Bye bye Asia...

It is now 2:57pm, on April 16th.
I am sitting on the FlyDubai plane, seat 15C...we have been on the tarmac, delayed for the past hour.

When the plane will take off, i will be leaving Asia, after having resided on this "continent" since late March last year. Time flies. (Funny to say this while sitting on a plane).

This morning, I woke up at 5am again, in order to go with Enrico to the square and get a full cultural bath of local life, but also to say good bye to Colin and Nathalie and put them into a cab headed to the airport. It was weird, it all happened to quickly that there was not much time for emotions...even though we spent so much time together and went through quite a bit of hardship during the trek. I didn't get to say goodbye to Enrico earlier as he was at the Indian embassy for his visa. It is funny how the more you travel and meet people, the more when time comes to say goodbye you somehow know deep inside that everything will be OK and that you will either meet again or most definitely stay connected for ever by mind and soul. The beauty of backpacking.

My trip is far from being over now. It is rather going to take a major turn, a very exciting one.

13 months is a very long time to have spent in Asia. Yet 13 years would not be enough to fully know the region. I myself barely scraped the surface of the few countries I visited. The more i travel the more I understand that no matter where you travel, the most important is not how deep you dig into the culture nor how many key touristic attractions you visit, or how many countries you visit, but rather how much you open yourself up to the unknown, how far away from your comfort zone you go, to what degree you restrain yourself to stability and risk free opportunities vs going with the flow and letting the mystery of the risky unknown blindfold you and take you by the hand.

No matter how much planning you do, if you take full advantage of every minute of the day and go with the flow, chances are, very little of your initial plans will actually get concretized, as new ones more exciting will come along. So why even bother making plans?!

The beauty of traveling the world with just a backpack is pretty much that: the plan is no plan. Each day is a new unplanned adventure. Just go with it.

However, just like in the non traveling life, there is still one little thing that we can't escape from planning: finances. In the end, anything we do, it all depends on our financial situation. Of course it doesn't mean that  we shouldn't do this or that, travel here and there based on how much money we have today. No. That's not the mentality you develop the longer you travel. But rather finding out how to either get the money or a costless way to get to where you want to go or do what you want to do. In the end, there is always a way. It is just a matter of time. How much time do you have? How much time are you willing to make?

I guess it kinds of goes back to the concept of time is money. If you ask me, time is even more valuable than money.

Life is not as short as you think when you actually make the time to do the things that you really want. It is all a matter of setting your priorities right.

For me, it is clear that my thirst for novelty and adventure of the unknown will never cease and will constantly ask for more. That most probably means no fancy house, car or shopping. And gosh, I have absolutely no problem with this. But adventure of the unknown does not always mean traveling to new countries. Not at all. One can find it daily just around the corner. Interacting with new people, trying new things, being outside, not getting stuck behind a desk or sucked into office gossips, not going to happy hours at the same spot with the same crowd each and every time.

Cities are amazing for that. There is always so many things happening at the same time all over, just waiting for your to join in.

Build your own bucket list. Everyone should have a very extensive bucket list, and work at ticking as many boxes as possible in order to renew the list as often as possible.

If that list is just a list, then I am sorry to say this but you are wasting your life. A life without dreams and wishes is, to my opinion, pointless.

Family and financial responsibilities do not prevent you from having a bucket list and going at it. I have seen so many families with young infants traveling around with the same budget as mine, and being so fulfilled and happy.

Everything in life is just a matter of decision. Many people have asked me during my trip, how did i manage to drop everything and just take off backpacking for an indefinite amount of time. The only answer I am always able to give them is that I simply took the decision to do it. Once your mind is set, then fix a date, and get to it.

But to go back to Asia...I have been to Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Burma, Nepal, India, Bangladesh (and a couple of pit stops in UAE, Japan, Canada, France and Morocco). Each country is so different from the other, yet with so many regional similarities. My favorite places remain Indonesia (except Lombok), Burma, North India, and Bangladesh. I found Nepal, Malaysia, and Thailand either colder in culture or to commercial and tourism/consumerism oriented, at least for the places I went to. I cannot speak to the ones I haven't been to. It looks as though the places I enjoyed the most were the ones that had the most cultural and religious mix (Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist), or perhaps not. Not everything is explainable i suppose. It is possible to love a place just because.

If I were to go back to Asia, I would want to go to the following places: south Sumatra, north west java, east Flores, Papua, southwest and northeast Burma, east Bangladesh, China, Mongolia, central Asia, Tibet, Kashmir, Ladakh again, more exploring of the sea of Tomini, Japan and Korea. And that's just my list for Asia... :-)

But the true secret to a fulfilled heart whether traveling or not is to give. The more you give the more you receive. The more smiles, generosity, kindness, sharing, help, you give to others around you, the more warmth and peace you will feel inside of you, and also, most often than not, receive from others. Life is not as complicated as we think. You want happiness? Then you must first give some happiness to others. What goes around comes around. Doesn't it feel much better to smile and be kind to someone than to be cold and indifferent? Of course it does! Then why not do it as often as possible?

Just that simple. Don't waste any more time, be happy NOW! No one can do it for you.