Reality vs reality

Labuan Bajo, Flores, Indonesia. 25Feb2017

Yesterday talking to some people at some point I mentioned 'well, I look totally different when I'm traveling' and the answer was 'everybody does'.

I didn't mean that I behave different , I do not have two different personalities, but the thing is that traveling around, you do things that you wouldn't even imagine back home.

I travel for hours in buses, I have done it even sitting on the floor. At first you couldn't even imagine that, 'people standing up? No way that's not safe', then you get so used to it that you really like it (but you get tired sometimes). 

I travel for hours in boats, spend hours waiting for flights connections and don't complain much when there are 5 hours delays.

You sometimes eat with your hands, most of the times you don't have a knife, just a spoon and a fork.

Toilet is mostly a hole in the ground, in guest houses and hostels the shower is in the middle of the bathroom )so everything around gets wet, no courtins here), sometimes your shower is a bucket.

You (almost) don't scream when you see a cockroach or a rat, sometimes even next to the place you're eating in. You get used to cockroaches in some bathrooms, rats in markets. It's normal.

You lose all sense of intimacy, boys see me in underware 5 minutes after meeting in hostel's dorms! ahaha (you get tired of covering up all time to change clothes when you share bedrooms).

You wear the same clothes for 2 or three days in a row, wear always flip flops shorts and bikini. You use only the clothes that are on top of your backpack, having packed too much even packing light (that is my case). You buy  2 euros t.shirts.

At home I go out for diner every weekend and during the week, and never mind about it, here you become gready with money, spending more than 3 euros for a meal seams a lot! Ahaha. You find yourself arguing for a discount on prices of 0.5 euros! But hey, the less you spend the longer yo get to travel.

You make friends with almost everyone who crosses your path and go out for beers or join them on your trip just after one short conversation (one of the best things of traveling solo).

You make even more selfies than when you're back home! Ahahaha.

You see more sunsets and sunrises than ever. 

You wake up early and you don't really mind. 

Some people say that 'real' life is the one you have at home,  that this is just a 'holiday', I have catched myself saying that too, but this is also real, so real that I love every minute of it, I crave for it when I'm home and gives me goose bumps when I am traveling.

Decisions

One and a half years ago I made the decision of requesting a leave from my job and in October 2015 I started my 5 months leave through Southeast Asia. What I wanted back then was to have the opportunity of traveling longer, not to feel the rush of a holiday and therefore be able to enjoy every place as much as possible, with the possibility of extending or shorten my stay as I wanted, mostly depending on the places' vibes, the people I met and the way I felt in every moment. I seldom felt lonely, I am a person that feels right with my own company, but it is true that I was alone in rare occasions. I met beautiful people and heard great stories about their lives and travels.

It felt so good that I wanted to stay longer but it was not possible as in my job they were waiting for me. At the end of those 5 months I was waiting for that feeling to come, where I started missing my family and friends and my life back home, but it never came and I went back to Madrid feeling so miserable.

I think it took me more than 2 months to accept my life back at home, it started to be a bit better when the good weather arrived :).

At the end of summer I decided to go on holiday for 3 weeks, again on my own, to Sri Lanka. I felt, somehow, that it was the continuation of my trip, the extension that I wasn't greanted back then.

In that trip I didn't feel the same way as before. It was such a weird sensation, so new to me, and at the end I was really eager to go back home. I though that maybe, that was it for me, that I have completed the cycle and finally started missing my life in Madrid. That I had enough of traveling solo. It was also a sad feeling.

But life moves in misterious ways. Here I am again. I quit my job, packed my bag and took a one way ticket flight again to southeast Asia. This time, there wasn't the same things that moved me into take the decision. I already had had the experience of a long time travelling solo, this time I needed a break and a brand new start. I wanted to change things and I needed to feel at home away from home to understand all my reasons.

Here is a trip into my thoughts, a new version of this blog, used before as a tip guide for fellow travellers. I will keep on giving advice if you're happy to take it, but I would also try to open up a little bit and let you know what goes on in my head and, I believe, in many of the heads of you travellers.