When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get onto other things.” – Robert Pirsig
- Adventure – What is the adventure in traveling such great distances and achieving such daring acts if like any workaday consumer you plan your experience in advance and approach with specific expectations. The secret of adventure is to not seek it out but to travel in a way such that it finds you. To do this you first need to overcome the protective habits of home and open yourself up to unpredictability…you’ll often discover that adventure is a decision after the fact. A way of deciphering an event or experience that you can’t quite explain.
- By definition, leaving things up to chance leaves you open to both good and bad experiences. Good judgment can come from bad experiences. And experiences can come from bad judgment. The key in this is to trust chance and to steer it in a way that you’re always learning from it.
- “Good people keep walking, whatever happens. They do not speak vain words and are the same in good fortune and in bad.” – Buddha —use this to find value in your travel frustrations and curious facets of the vagabonding adventures
- “Life has no other discipline to impose, but to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil can become a source of beauty, joy and strength if faced with an open mind. Every moment is golden for him who has the vision to realize it as such. Once you actualize this vision in good fortune and bad, you’ll be able to discover whole new version of terra incognita within yourself.” – Henry Miller
- The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.
- Tourists don’t know where they’ve been. Travelers don’t know where they’re going. Travelers leave their assumptions at home, tourists don’t.
- Few of us ever are where we are. Instead of experiencing the reality of a moment, or a day, our minds and souls are elsewhere. Obsessing on the past or the future, fretting and fantasizing about other situations. At home this is one way of dealing with day to day doldrums. On the road, it’s a way to miss out on the experiences that stand to teach you something.
- Vagabonding is like a patient kind of aimlessness. Australian Aborigines call this a “walkabout”. Culturally, the walkabout ritual is when workers leave their work for a time and return to native lifestyle on the outback. On a broader and more mythical level, it acts as a kind of remedy when the duties and obligations of life cause one to lose track of him or herself. To correct this, one leaves behind all survival essentials and simply starts walking. What’s intriguing about it, is there’s no physical goal. It continues till one becomes whole again.
- “While wandering you experience a mysteriously organic process.”- Joseph Campbell
- It’s like a tree growing. It doesn’t know where it’s growing next. You’ll look back and see it as a simple flowering of your own experience.
- “We travel initially to lose ourselves. And we travel next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can in our ignorance and knowledge to those parts of the globe whos riches are differently dispersed. And we travel in essence to become young fools again, to slow down, and get taken in, and fall in love once more.” – Pico Iyer
- Self motivated travel has always been intertwined with the personal workings of the soul. But on an even simpler level, heightened spiritual awareness is the natural result of your choice to put the material world in its place and hit the road for an extended time.
- Where your treasure is, your heart will be also and your decision to enrich your life with time and experience, instead of more things, will inevitably pay spiritual dividends. Travel after all, is a form of asceticism. Which is a way of surrendering to reduced circumstances in way that enhances the whole person. It’s a radical way of knowing exactly who, what, and where you are, and defying those powerful forces in society that make us forget. Thus, travel compels you to discover your spiritual side by simple elimination. Without all the rituals, routines, and possessions that give life meaning at home, you’re forced to find meaning within yourself.
- Travel is process that helps you find yourself because it leaves you with nothing to hide behind. It yanks you out from behind the realm of rehearsed responses and doldrums and forces you into the present. Here, in the fleeting moment, you are left to improvise. To come to terms with your raw, true self.
- One of the most difficult things you may experience is when you return home and try to relate to old friends and acquaintances who’ve been at home the whole time. Your friends may rarely be able to relate to your travels and adventures because they don’t share the same values that took you out on the road in the first place. It may be hard to get your close friends to take an interest in your adventures.
- Travel should always be a personally motivated undertaking
- In sharing your road experiences remember to keep your stories short and save the best bits for yourself. I swear I see what is better than to tell the best, wrote Walt Whitman, always to leave the best untold. Telling the story is not nearly as important as living the story. Make sure your experience doesn’t end up as a sand castle that washes away when we return home. Your experience is an ongoing organic experience that can continue to be applied even as you unpack your bags and return home.
What to bring:
- Small travel bag – allows you only the minimum – most people who think they’re minimally packing often end up dumping most of their stuff within being on the road for 2-3 weeks
- Sunscreen, sandals, guidebook, standard hygiene items, basic medicines, small gift items for future host and friends, small flash light, cheap sun glasses, inexpensive camera, day pack for smaller items for day trips, sturdy pair of boots/walking shoes padlock
- One set of nice clothes for customs checks and social occasions, a few sets of simple functional clothes,
- Everything you’ll need will easily be found wherever you’re visiting and shopping for stuff you need can lead to fun adventures on their own
- Leave all expensive computers, watches, etc. at home
Philoso-Feed 