Tag: Freedom

My last post has been a while ago. Being on Iboih Beach on Pulau Weh for three weeks is a great excuse, though. No internet means no posts. I spent my days snorkeling & diving, helping friends with a coral reef conservation project off Pulau Rubiah and generally having a good time. Some things put a bit of a dampener on an otherwise brilliant stay. A while ago I damaged a nerve in my right leg. Don’t ask me how, it’s just one of life’s random fuck ups, I guess. It doesn’t bother me really, but the diving did make it worse. It got that bad in fact that I decided to put my wetsuit away until it is all sorted.

This seemed like the correct move to make, although it does put considerable strain on my financial situation. No income makes for a very short travel experience really. That’s all the bad news, though. Now for the good stuff! This whole thing enables me to do something I’ve always wanted to do. Get rid of all my big and heavy gear (haven’t I done that before I went travelling?) and go minimalistic with one small bag only! I found myself wishing quite often that I could just get off the bus when I saw something beautiful, like a temple, and go explore it, but I never did. Not with 20kg on my back. Soon, I’ll be able to do just that…

Stacy from Rambling Traveler just tagged me a few days ago to tell her 5 reasons why i travel. I just recently wrote a little post about this topic, but didn’t really elaborate on my reasons, so here we go:

1. I love the excitement, that’s always in the air when travelling. I mean, most likely the “big” adventure won’t happen, but it just seems possible that someone hands me a map to a secret beach…
2. Life is so simple on the road. I find this strangely comforting. Everything I own and need, I carry with me in my backpack. No need for a car, an apartment or a tv and no desire to own all that either.
3. Cultures other than my own have always fascinated me; it’s almost like a charm. There’s so many things to see and experience and so many different people to meet out there, I don’t see how I could spend my whole life back home.
4. The only way to experience more freedom than when travelling is to go skinny dipping. When you’re out and about you can do whatever you want. If I’m fed up with a place, I can just leave. Back home this would be a tad more problematic.
5. Virtually anything, good or bad, funny or sad, could happen to me, when I travel. I like this uncertainty a lot. There is a grain of truth in ‘No Risk, No Fun’!

So, there’s my reasons. If you read this, Ethan, then I’d like to hear your reasons. I’d like to see as well, how you would incorporate this into your story!