We Travel in Search of What we Need, and Return “Home” to Find it.
I chance to hook up with a friend in Morocco a few weeks ago. I blurted out that I felt like a total moron when she naively inquired about my activities. I’ve been making these significant decisions ever since the epidemic, just to change my mind a few weeks or months later and make completely other choices.
As you are likely aware, before to the epidemic in 2013, I had been living out of two bags. As a digital nomad, blogging and freelancing at the nexus of immersive and sustainable travel, I suppose I was rather happy to slowly traverse the world.
Being under lockdown for around two years, largely in Goa, led me down a variety of career possibilities. I started working for a master’s degree,
However, the house underwent abrupt renovations, and we believed that the cosmos was calling us to return to Goa. However, we discovered that we had misinterpreted the indications within a week. The heat and busy traffic of Goa were overwhelming after those peaceful months in Himachal.
We returned to Himachal to stay in a mud home during the monsoon before agreeing to a one-year lease on an unfurnished rural house. I signed a rent arrangement that lasted more than three months for the first time in ten years! All of a sudden we were wasting our days pursuing plumbers and carpenters.
I made a cautious effort to adapt to my new, permanent existence. I turned down alluring trip options as part of my 2023 climate action plan to cut back on flying. I hiked around, saw the seasons change, met some people to play basketball with, and was pleasantly delighted by a cherry blossom-filled autumn!
However, time quickly began to seem endless. One day blended into another. Talk with friends and neighbors seemed to go on and on. As I dreamed about the world beyond, I felt like a hamster on a wheel.
Then the horizon revealed Morocco. a two-week bike journey throughout the nation, passing through both populated towns and isolated areas. Time spent in the High Atlas and the Sahara Desert. an opportunity to gain insight into the inner workings of Intrepid Travel, a travel agency leading the way in environmentally friendly travel.
A few days before our visa expired, we spent a night at a kasbah (fortress) in Essaouira watching the final sunset of 2023. The Atlantic Ocean’s waves smashed into the beach. The stone and the sky were smeared with orange hues from the sun. The waves’ song blended with that of the folk musicians.
As I sat there, it occurred to me that I feel more nervous when I attempt to predict the future than when I let it go.
that I have missed the free-spiritedness that drove me to pursue and lead the life I did for the last three years. The pleasure of not knowing, not choosing, and not announcing has been lost on me. I’ve missed the “me” that wasn’t bound to a location or a method of
I don’t know what will happen next. Do we return to Himachal at any point? Do we terminate the year-long lease using our one-month notice period? Should I drive again? Should I reduce to two bags once more? Should I resume my daring land travels? Does the prospect of travel still appeal to me, or is it the actual trip itself?