The very first time I travelled was when I was 19-years-old, I went to Thailand and Cambodia. Cambodia being my heritage I thought it was going to be bliss, little did I know that this first trip away would cement the rest of my life travelling the world.
It all started quite innocently, I came back from that South East Asia trip and decided I wanted to travel again. So I picked something easy, Los Angeles, Vegas and New York. These places gave me that drug that I desperately craved, still for me it wasn’t enough, I wanted more.
Then things at work went into turmoil, and the thought of London had always been at the back of my mind. So I thought, you know what, I am just going to do it. So I sorted out my visa, and then booked that one-way ticket to the big smoke. Or should I say the big chill. I had never lived abroad on my own before, nor had I even been to London before. But it was something that I had to do, something that I look back on 2 years later as a place that changed me completely. The way I looked at life in Sydney was completely different in London. I was free, to do what ever I wanted. I fell in love (twice), made new friends and with Europe being so easily accessible I pointed to a map and just like that I was there.
Now for the hard bit, leaving. Those blissful 2 years was over, it’s like someone pushed fast forward on my life and there I was, sat on a plane in Heathrow. Of course I prolonged it, I went to Thailand and Cambodia again on the way home. Then I hit Sydney, I saw my friends, it was bliss. For the first month of course, and then I lost it. I was so completely lost, I kept thinking of new ideas to run away again and how I could do it. How can I have changed and everyone remain the same? Things finally settled and I started my own company, but then I still got that itch. I then booked a trip and travelled to Central and South America. I came back feeling some-what relieved. Now it’s happening again, that feeling to want to travel and meet new people that spoke my language, the language of travel.
So this is why I think the ‘travel bug’ is bullshit. It’s not a bug, bugs go away right? This, what we have, it’s something that is cemented into us. Sure we had no idea what was going to happen, or any idea of when it would happen but it did. And it’s in us and it’s not a bug, it’s real life. We were born to travel, to be free and to experience cultures that are beyond us. Not just the countries, but travelling within ourselves. Sorry to get deep here, but it’s true. We seek to not only travel countries but discover how much we can do, how fearless we can be, and how beautiful we can be inside and out without the traditional norms.
What’s next for me? Well, after 2 years I go back to London in a month.