Everyone do have their own special encounters while travelling, no matter where you travel to.
Namaste/Vanakam/Hello/Assalammualaikum/Bonjour/Hola!
Well, blame it on my sappy mood right now, just couldn't help it.
I created this post so that all of you out there can express your feelings on any special moments that you encountered while travelling. Everybody does, to be honest.
For me? I went to India last year after I quit my job, and did a bit of soul-searching there. Well, I managed to find my happy-go-lucky soul while in Varanasi, and I met someone. Very special. I soon realised that even though I found my soul in Varanasi, I left my heart in India.
Share your experiences people; and I would like to quote:
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy
Reply to this Hi Farhan,
I really like your question and for me several things leap to mind. Plus I love the Pat Conroy quote and your sappy mood.
For me getting away replenishes my soul and brings me back to my center. It helps to keep my life in perspective. Sometimes at work I get caught up in the minutiae and getting away reminds me of the big picture. In 2007 my husband and I quit our jobs and traveled around the world. We had many wonderful experiences that have made an impact on us small and significant.
Many who publish blogs on this web site and participate in these forums long for the trip around the world. We did, but I also know that I've had many wonderful experiences and life changing events in the short trips. So when you asked us to define getting away I liked that question.
For me getting away is time to take a deep breath, sit in the quiet and change my surroundings. I am a people person so meeting strangers and hearing their stories is important for me. I think we should do that soul-searching frequently to make certain we have stayed on the right track. For me getting away does not describe an amount of time but a process.
When I think of places I've traveled I generally think of a person who I met while I was there and think about their story, their life, their culture and how hearing their story impacted my life.
Varanasi sounds like the perfect place for you. I hope you will be able to go back and reclaim your heart.
There are times when I need to travel 200 hundred miles and check into a luxury hotel and enjoy all the amenities.There are times when I need a get away to the forest, or the mountains. I've taken all kinds of trips and done a variety of travel and each of them replenished me in a different way. I think the universe puts you where you need to be.
I've rambled on....There is not one kind of travel that leaps to mind when you ask about a get away. For me it is not a place but a process a renewal.
Reply to this Lots of different things/places/moments frozen in time/faces...every journey is different.
One thing does stick in my mind though. I had a pretty disturbing marriage and left my husband with a one and a two year old child and being financially on my own decided to go to Uni and get my degrees so I could build a better future for us. During the course of my studies I got the opportunity to work on a scientific research project at Ningaloo - ironically the place I was born, in a tent. Working at Ningaloo was pretty amazing yet also hard as I was away from my kids for up to 6 weeks at a time. I often would borrow one of the stockhorses from the aboriginal station (ranch) we were based on and ride up to the top of the gorge at Yardie Creek and play my sax or firetwirl and stare out at the moon trying to find peace of mind as I was also dealing with an ugly (at that stage, its all good now) custody and divorce case.
One night I rode up through the ranges to the top of the gorges on a horse I hadnt borrowed before and tied the horse to one of the few spindly trees and was firetwirling deep in thought staring at the full moon. I started to feel very peaceful and decided to play amazing grace. Put down firestick, picked up sax and started playing only to have the horse absolutely flip out and break free from the tree and bolt back down the ranges to his home. So I was stuck on a cliff with possibly the two most useless items to have alone in the outback..a firestick and a saxophone. I had nothing to do other than laugh and wait because I knew when the horse turned up without me the guys from the station would come looking for me. Eventually they did - I saw headlights and lit the firestick up to give them a clue where I was. After being rescued I went down to freshen up in the ocean (we were working totally eco in tents with solar power only and very very limited fresh water). After all that had happened that day I waded out into the bay and found something (still have no clue what) had mass spawned and the bay was full of a gazillion baby fish fry...so many the ocean was like wading through soup. So i stood in amongst these new lives waist deep in water watching these new lives and realised I had found something at that moment in time Id been missing - peace of mind. I realised that even after the darkest days, the sun still shines, life is really beautiful and as Louis Armstrong said..."What a wonderful world".
There is no number big enough to describe how many new lives were there that night in that bay and I was truly blessed to have witnessed such an amazing event so I stood there til the sun came up and managed to get satellite reception to ring my sons - i found my happiness again.
Sorry lol ive rambled on too!!!
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