Perks of travelling the world

(Almost) everyone loves travelling, at least people I know. Exploring new places, eating new food, meeting new people, discovering new cultures, trying out new things. Exciting. Most of us really enjoy the escapism of travelling, go somewhere, forget about our current problems, relax, deal with stress, recharge, sleep, reflect, set some goals, get some ideas, deepen your connections with other people around you.

I often went somewhere, because I saw a preety picture and I said: OMG!! I'm so going there. But then it wasn't about the picture. Now I remember the experiences, people, nature and most of all, I remember the feeling that one place gave me.

I experienced quite some crazy things so far, mostly with Jošt. We were crawling in mines in Bolivia at 4300 m, hardly breating. We road the bike on the most dangerous road on the world, from snovy mountains at 4000 m to th jungle at 700 m. We spent countless hours on shitty indonesian busses, changing tyres, pushing the bus, sitting with chickens etc. We saw orangutans on Sumatra and slept in the jungle on the floor. We discovered a paradise near Sumatra at Tailana island and I cried when we left. We dropped on a wedding on Lombok, Indonesia. We swam with 10 meter long whale shark on Philippines. We were riding a motorbike in Philippines (3 people on one bike), driving 100 kph without helmets. We were scared of dying on the boat ride from Flores to Lombok - the ocean was super rough at night. In Indonesia, we saw mantas while snorkeling and in Malaysia, we saw small sharks and turtles. In Sri lanka, we saw a python crossing a road just in front of our eyes. We tried chewing coca in Peru. I also lived with vietnamese family in Hanoi, saw icebergs in Iceland, talked about sex with girls in Azerbaijan etc. And of course, we met a bunch of really interesting people on the way, ate the best food in our life, connected on a whole other level, talked for 20 hours in a raw and I could go on. It's been 11 years since I first went outside Europe (Cuba, 2006) and my travel list is still very long.

But ... travelling was not about all those experiences.

I see travelling as a school of life. It made me more aware of our planet, nature, beauty and power of earth. We're so small, when we see ourselves and the ocean, mountains, amazon forest. Travelling makes me feel alive and at the same time ashame, since I come from a place where I have everything.

Travelling makes me feel. Travelling makes me feel like a global resident. Travelling makes me appreciate things I already have in my life, since I have so much more than most of the people.
Travelling makes me rethink capitalism. People in southeast Asia are mostly much happier than people in Slovenia or Europe. They work much less and spend more time with their friends, family. Some of them don't know the word stress. I'd say that is preety healthy attitude towards life.

So, the last time I was flying home from Asia, I was wondering: how can I create life, that brings out the best from both western and eastern culture? Can I even live in western world and apply eastern principles? Can I live in eastern world and apply western principles?

In the light of recent events (Trump, Brexit, fear of muslim etc), most importantly, travelling makes me understand other cultures. I have muslim friends. Some of the most friendly people I've met in my life were muslim. They seem way more openminded than most christians I know. Maybe it's not easy to have this kind of attitude, if you haven't met them. So go, if you can. Go, travel. Don't go to Europe, don't go to US or Australia. Go to countries with a truly different culture, different religion. And observe, how much will you change your world views, your empathy, your love towards all people that live on earth.

I'm sure some of you might be thinking - right, Urša, I don't know where you got the money, but it's not so cheap to go to Asia. My answer would be: it's all about priorities. My priority is travelling. I spend everything I have for it (ok, and education). I have a smartphone for 70 eur and it works. My laptop is not Apple and it's great. I don't buy clothes that often. If you own iphone6 and an Apple computer, that probably cost you 2000 eur. The cheapest trip we ever had cost us 1000 eur all together for one month - Sumatra and Bali, Indonesia, including plane ticket. You can travel cheap if you want to.

I can't wait to go on a bus, train, plane again. Currently I really need to escape and travelling can give me exactly what I need - change of environment, recharge, stressless lifestlye, books, conversations, sports, time to think, sleep a lot, eat good food and have fun. So, where are you going next?