There are research which proves that money can buy happiness through experience, and one of the most common experiences that people seek for is travelling.
A lot of people shy
away from backpacking thinking of the uncertainties lying ahead and the
intensive amount of preparations that needs to be done before embarking the
journey.
That, to me, is the
essence of backpacking. It trains us to embrace uncertainties while
travelling with minimal stuff.
1. Contented mode
When you backpack,
your whole life is contained in your backpack, and you only have so much space
for things that matter to you. You feel contented for the simplest thing in
life such as getting a bowl of piping hot noodle without knowing the language
or learning new thing from a conversation with street vendor. You realise that
it is incredibly easy to be happy even when you own so little.
When you have so
little with you, you are more confident to take risk because really, what is
the worst thing that could happen to you? In the worst case scenario where you
have nowhere to put a night, a sleeping bag and public space are all you need
to make it through.
Backpacking doesn’t
mean that you have to live poorly, but you come to learn about living with minimal
need as a life skill - what do you really need to live the next day and how do
you make the most out of it?
2. Connect Easily
One of the fun aspects
about backpacking is abandoning the comfort of posh hotel room and opting for
community based hostel. Although it means sharing bathroom and bunk bed in some
occasions, it challenges your comfort zone and makes you more adaptive to
minimal environment.
You will find it extremely easy to strike a conversation
with travelers while waiting for washroom or simply talking with the bunk mate
next to you. It is amazing how the world becomes so small in that instance, and
you collect so much knowledge about different cultures from all over the world.
3. Observe and Learn
When you are not
following a tour group with rigid plan, it is easy to blend into local
lifestyle by observing how they travel, what they eat, where they shop, how
they interact with each other. When it comes to dining, instead of building a to-eat
list, it could be more rewarding to come across a crowded eatery full of locals,
hop in, observe dishes on different tables and proceed to order the most
appealing dish. The same idea applies to exploring places, where you can put
away Lonely Planet and just dive into the streets, follow your instinct in
every turn and stop whenever something attracts you.
When you observe how
people around you live their everyday lives, it makes you contemplate on the
differences between your current environment and the place where you came from.
By understanding socio-cultural background of a community, you learn to
communicate with people from all walks of lives.
4. Problem solving
It is exciting to be
in a foreign land and live your life from day to day without much planning.
More often than not you will stumble upon unanticipated difficulties during
your journey. When money is not an option to solve problem, you learn to be
resourceful in looking for all alternatives. You will find that life is a
series of problem solving, and ‘people’ is usually the source and also the
solution of problems.
While navigating your
way out, you learn to understand the other side before seeking to be
understood. You will find that it is okay to let go of ego in order to reach a
win-win solution. Being a light traveler without much ‘baggage’ also empowers
you to be more decisive and assertive in solving problem.
5. Possibilities
The more you travel,
the more you see, the more you feel; you will realise that there are so many ways
of living life. Whatever problem that you had before the journey started will
become insignificant as you see bigger problems in the other part of world. What
if you lost your job tomorrow? What if your business failed tomorrow? You know
you have the skill to survive anywhere.
You learn that you can live at low cost in South East Asia countries. The change in perception that there is a
much bigger world out there with endless possibilities makes you feel alive.
What is stopping you?
Backpacking gives you
an opportunity to discover the breadth of world and opens your eyes that you do
not have to be financially abundant to do a lot of things in life.
It is an investment in
life in that generates returns such as life experience, stories, contentment, and
life skills that will broaden your perception of what you are capable of.
By letting go of your
desire to own stuff, you could potentially have the wealth of world experience
in return.
So, what is stopping
you from embarking your own journey?
