What are the top 5 reasons to go on vacation? I have always been a lover of vacations, since my youth. Hitchhiking and wandering always got me hooked on the joy of seeing new places and meeting new people, learning about new customs, and understanding their various cultures. It always seems to bring joy in my step that is not so pronounced otherwise. I remember my parents while I say this, since they were the ones who hooked me, nice and good, with the worm of travel or wanderlust, from a very young age. I mean … who doesn’t like a vacation? Who doesn’t want to fill their shelf with gifts and curious items from that far away land? We all have different motives and love for traveling. This is where you’ll find the top 5 reasons to travel …

1. It enriches you spiritually

I was born in Calcutta (now renamed ‘Kolkata’), India and, as a ritual, my father used to save money to take an annual vacation. Income was meager in those days, but my mother also helped save those little dimes until they turned into a dollar. My father was a religiously minded person, and being a Hindu in India meant that he had wide options of beautiful and magnificent religious sites to choose from: from the religious and scenic spots of the Himalayas to the desert and coastal places of India. Each place has its own attractions, but for me the Himalayas have always been special. And since then, every time I have stood a tiny creature in front of the great and majestic snow-covered Himalayas, something stirred within me. It is then, when you stretch your neck back to glimpse the smoky snowy peak bathed in golden sun amid an amber blue sky, that materialistic values ​​melt within you to free your spirit. It frees your inner self from being chained within its own superficial limits to connect with the spirit of the Universe. This is felt by different people in different settings, perhaps while watching a mountain stream pass by or while dipping their feet in the salty water of a lazy sea lapping at its shores. It can happen deep in a rainforest surrounded by the singing creatures, or at the base of a green valley that slopes downhill to a distant mountain range. It can happen when the sky colors its rainbow after a short period, or when a stream of camels roams the setting desert sun. Your spiritual aspect is always felt in the shock of your soul. Traveling keeps the soul happy!

2. It brings you closer to nature

Installed as we are in our glass and mortar houses in sleepless cities, overlooking the traffic signs and the slowly drifting plume of smoke from industrial chimneys on the horizon, nature is drifting away from us every day. Or to put the directions in order, human civilization has moved away from the beauty and joy of nature, in the same way that we have moved away from simplicity and welcomed competitive complexity into our everyday lives. . When was the last time you saw the dew on a blade of grass, or the dove while feeding your newborn baby? When did you last marvel at the sound of thunder lighting up the horizon? Or the blast of rain that sweeps your face? When have you looked at the sails of a boat while floating on a lake, or have you smelled the roses as the bee scurries from one flower to another, pollinating the garden? Isn’t it a must for us to let ourselves blend in with nature at times and also show our next generation a more absorbing life that involves the acts and joy of nature, away from our tablets and smartphones? I feel like we absolutely do.

3. Provides you with a variety of life.

Give yourself a nudge, not a shove. You’ve already been trying too hard, higher on the same set of rules, the same set of life protocols, day after day. Bring some variety to life. You don’t need to be on a completely different continent, nor do you need to be on a picturesque island. You can be just a few hundred miles down the road, away from the buzz and jingle, away from the maddening crowd. Put the doorbells to sleep, away from your own strict rules. Sleep until noon if necessary, rest in a haystack, nothing for noon, anything you don’t follow in your regular cycle. Why not spend a day at a local parish or NGO? How about we put on some high heels and head into the swamp? Pack for a vacation; carry your family in tow. They also need one; they also need to feel the fresh air from the scented berries. Just drop your tensions and your problems and they will disappear. Bring an unknown variety and trust me, life will get a little better when you return.

4. It allows you to meet people from different corners of the world.

I remember meeting a Frenchman while on my way to Calcutta on an ordinary railway sleeper, and I was lying on the top berth of our train carriage. There were some initial misunderstandings between him and some rustic locals about the coach seat assignment rooster, and neither side was able to make the other understand his point of view. It was my little daughter who learned ‘elementary French’ and my wife who knew some French who helped figure things out, and for the next two hours my daughter spoke as much French as she had spoken in the last two years. We found out that he was on a walking stay and that he had walked from Nepal to India, probably upset about his Nepalese love. In Kenya I met a Masai boy and he still happens to my messenger friend, and sometimes I have delayed him a bit. In Australia I met a witch who turned out to be a great loving woman. In the United States, I met an Irishman who had more Indian friends than many Indians there. In Slovenia, we recently met an Italian winemaker who knows as much about Indian films as many of us. In Ljubljana I made friends with a ‘gypsy card reader’ who predicted a thing or two to me on my current tour. We are all souls in residence and it is imperative that we meet and express ourselves. We are the ones who make up the world in general.

5. It’s fun.

Imagine sitting in a restaurant in Japan with a group of Japanese friends and they discover that you cannot use ‘chopsticks’! It happened to a friend of mine and I’m absolutely sure it must have happened to others as well. It may have given you some awkward moments, but after a few days it will surely twist the tips of your mouth into a wrinkled smile. Again, imagine that you are here in the United Arab Emirates, sitting in a restaurant and you asked the waiter for some pork chops. No, it’s not funny, not now, not even after a week. That is taboo here in an Islamic country!

But in general, a vacation or an excursion is fun. That is, unless you intend not to want to make it fun. Unless you start a herculean and annoying exercise about how ‘unboiled’ your boiled egg was, or if the sun is less cold in the shade. Imagine being carried away by the tide, taking things as they come and putting it all together in a series of memories for years to come. And also some photoshoots especially for Facebook to show your colleagues the moment they are missing. Have fun, enjoy the extra space and time you’ve injected into your life, and breathe for yourself.

Go pick up your backpack and put on your hiking boots if you’re on vacation alone, or fill that tank with gas and pack the family picnic basket if you have one. Call your old friend or text your mom to join. You are going to travel!

Encourage.