I have been travelling internationally since I was 12 years old.
Now two years shy of 60, I still get the adrenaline rush when I fly over deserts and jagged mountains, when I fly over a massive body of water and everything below becomes ant-like.
I love to see new countries, the musty smell of new earth, food from a new country’s bowel, a new language and laughter in any language. We do not understand one another but our souls merge in humanity.
I enjoy travel. It’s one of my greatest achievements, the cities I have been all over the world and the nations I have conquered over the years. But now I am stuck at home unable to traverse the world. My globetrotting has come to a screeching halt. Everywhere seems so far away. It’s crazy.
Our neighbours seem like cities and our cousins’ homes seem like new countries.
The pandemic has dealt travel such a deadly blow and even the pleasure for travellers like us is harder than you can imagine. In order to keep my travel spirit up, I have resorted to arm chair travelling. Man must continuously reinvent to stay ahead of life.
So here is what it is. I am a daydreamer so I travel back in time to all the countries I have been before. I look at pictures. I recall memories. I send mails to friends in those countries. I Google and spot new places I did not make it to. I re-visit through pictures the places I have been, places I enjoyed and make a note to re-visit again when all this is done.
Weekly I check out places I would like to visit in 2021. I love jewellery and fabric so I check what these countries stock in their open markets. I love spices and leather. So, what do they have?
I make cuttings, mood boards. I re-write the cities, the restaurants, the places and the people I have met in my travels. This is enough to take me to far flung places, places in the inner recesses of my life’s journeys, places tightly locked in my memory.
I unfurl them and I enjoy them all over again. Mauritius, Malta, England, France, Kenya, Ghana, Noordvhaikherjout in the Netherlands, UAE, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Gambia, the U.S. Sweden, I vory Coast, Israel etc. And Oh! yeah, I am writing a travel book.
It’s worth it.
We can all time travel.
That holiday that blew your sock off, that snorkelling that made you breathless, that plane landing in Honk Kong on the brink of a coast, that night in Dubai when the bus driver could not find our plane.
Travel is the best elixir for all travellers and travel writers. But when I can’t physically go, I kick off my shoes and daydream on my couch. Or even more exciting, blanket over my toes, a cup of tea, some biscuits and almonds and a travel channel.
National geographic will do.
And this too shall pass.
We shall soon physically travel again.
In the meantime, we can travel from our couch.
Enjoy!
