It’s Not All Sunshine & Rainbows
I’ve been wanting to make a post about this for a while now so here it goes! As we all already know, real life isn’t always rainbows and sunshine. Shocking, I know.
It's incredibly easy to paint a beautiful picture of life on social media. The worst part is that we often delude ourselves into thinking that everyone has it all together. Well, I'll tell you one thing – we don't. Mason and I often find ourselves clueless, just winging it and seeing how it goes.
After two months of consistent travel, I've learned a few things. One of them is that those picturesque Instagram and TikTok posts of travelers strolling on pristine beaches, dining alone in exquisite restaurants, or swinging from lush trees represent only a very narrow slice of reality.
I’ve tried to keep what I post as real as I can, but our surroundings outside of those pictures are not always as they appear. People reply to posts saying things like, 'Wow, how beautiful! I need to visit this place.' I feel a bit guilty because the place I posted isn't always as picture-perfect as it seems. I love an aesthetically pleasing café, a beautiful ocean view, or a jaw-dropping sunset as much as the next person, so when I do get to experience those things, I snap a picture and post it. However, the cigarette smoke-filled sleeper bus it may have taken to get there, the numerous hotel rooms where we encountered cockroaches and had to sleep, or the filthy squat toilets I had to use aren't always shown. I’ve learned that this is the give and take that comes with this kind of traveling, especially when on a budget.
What I'm trying to say is there are always two sides to the pictures posted on social media. It's absolutely worth the effort to reach some of these places. Most of us share the breathtaking view, but there's also the hidden reality of what it took to get there, which is often left out.
We are living in a fabricated reality on social media, while the actual challenges of real life often surpass their appearance.
Before I quit my job, I envisioned traveling as a much easier, more relaxing life. Whenever I had a tough day at work, I'd romanticize the beaches I'd walk on, the food I'd try, the people I'd meet, and so on. And all of those things have been extremely lovely, I won't lie. However, the reality is you still face tough days; you just encounter a different set of obstacles in a new location. It's hard to explain. We might have thought this would feel like one big vacation, but I've come to realize that backpacking around Southeast Asia is far from that. The vacation-feel starts to wear off and slowly becomes your day-to-day life: living out of a backpack, not knowing where you might be sleeping next month or even the next day, unable to predict travel hiccups, and no sense of a true daily routine when you're constantly on the move. Yes, I do realize this is better than other situations. Right now, in my twenties, I'd much rather deal with flight cancellations, bad weather, or having to rearrange an entire month of travel than working my usual 9-5.
This is my own opinion and is not meant to discourage anyone from traveling. I simply wish I could paint a more realistic picture than what social media portrays, and I would tell my past self to take all those viral travel videos with a grain of salt.
Some things I’ve learned:
Cockroaches can fly!
Flight cancellations and delays happen, so purchase travel insurance to save your butt later when things change.
You’ll slowly acclimate to the culture you’re exposed to, and noticing that is pretty wild.
Keep emergency wipes on you at all times.
Traveling is a whole different level of exhausting, so don’t feel discouraged if you stay in sometimes to watch movies or sleep a day away.
You’ll become an expert at scouring Google Reviews to try to find a reliable hotel or hostel.
Timing of transportation (buses, taxis, trains) is extremely unpredictable, so give yourself plenty of slack.
Trying to see 'everything' while you travel isn’t possible; leave some on the plate to enjoy for the next adventure.
You’ll get used to the constant honking, but boy does it feel great to walk down a quiet street.
The 'newness' of places does start to wear off. I heard a quote that explained how when you reach the first country in your travels, it will never feel the same way as the 10th country or 20th country you visit. Soak up those 'first' feelings!
I’ll wrap this up by saying that at the end of the rainbow comes the infamous pot of gold.
I'm learning that this adventure for me isn't about checking off every place from a computer screensaver. It’s about the people I've met along the way. Friends from the UK, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, and more have become a part of my journey. It's about savoring the flavors of new foods for the first time. I've fallen in love with dishes like massaman curry, Thai basil chicken, traditional pho, as well as fresh passionfruit plucked from trees near little restaurants, Balinese-style banana pancakes, and many random snacks from 7-Eleven.
It's about the smiles exchanged with strangers in passing, during a yoga class, or after a Grab ride. It's about the mistakes I've made that I can laugh at later. It's about all the quirky incidents that make me think, 'This will be a great story to tell.' It's about noticing things in my life that I hadn't seen before I started traveling. All of this makes up the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I'll continue to be as transparent as possible. Traveling like this isn't perfect, no matter how idyllic the pictures or videos may appear. There will always be obstacles, whether it's running from numerous rats or dealing with cockroaches, money wasted due to travel errors, or the challenges of unfamiliar bathrooms. But it's all part of the experience, and for me, it's worth it!
