To Travel, is To Live.

 

 

 

I'm still confused about the origins of this quote. So poignant. To this day, records I've seen say it is 'anonymous' but whoever said these words expressed something I try to explain to people who don't travel as much as I think they should. People tend to rely on information they seen on TV, in magazines or from people around them. The truth is, as far as travel goes, you really just won't understand how magnificent the pyramids of Giza are until you visit the desert to see them yourself. 

I once went on a trip to Mauritius with my husband and true to form, after a few days there, he got tired of all the excursions (which, mind you, involved relaxing on the beach - we just went to a different beach every day). All he wanted to do on this day was sleep in our hotel room. I wasn't going to spend my afternoon in bed on one of the most revered islands in the world! So, I bid him farewell and I set out on my own mission.

I took a long walk along Flic en Flac beach, probably a 10km walk from our hotel, if not longer. I only stopped walking because I got to what was the most impressive scenery I had seen all week! Don't even think I hadn't already seen some breathtaking beach fronts since our arrival a few days prior. It was dusk and perhaps the meeting of the sun and the ocean looked the most magical from this particular spot. I was at one of the luxurious hotels along the Flic en Flac beachfront - Maradiva hotel. Perhaps the overall setting of the hotel completed the picture in a way you only see in romantic scenes of the best movies ever produced. Those kinds of scenes which can only have a happy ending. You know which ones I'm talking about? I thought to myself "what a pity my husband didn't tag along". I realized when I went back to the hotel and I tried to explain what I had seen, he didn't get it. How could he understand? He wasn't there and no matter how well and how eloquently I explained what I saw, he wasn't there and so he will never know! I'm pretty sure that as you read this now, you don't have even an inclination of what I'm talking about. How could you understand? You were not there?

I don't want to hear from others how tranquil the ocean water is in Mauritius because if you've been to Cape Town beaches it will be hard to imagine the water being still with not even a single wave in sight. Zero current! If you've spent holidays on Durban's beachfronts, you can't imagine the water being so clear you can actually see right to the bottom of the ocean. I want to see it for myself and that's one of the things that make me a great or terrible travel partner, depending on the kind of tourist you are. You're either going to join me on the venture or I'm going to annoy you!

I'm one of those who will get pamphlets upon pamphlets about a place ahead of the trip. I will read as many blogs as I can, go on every major website to read reviews. I will build up a gallery of pictures of all the sites I want t see on the trip and you can bet I'll do my damnest to see them all. I'm either your kind of travel partner or I'm not. I just don't do the in-between. And that's the tourist in me, in a nutshell. The title of this particular post (and pretty much the overall theme of my blog) stems from the pure belief that traveling is what gives me life. My friends laugh when I tell them 'If I stop traveling, I will die' and I really believe it. Of course, I don't mean dying in the literal sense but I can't see how my soul will continue to live if I had to stop traveling. It's unfathomable!