Why I Travel: New Experiences, Fast Friends

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Disclaimer: This is the second in my "Why I Travel" series. This series is the story why I travel, my motivations, experiences, and thoughts. It is my personal story, and I understand that every traveler and experience is different.

Originally written on January 28th, 2024.

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There is a long list of reasons people give when they tell people they should travel more. Some will tell you how beautiful Caribbean islands are, others will talk up the food along the Almafi Coast, and others will talk of the amazing people they meet in the Philippines. I, myself, will be the first to do all of these things and more.

But traveling is about more than individual experiences. It is about the collection of experiences, people, and places, and how they impact you as a person. Once you start collecting, you realise just how valuable these things are, and you start to yearn for more with each passing day, until, eventually, you stop seeking out a specific experience and start letting them happen to you as they come.

"There's a whole world you haven't seen"

I am a great lover of the Uncharted video game franchise and movie, the Indiana Jones films, and books written about 19th-Century explorers in the jungles of South America. Levison Wood is one of my modern day travel and adventure idols (go check out his books on my Amazon list here). I love these stories because they take an ordinary character and thrust him (or her) into the wild world that we all live in in ways that most of us will never experience.

I must admit, I am not to the level of adventurer that I wish to be. Nowhere even close. I usually find myself on a well-beaten travel path, or at least ones which are easily researchable online. I haven't walked the Amazon river, hiked the Zagros mountains, or walked with the Tuaregs across the Sahara. But what I have done and seen are things that almost no one in my home life has.

I have friends from home who travel. They go on vacations here and there, and like to go to different places. But they go on vacations. They aren't really travelers. They experience the best a destination has to offer. And that is a great thing to experience...every once in a while. My diving trip to Bali, I did just that; I stayed at a beautiful resort and had everything catered to me.

But that's not how I like to experience the world. I like to walk the streets, wander into places I probably shouldn't, make drunk friends at two in the afternoon (there's a story from Bilbao there), and find myself in places and situations where I go, "ok, now what do I do," because I have no frame of reference. Some of my coolest random experiences happened in places that most people have never heard of, from watching the whales in Todos Santos to the unico espada in Cazalla de la Sierra to standing before the tomb of Saint John in Selcuk.

Fast Friends

At 31, people ask why I stay in hostels when I travel. Well, there are three answers to that question: 1) they are cheap(er) 2) I don't look 31 (these days, so I'm told) and 3) they are full of cool and interesting people with their own, unique stories!

My mother tells me all the time that she worries about me traveling alone. Fair enough, that's what good mom's do, but I'm usually not truly alone. Solo travel doesn't automatically equal being alone. In a good hostel (like Lola's Backpacker Hostel in Istanbul, Lum Hostel in Tulum, and Holy Sheets in Cairo), you quickly become friends with the others in the hostel. Everyone hangs out in the common area, plays cards, and swaps travel stories. The call of "hey, guys, I'm going to grab something to eat, does anyone want to go with?" almost always ends in a hodge-podge, merry band of misfits going out on the town.

I have met some amazing friends traveling the world. I met an archaeology student from Australia that I have had interesting conversations with about ancient history. While waiting to run with the bulls, I met some Kiwis who dive, and I talk to them fairly regularly about diving experiences. I've even got plans to meet up with the crew from Istanbul when we all happen to be in Thailand in April.

Being a bit honest, meeting friends on the travel circuit is sort of like making them in the military. You are together for a short amount of time, so you make the best of it while you can. And when you are in each others' cities, you catch up over a pint or few, swap travel stories, laugh, and maybe even go on a few adventures together.

Expanding Horizons

Traveling expands our horizons in almost every way. For me, it's not just about culture. It's about experiencing things I never would have otherwise. Sometimes I do these on my own, sometimes with friends, and sometimes I fall in love with an experience so much that I want to repeat it over and over again in new and exciting ways.

If you follow this blog, you know that I fell in love with bullfighting in Spain. The corridas are something that I fully expected to hate. I had zero intention of continuing attending them (or watching them on OneToro.tv) after my first one. But I didn't hate them. In fact, I became engrossed in the culture, lore, superstitions, and community surrounding them. I've come to understand what constitutes a good faena, what can cause a crowd to turn on a matador in the ring, and that the bullfighting community are some of the most welcoming people I've met (and some of the least forgiving when it comes to poor performances which prolong the bulls' suffering).

Diving is another area I didn't expect to find myself immersed (figuratively). I got my open water diving certificate so Jo and I could have something to do together (she was getting hers in Boston when we were planning the trip), and I had no plans of getting involved in diving as a career or major hobby. But after taking my open water and advanced courses, and getting a bit of a stern talking to in Spain after one dive, I became a diver. I've learned how peaceful things are under the waves and how humans can thrive in harmony with the sea. I've had long discussions with divemasters and instructors about maritime conservation, and how diving can be a sustainable tourism endeavour.

There are certainly more areas, but these two examples stick out prominently in my mind as I sit at a café in Bali at the end of a diving trip where I watched an excellent corrida on OneToro.tv over dinner one evening.

Parting Thoughts

If you catch me overlooking the sea or the open expanse of some desert, you will hear me say the words, "Now, bring me that horizon." I took these words from Captain Jack Sparrow as he sailed off into blue after ending the Aztec curse, escaping the gallows, and returning to his beloved Pearl.

When I say these words, I am thinking of the great unknown of what comes next. Some glorious new experience, far-flung place, or amazing friend I've yet to meet. I am looking out into an endless expanse of life and opportunity that awaits each of us, if only we seek it out. Chances are, as I'm standing there, I'm getting ready to go meet some friends for a drink, dinner, or game night, and I'm taking a few moments to soak in this amazing life we get to live.

They say that "not all who wander are lost." I prefer Kenny Chesney's approach: "We're all here, 'cause where else would we go?"