Points of travelling...

I've just came back from my holiday, and I think a lot of people never realised that I was on holiday until they found that I did not reply a single one of their SMS-es over the period of one whole week... or maybe they knew I was on holiday but conveniently forgotten =P

Anyway...

Have you ever wondered what's the point of travelling?
I know there are already various answers to this question, such as visiting new and wondrous places, taking a break from a hectic work life, or even just plain wanting to get out of your comfort zone and stretch your legs in dangerous and exciting places.

When you go on a package tours, I sometimes get this feeling that the only thing that matters on such tours is to reach each destination quickly and see the most important or most famous part of that place. Following which, you'll go to the nearby souvenir store, buy something and leave the place...

To me, the point of travelling isn't to get to your final destination as quickly as possible. Quoting Discovery Travel & Living, the journey to your destination is the most important part of travelling. I feel that after all these years, I finally understood the meaning of this words.

Just a few days ago, we had to take a train to reach our next destination and its going to be a really really long 6 hours ride to our destination. There was absolutely nothing to do on the train other then walking up and down the corridor, admiring the scenery outside, visiting the toilet, going to the food carriage and looking blankly at the occupant of the seat who is opposite you. Now, who could handle this sort of boredom for 6 hours? Well, I can actually if I have my mp3 player around, but being me, I decided to talk to the two people who were sitting opposite of me.

So I started the talking and before too long we were engaged in conversations on a wide array of issue. The person was from China and he's off travelling with his friend after finishing their college exams. I think its a great way to spend this short holiday away from home seeing as technically you've become an adult when you are admitted to university...

So anyway, through this conversation I learned about all sorts of stuff, such as different view points on life and society simply because of the upbringing of the person and the exposure to society that the person has. I think the point of travelling is not simply to just have fun and visit interesting places. One other point of travelling is the wonderful people and culture that you meet there. Maybe its because I like talking to people and meeting people, but that's what I see in travelling.

Through this talking, you learn about other cultures and other people's aspirations. The aspiration of a graduate from a small town, the beliefs of a person who went through NS and decides to seek his fortune elsewhere, the thoughts of life from a person who has experienced the same thing as you...

This are the things that I think we should seek out in life. That's why humans are amazing and every life is worth living, its because we are all different and unique.

Discmon
ps. I apologise for not sounding like myself for the time being. Haven't been blogging for a bit and writing essays, so I'm trying to warm back up.