“Life is a book and those who do not travel, read only one page”
I came across this quote somewhere while browsing on the internet and felt like very true. Each place you visit, leaves an impression on your mind, each experience you have changes you into a new person, each journey you undertake teaches you something different and gives you uncountable memories.
I have traveled a lot, and had a glimpse of many wonders of nature like vast oceans, cool and windy beaches, deep canyons, desert sands, green mountains to snow clad peaks of Himalayas, mesmerizing views of sunset and sunrise……But travel is not just viewing the attractions,attractions are just a part of it. Along with this you also get to learn about people, local cultures, traditions, taste of local cuisines, adjusting to new weather, chilling cold or scorching heat or heavy rains.
In my travel I have meet a lot of people and saw both good and bad faces of human nature, I have seen cab drivers charging exorbitant amounts from tourist by pretending destination is far, hotels trying to extract more money from tourist if you arrive without advance booking and try to book on the spot,people pretending to help you with loading your luggage in bus or train without asking and then demand some unreasonable amount of money for the same, waiters who stand on your head to see if you keep any tip or not, people selling items at double price in tourist spot etc.
Along with this bad face, I have also seen the other side of the coin, I have seen some people who go out of their way to help other travelers, like in one of my journey in a hill station in Himachal Pradesh (State in North India) , I had to board a early morning bus to my next destination and bus stop was very near to my Hotel, early in the morning I just went to the bus stop to enquire about the bus, the conductor said the bus leaves in 10 mins, I told him I have to get my luggage from hotel, after knowing this he came with me to hotel and helped me to quickly carry my luggage to the bus so that I don’t miss it. On another such journey after long bus ride when we finally reached near our destination, the conductor told us to get down little before the bus stand as we can get taxis to hotel easily from there, not only this he himself went and negotiated with taxi driver and aske d him to shows us few good hotels so that we can select any one from them.
In this life when even close friends cheat each other for few bucks and we have to be on constant guard to save ourselves from people around us, such strangers show us a different face of world and make us believe humanity still exists.
This is what travelling is, it is not just sightseeing, but collection of all such experiences which shows us both the ugly and beautiful face of human nature.Some things can only be learnt by experiencing it yourselves and not by reading or listening to others and for that you have to travel. As someone rightly said
“I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.”
Dream Notepad 