How Easy is it to Travel?
There I was carrying my luggage in the middle of a busy street in Bali, Indonesia. I had just declined the place I was going to stay for the next month and I didn’t know where I was going to go next.
The place was on a two-story floor overlooking the busiest part of the city. It was busy and noisy.
I couldn’t work here.
So I decided to walk to the next hostel nearby. I thought that I knew exactly where it was, but I didn’t.
For the next hour I walked down a busy street with my luggage in tow. This street was nothing like a busy street in America. Scooters line the road everywhere. There is honking every five seconds coming from cars and motorbikes. To the inexperienced traveler this is chaos.
Where am I? What is going on and why am I here?
This is how they live here though. They have chickens and bird cages on their motorbikes. They drive aggressively and don’t take it personally when someone passes them or honks at them. This is a whole new perspective on life.
And I needed to get out there and experience life in this new way.
One of the most common goals that I hear from other people is that they would like to travel.
But no one does.
We live in a world where it is safer to take an airplane ride across the world than it ever has been. Travel is cheaper now than it used to be and it is even more comfortable.
Yet people still aren’t living their dreams of traveling.
Likely this comes from the stability of staying comfortable and being secure at home. Some even think that traveling is expensive and time consuming.
What I have found is that people come to love their existence of comfort in the places where they reside, sometimes traveling is taking them too much out of their comfort zone. Why would they want to take themselves out of their comfort zones and embark on a journey when life already is currently comfortable and safe?
Sweating in the hot heat as my location is near the equator on scorching day with my luggage in hand I stop to get something to drink. After thanking the man I purchased the drink from and calculating the price I paid in my head, I came to the conclusion that I just paid 20 cents for a sports drink. Okay not bad.
While I still have no idea where I am or where I will stay tonight, life is good again. I walk amongst the chaos again and eventually I make my way to a sign that says place for rent. Here they have no open rooms, but the front desk lady puts my luggage on her scooter and has me hop on the back of her tiny moped. We drive just down the road where there is another nice lady welcoming me to stay at her villa for the night.
Just through knowing that I would make it I push though my uncomfortable feelings of being lost and not knowing what I will do. I ultimately make it through and I discover a hidden resilience inside of me. If I can conquer the difficulty of travel then what more can I do?
Some people say that traveling costs a ton of money.
I was surprised by how inexpensive traveling could be. For a 29 hour fight mostly through Singapore Airlines that included a blanket and pillow, meals at all times of the flight, and onboard movies I paid just over $450 for a one-way ticket from Los Angeles to Bali, Indonesia.
This trip included two different airplanes and three different flight crews. It was a long time in the air, but worth every penny. I was remarkably pleased by the service and the value that I got for my money.
For cheap airplane tickets I recommend using the SkyScanner. Link is here:
In addition when I landed I was greeted by a taxi driver who took me an hour away from the airport, through the busy traffic for only $30. Meals here cost about $3 per plate and back massages are just over $5 for an hour worth of bliss.
The costs are hardly anything compared to America where I paid almost $1,000 for a one bedroom apartment. Here I pay $380 a month for a room just 5 minutes away form the beach. The sites are beautiful and I love it here.
Granted I am staying in a cheaper part of the world, where some places in Europe will likely cost significantly more than I am currently spending in expenditures. However you couldn’t sway me from the life I am living currently as it feels like a paradise. I am literally five minutes away from an empty and beautiful beach.
You may however miss out on your income from a job somewhere that you stay, but if you can do a paid vacation or do your work remotely then this is totally cancelled out. I do my work all here from my house near the beach with free wifi.
What I have found is that traveling was one of the best decisions that I could have made for me and my life. It was definitely uncomfortable at times, but I got through that. I didn’t always believe I could afford it, but it is even cheaper than I could have imagined.
I have even transformed myself more as a person. I have learned more and grown more through having these new experiences. It has profoundly changed how I see the world and it has made me even happier.
Traveling is something that anyone can do right now. Push back your limitations and find out just what it might mean for you. The chances are that traveling just might help you see a new side of yourself and explore yourself even further.
