Bidish As children, we learn new things every day. We grow to understand day and night, food and taste, new sports, and new languages. We learn a little bit about how the world works every day. And it feels amazing and makes us more curious. We are our most curious selves as children because we enter into a new world where everything registers for the first time. The first bath, the first game, the first friendship. Everything seems so raw and new, and it makes a mark on us.
When we travel, we open ourselves to such new realizations that can make us puzzled yet excited. We notice things that have never crossed our minds and we feel like kids again. In this article, I will try to articulate five such naïve travel realizations of the world that I experienced and that were able to leave an impact on me.
The Sun moves with us
I was about 8 years old. I was traveling with my family on a bus early in the morning. With no gadgets available to play with, I would just stare out the window to pass the time. There, I noticed that the Sun was moving with me. During that 1-hour bus ride, I kept staring at the Sun, thinking I would lose it somewhere, but I never did. It kept following me. So simple in its occurrence, it became a beautiful memory that stays strong with me until now.
We can travel to a different weather
In January of 2019, I made a trip to Hyderabad from Kathmandu. The weather in Kathmandu was cold, and I had to wear winter jackets to keep myself warm. I was expecting Hyderabad to be only a bit warmer than Kathmandu, so I had packed proper jackets with me.
However, when I landed and explored Hyderabad, I was shocked to realize that it was scorching hot. I even had to take cold showers. To me, the winter in Hyderabad did not feel like winter at all. This was an important realization that I try make use of when I want to skip the cold German weather.
It’s not just hills and mountains
My idea of vacation while living in Nepal was to go to a hilly place or go trekking in some scenic mountain routes. That was my idea of a getaway, and my mind was unconditionally bound to that box. I knew there was a world beyond that, but I never felt it so strongly.
When I saw a beach for the first time in Pondicherry, that’s when the world opened up to me. A beautiful sight of the water as far as your eyes could see. The waves, the pine trees, the colorful houses next to the beach – all of it was a beauty I had never seen before. So much that I started yearning for more of the world.
It is sunny at 10 PM
In Nepal, the maximum the Sun would stay up was until 7:30 PM. Normally, I had the idea that day and night are balanced: 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light. Sunset would mean a reasonable time to go back home.
When I started living in Germany, the sudden realization that the Sun is still out at 10 PM made me feel weird. I had heard Norway has sunlight until midnight but the impression was never made so strongly in my mind.
It’s just normal life in different places
When we plan a trip to a faraway, exotic place, our perspective is greatly influenced by the media. We hear of the unsettled stories, about the pickpockets, the scams. These stories make us scared, or concerned at the least.
However, when you reach the place and go about your day, you see it’s the regular day as usual. Students going to schools, people going to work, vendors trying to sell. There exists no dramatic fear factor that our brain wandered upon. With a conscious mind, proper awareness, and humility, it’s only the excitement of being in a new place that awaits.
These are only a few collections of how travel made me realize the world differently, and I keep learning exciting things every day. From getting into underground metros, seeing the mountains for the first time, and seeing unusual and beautiful sunsets, all of this teaches something new about the world.
As we grow old, life demands routine from us, and as adults, we might tend to think we know enough about the world now. That’s where we are wrong. We should know that every time we travel, there’s a chance we will notice something new that has never crossed our minds. For every time we travel, the curious child in us comes back to life.
I love your last point about seeing normal life in every place. That is such a big realization of travel! It makes me feel quite small in a big world, which is a humble realization.
Yes, it is one of the best understanding I had while traveling. Thank you so much for reading. 🙂