What Is The Point of Travelling?

What is the point of travelling?

I read this half asleep the other day. What a loaded question. It managed to slap the brain back to an alert state. Unable to sleep, I counted how many months I had not been travelling.

I remember landing in Bali at the beginning of the Covid nightmare, greeted by multiple messages from my loved ones once I disabled the flight mode. So how did this many Covid (back then, referred to as the Coronavirus) related dramas happen during the 6 hours of flight from Melbourne?

A few days later, we left Bali. Again, passing the heat temperature machine set up in the airport ensured we were symptom-free.

That was six months ago. Half-year.

Sure, in the grand scheme of things, six months of not travelling is nothing.

But, it has been…

Seven months since I hung up the phone, frustrated because the budget airline refused to refund my Sydney ticket, which I couldn’t use because the border had been closed.

Eleven months since I shared a meal with my parents.

Thirteen months since I hugged my best friend goodbye in Copenhagen.

B.C (Before Covid), I always tell Amma, “I am just one flight away from you; I will come whenever you want”. I am still one flight away, but no flight will take me to her.

This was the first time I realized I might have taken travel for granted.

Yes, I am aware that it is a privilege. But as with writing, travel has been an anchor, part of my identity, and a source of my long-term happiness. And not having any travel plans for the future, however far the future is, makes me sad.

I know that I need to make some travel plans at least.

At the beginning of Covid, Jik had kept me sane by making pretend travel plans to Fiji (somewhere we planned to go for real last June), but we dropped it rather quickly when the lockdown in Melbourne got stricter, and the world state grimmer, as it made me feel sad.

But now, almost a year later, when things seem like it’s getting better, at least here in Australia, maybe it’s time to dip into the travel pool again ━ travelling as self-care, even if it means regional travel. Or even day trips.

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