(Originally Published on 19 June 2015)
Something recently prompted me to write this. I travel quite often as a student and I know many people who are in my age who aren’t doing so. In fact some of them don’t really approve of what I’m doing – which is travel and having minimal savings. Yes, I have very little savings for someone who actually works a lot (I have been holding part-time jobs almost consistently since I’ve graduated from Junior College). Well because majority of my paycheques are ‘invested’ in my travels. And the reason why I used the word invested is because, I really do think travelling is an investment. The returns you ask? A better you. And so my friends, here are 5 reasons why I travel.
1. Travelling made me more independent
…especially so when I travel alone. You’re all alone in a whole new world and you only got yourself to depend on. The very first time I flew alone was when I was 19 and travelling to Vienna to visit a friend. That was also the first time I ever had a transit. Usually they were just direct flights. I flew with Emirates and I had a 7 hour transit in Dubai. I was really afraid that I would get lost when I land. I didn’t know what to expect and I had no one to tell me what to do. So all I could do was to listen for instructions, look out for sign boards, practice some common sense and of course ask people – I did all of those. It’s something new for me because I am the typical timid and shy person and I don’t usually ask people/strangers for help. And when I finally landed safely in Vienna after almost 22 hours of flying and transiting ALONE, it felt so good – like you’ve accomplished something all by yourself. And that was the day I realised how important it is to be independent.
My 6 months stay in Vienna while I was learning German was the longest period of time I have ever been away from home. And it was all about being independent. I learnt how to navigate myself around the city – getting to school, getting home, going to the grocery store etc. And I have to say it’s a little daunting at the start to travel around alone with the public transport you’re so unfamiliar with and in a place that feels so foreign. But eventually, with time, I got used to it and I actually became more confident with myself. That was also when I started to realise how much I miss being so familiar with my surroundings.
I don’t wake up to breakfast on my table, I don’t get fresh laundry neatly ironed and folded in my cupboard appearing magically and of course my pile of dirty laundry don’t just disappear… The thing about studying abroad is that it trains you to live alone and on top of that, it makes you appreciate what you have at home. The 6 months away from home and my family made me grow so much as a person.
Learning how to cook was also a huge part of this. I am forced to learn how to cook in order to save money because eating out everyday is a huge strain on your wallet.
and so all these brings me to my second point: travelling makes you step out of your ultimate comfort zone.
2. Travelling made me a more appreciative and compassionate person
During my stay in Vienna, I realised how lucky I was to be me. Apart from appreciating my family and friends, I also learnt how to appreciate things in life.
In 2010, I took a trip to Indonesia on a Community Involvement Program organised by my Junior College. I remembered when I came to know that the school was selecting students for the trip, I told myself that “I NEED to be on this trip”. And I have to say, I am a very very lucky person. I passed the interviews and I was selected to be part of the team. This turned out to be probably the most meaningful and fruitful trip I’ve ever embarked on.
For this trip, we were taken to an orphanage in a slightly rural area of Bintan and our purpose was to built a proper staircase to a classroom and also to conduct English lessons for the kids. I never did manual labour like this before and it was really an eye-opener. From shifting bricks with our bare hands, shovelling sand, mixing cement to building the entire staircase, we did it all by ourselves.
After the staircase was done, we took a tour around the compounds of the orphanage and that really broke my heart – to see the living conditions of these very young children.
Interacting with the children was also an amazing experience. A small little gesture like giving them a candy could make them smile from ear to ear. It makes me realise how much I need to start appreciating small little things in life.
The trip was just simply amazing and I can’t really describe in words how I actually felt at the end of it. But for one thing I’m sure, it made me a different person. At the end of the trip, I realised how lucky I was to be who I am and to be where I am. Given our circumstances, we tend to always take things for granted. It took me this to realise.
3. Travelling gave me the opportunity to meet new people
…and I learnt how to appreciate the beauty of culture diversity.
I met a lot of people during my stay in Vienna and it’s really interesting because I was learning German in a class of 10 and believe it or not, all the 10 people can come from different countries. In my very first class, we had a Spanish, Croatian, Indian, Romanian, Polish, Australian, Turkish… and the list goes on.
It’s really interesting because you get to learn a lot about their country, culture and language as you interact with them. And it’s funny because not everyone’s first language is English and we were all forced to speak German to each other – the results is hilarious. But it didn’t stop us from communicating. It’s been 3 years now and I’m still in contact with some of my classmates who’re now based in Vienna.
In March 2013, I decided to try something different on my trip. I thought maybe it’s time to escape the city for a little while and try living in a farm. So I went online, did some research and came across this website http://www.akiwifarmstay.co.nz/ which I thought was pretty amazing. So we booked our flights, packed up and flew to Auckland to live with our host family Simon, the owner of the farm and his two beautiful kids Luka and Sophie. And they became the best hosts I could ever ask for. They made us feel like we’re part of their family.
The peace, serenity and the beauty of the countryside was like some divine energy-booster – it was such a refreshing feeling. It’s like I was taken away from one universe and placed in another – it was an experience you could never get in a concrete jungle like the one I grew up in.
It was a short 8D7N stay in his farm but I’ve learnt so much from Simon and we’re still in contact via Facebook.
4. Travelling gave me the opportunity to experience new things and do things I feared doing
and also do crazy things… Ever since I started travelling, I’ve never stopped experiencing new things and some of them are things I least expect from myself. I’ll just share some amazing experiences I had while travelling. It may be pleasant or not, some even pretty hilarious, but the unpleasant experiences are just lessons to be learnt from.
I am hell scared of heights. I can’t cross an overhead bridge without grabbing onto someone, I won’t go too near balconies and I don’t take roller coaster rides. But when I was in Dreamworld Gold Coast in 2006, something got into me and I went in line to queue for ‘The Giant Drop’. This would probably the first and last time I would attempt something like this… maybe. Or maybe 20 seconds of insane courage would put me in such circumstances again hahaha.
I used to think swimming or being in open water bodies like seas, lakes etc are scary. But in 2007 on my Adventure Camp in Bintan, I tried Kayaking and Sailing which was turned out to be great experiences. And I became less afraid of swimming in the seas – which was why I dared to snorkel in Auckland later.
I also got the opportunity to pick up a new language and experience how it’s like living in a place where everyone sound so foreign to me – it’s pretty daunting at first. I picked up German when I was living in Vienna for 6 months and I think this is the best decision I’ve ever made. I’m someone who is very interested in linguistics and I find it really fun to learn a new language. I did German until the B1(2) level.
Since we’re at the topic of German, let me just side-track a little and share with you a HILARIOUS story: The very first time I visited Vienna in 2011, I had zero German knowledge. Not even the basics. I met up with a friend one evening and we went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. I had really bad stomachache that day and needed the restroom desperately. I walked to the restrooms and found myself staring at two doors, one which has a sign saying “Herren” and another which says “Damen”. There was no pictures or colours (like pink for ladies, blue for gents etc) to indicate whether it was the ladies or the gents – it was just two very foreign looking word staring at me. My stomach hurt so bad that I just made a dash for whichever. And yes if you’re guessing, I did went into the gents lol. Because when I came out, the waitress looked at me flabbergasted and started talking to me in German and I was like shit, I went into the wrong one.
Moral of the story: Always learn what is “ladies” and “gents” in their language – whichever country you’re going to.
Something interesting also happened to me when I was in Vienna. Friends and I were chilling at the mall when a reporter just randomly pop-ed by and interviewed us. And so we got featured in the 2012 July edition of Biber.
It’s really funny when we read the article because whatever we told the reporter did not appear to be as true as the article.Anyway it reads in German:
Wir leben nicht in die Zwanzigsten, aber wir kommen jede Woche zum karaoke-signen her. Das Soho in der Millennium City ist unsere lieblingsbar! Dann singen wir hits von Celine Dion und Pink. Und die Douau mit den süssen Schwänen haben wir bei uns im isten auch leider nicht.
Which translates to:
We don’t live in the twentieth district, but we come here every week to sing karaoke (That’s totally not true by the way). The Soho is the Millennium City is our Favourite bar! (I didn’t even know The Soho existed until I read this article lol) Then we sing hits from Celine Dion and Pink (Oh god…). And the Donau (river) with the sweet swans, we unfortunately do not have in our area. (?)
Yeah the last sentence was the only thing that’s true HAHAHA. I just find this really hilarious and I did had a good laugh.
I did loads of impulsive stuffs when I was living in Vienna. Here are some absurd ones.
One morning, we woke up and decided to take a 3-hour train ride west to Salzburg for a day. And we just did it lol.
The first ever road-trip I did was when I was living in Vienna. My friend’s uncle who came from Carinthia (Southern state of Austria) decided to take us all on a road-trip to his hometown and we agreed in a heartbeat. So the next day, we packed up and he drove us down to Graz and then to Carinthia. We stayed in a little rural town in his father’s home and there was one night, he brought us all to a local bar to have some drinks and everyone looked at us because we were like the only Asians in the town hahaha.
The best one I ever had was this. One afternoon, my friends and I were chilling at a cafe and we were really bored. A wild idea began to bloom in our minds. Within 24 hours, we got our luggage packed, hopped onto a plane and landed in Paris. And then… getting robbed in broad-day light at the Hard Rock cafe in Paris. It was an experience too, just a bad one. My friends and I were sitting at Hard Rock cafe in one of the Paris streets when a group of gypsies surrounded us and one of them grabbed my friend’s iPhone and fled.
Expensive lesson learnt. But from that day onwards, I learnt how to be more vigilant when I travel and also to do ample research before I set off for a trip. I googled for tourist who had similar experiences and realised I wasn’t the only one – Paris is heaven for pick-pockets. But the ignorant me then didn’t know.
I also get to try really exotic food! I used to think Escargots are gross and I would never eat them. It’s SNAILS for god’s sake! But since I was in Paris, people say it’s a must-try there, it was on the menu and the chef recommended it… you know what, just give me a plate of snails.
I actually liked it! Didn’t expect that but… it was good.
But that wasn’t the most exotic thing I’ve ever eaten. When I was in Vienna, my friend brought me to this Australian pub (Yes, Australian, not Austrian) along Maysedergasse called ‘Crossfield’s Australian Pub’ and guess what they had on their menu… CRICKET SALAD. It took my friend 30 minutes to convince me to put one in my mouth. I am really afraid of insects. I squirm and run away when I see one. So to put one inside my mouth, chew and then swallow it was a huge challenge for me.
But I remember asking myself how often do I get chances to do this. If I don’t do it now, I probably wouldn’t have this again when I’m back in Singapore. And yes, I did eat the cricket. That, I liked it too. It tasted really good. So guys, never try, never know. That’s something I’ve learned too.
I missed my first flight in life in 2012 when I was re-visiting Vienna with a friend, my sister, her friend. We were supposed to transit in Frankfurt, Germany before flying back to Singapore. But our flight from Vienna to Frankfurt was delayed due to bad weather and as a result, we missed our connecting flight to Singapore and the next one to Singapore doesn’t depart until the next afternoon. To be frank, I wasn’t travelling extensively then and I really thought we were gonna be stranded in Germany because I didn’t had money to re-book another ticket back to Singapore.
But because it was due to the delay of the first aircraft on bad weather conditions, the airline actually arranged everything for us. We ended up getting a one-night free stay in Germany in a hotel out of nowhere, free dinner, breakfast and taxi vouchers and the best part – we got a free upgrade from a Lufthansa to a Singapore Airlines carrier. And yes, that was my first time on-board a Singapore Airlines carrier lol.
5. We Are Not Guaranteed Old Age
And last but not least, we are not guaranteed old age and life is just unpredictable. If you don’t do all these now then when? I’m not sure about you, but for me, I believe after I graduate and find a stable and permanent job, I might not get as much opportunity to travel as I have now as a student.
(Update as of 14 October 2016: I’ve graduated in June this year and I’ve been working full-time in a brokerage firm since September. And yes, I’m on probation till December so I ain’t entitled to annual leaves till then. To add on to my misery, our company faces a peak period from November till January. Which means the only time I could travel again is in February next year. I have only 14 days of annual leave and that means I don’t really have as much freedom to travel as I had when I was a student. I don’t wanna sound like I’m a bad kid, I’m really not, but as a student, I could afford to give a few classes a miss and then study on my own to catch up. But work… I have responsibilities and I can’t just be absent as and when I want to. So yes, to the me in 2015, you’re right.)
As we get older, we take on more responsibilities in life and by then, it’s harder for us to just take-off. So take the chance now if you’re still young, go out and see the world. You’ll be surprised by how much you could grow as a person. You can always earn money, but you can’t always build memories.
Love,
Sam
Sam's Globetrots 