Why do we travel?

If a writer like Thomas Hardy wrote a book with a title like “Far from the Madding Crowd,” then he must have really thought it through. The need to get away as far as possible from the humdrum lives we live today simmers under the surface of each one of us. And you do a disservice to yourself by not addressing it. Private vacations are as vital to our existence now as they ever were. Their importance will never fade however far humanity may have come from the horse and buggy days when life was apparently much simpler.

Travel for Pleasure

Each morning we wake up, a routine that moves at a snail’s pace stares at us right in the face. The same coffee-office-coffee-home cycle is a vicious one. Work takes over each aspect of our lives so much so that we start living around it, making our life decisions to accommodate it. Your cubicle where you create your own space, trying to meet the overwhelming demands of professional and personal lives, is a desperate attempt to carve out a bubble where you feel “at home.”

This, more than anything else, is when you should realize it’s time to break the cycle. Get out and see the world. For yourself! The moment you feel you are creating this comfort zone where the home-office-home routine is what you feel safe in, is the moment to break the barrier and step out of it. There is so much more to life than that. Travelling for pleasure should not be something you plan and change according to your work schedules, no, it is as important as completing those work projects on time. Private vacations are the perfect way to do justice to the amazing project that is you.

Travel to experience Life

How much have we lived anyway? If you count your life by the days, months and years you have lived then don’t you think you are missing something in your definition of life? Life is out there waiting for you to discover it! Life is to see how humans interact with the facet of nature they live in and adapt to. It is to experience upfront how mountain dwellers wind their way down and back up through the stony, rugged passages with daily-life necessities we take for granted. It is to see them smile and offer you their warm hospitality and behold the beautiful environs that make such a harsh and unforgiving life worth living.

Life is to see the culture of the beach lovers that revolves around the bounty and fury of the sea. It is to take a boat ride down to their favorite haunts. To sit there and imbibe the salty, bracing air of the water that stretches for miles around.

Life is to walk through tropical jungles, witness how the “lungs of the earth” breathe. The humid, green world teeming with life, the cries of the exotic birds, the gurgle of animals speaking ancient languages that our ancestors understood easily.

Life is to see the people of the world, embrace their cultures, speak their vernacular, taste their food and understand them. Not only that, but life is to know we are not alone.

So what are you waiting for? Embark on that forest safari, the desert sojourn, the beach expedition you have always wanted to go to. Go alone, or take a friend or even family, experience the joy that is always within reach, but often neglected. Vacations are not a luxury anymore, they are a necessity.

It is a way for us to take back the reins of our lives. To experience the wonders this world has to offer is a way for us to discover ourselves. To find out who we are and what we can do. Be it a trip to seek adventure or to sit back and close your eyes knowing you have all the time in the world. Take that vacation. Life is waiting.