Travel, the Ultimate Inspiration

I may not qualify as an accomplished traveler; I certainly am no hitchhiker who has quit his job and has taken to the roads backpacking from one place to another, maybe in search of something or just for the fun of it; but I do love travelling – going around different places, meeting different kinds of people, eating different types of food, learning a bit or two about the place and its history and so on; and nobody can take that away from me. Travelling has always been a conscious thought at the back of my mind. Probably for the same reason I have always tried to keep this desire alive believing I would have seen most of the places that I intend to see in my lifetime.

I have had the opportunity (or let’s just say that I have worked toward it) to go to a lot of different places in America (over 20 different states) in the last couple of years. Believe me, it has been nothing less than pure fun. The trips have been long as well as short, sometimes too hectic and sometimes just easy on me, but at the end of every single one of them, I have looked back and said – Man, did I have a good time! 

From the awe-inspiring beauty of South Dakota to the mesmerizing glitz of Las Vegas; from the urban, diverse and pulsing culture of New York City to the galleries of ancient traditional native American culture of Santa Fe; from hot and happening Miami to a relatively unheard-of small town of Fredericksburg, Texas, I have been fortunate enough to experience variety that I certainly could not have imagined when I first came to St. Louis.

My love for food found no end at most of these places; I have absolutely devoured the local cuisines and specialties. Though none of them have been food-trips, but food has been an important part almost every time I have set out for some destination. Having been a regular viewer of the Food and Travel networks on TV, it gives me great pleasure to go to a restaurant or diner where the host of a certain show like Man vs. Food or Bizarre Foods has been to and try out their signature items. I am also a big fan of Mr. Anthony Bourdain and his travel shows; so I don’t like missing out on places he has been to and recommends in a town if I happen to go there.

I have traveled to almost all major cities in this country barring only a couple of them and have seen almost all the major monuments and I can go on and on forever citing things I did at each one of those places and what sets them apart from other places for me, but that will be cliché and in effect I will be basically reiterating remarks from some popular travel website. But that is not what I originally intended to do, I wanted to express in words how much satisfaction and joy every trip brings with it. The build-up and the preparation to each one of them makes it even more exciting. If it is an upcoming road trip, the idea is to gather as much information about the route from all sources possible e.g. travel blogs, road trip forums or shoestring threads on platforms like Reddit – shoestring because you always want to stick to a budget; I believe no budget is big enough so I might as well spend carefully. But make no mistake, any money spent toward travel is money well spent. I see it as an investment – an investment toward some beautiful everlasting memories and experiences that will be with you no matter what.

There is something about Road Trips that air travel would never be able to match up. The longer the road trip the more fun it will be. The idea of the journey being as interesting, if not more, than the destination itself finds no better manifestation. After been wanting to do the Route 66 trip for over a year, I finally succeeding in going on it at the end of last year i.e. 2013 and I can say without a doubt that it will be the best trip I have ever done so far. Out on the roads for almost 2 weeks, I came across all kinds of weather conditions from cold and freezing Midwest to surprisingly pleasant Southwest and almost all kinds of landscape but for ocean. The cherry on the top or icing on the cake so to speak was getting off Route 66 and ending the trip in Las Vegas with New Year celebrations.

But nonetheless traveling (no matter what means) has been and will always be exciting; the anticipation of the destination and actually reaching there only to be embraced by different people and culture can never cease to be thrilling. Many accomplished thinkers and philosophers in past have set out on soul searching and found the ultimate truth about life and existence while traveling around the world to far off and unknown places. I read somewhere on social media that “travel is the ultimate inspiration” and when I come to think of it, it makes more sense than most other things (and that is where this piece derives its title from!). On that note, I would like to end this by quoting a famous Indian poet Rahul Sankrityayan who was famous for traveling

Sair kar duniya ki gaafil zindagani fir kahan
Zindagi gar kuchh rahi to naujawani fir kahan

Its approximate English translation (reference: the internet) would be –

Oh you ignorant and idle, go and travel all over the wide world; you are not going to have another life for this.
Even if you live longer, this youth is not going to return

Image Source: http://www.clarkhoward.com/