I have been actively traveling for the past decade. After many trips and many experiences, I was pondering if the purpose of travel has ever changed for me. Luckily, many years ago I learned how to stop posting (most of) my personal life on social media to get “attention.” So now, what’s my purpose of travel?
To answer that question, let’s take a step back and think about what I want to get from my life. After much reading and thinking, one of my meanings of life is to gain as much experience as possible within my lifespan. With that meaning, everything I do and will do is to serve this purpose. Traveling is one of the means I can gain life experiences.
To gain different experiences, I wish to see some different and unexpected societies, people, lifestyles, landscapes, animals, and so on. Some unexpected incidents would be a bonus. This is the exact reason I don’t like traveling in most parts of China, since every city is alike and different parts are so artificial, and I understand exactly how most Chinese live.
Besides seeing different people and societies, another way to gain different experiences is to imagine my life if I were born in this city and country. Humanity is the same, but due to culture, religion, economy, people can have totally different lifestyles, and finding the little living wisdom is always a sparkling moment during traveling. For example, when I realized a hair dryer is a valuable asset in Nepal and found out there is always an emergency light in Japan’s hotel.
Because of the above reasons, I prefer places that had significant events in the past century. This is because I feel the past century is more relevant to me; WWII is more impactful than ancient Greek civilization or Mayan civilization.
I will briefly talking about the experiences from the last 3 countries I went to during my 2025 Asia trip:
Thailand: Compared to my last visit 10 years ago, I’m trying harder to actively experience this country. It’s a lucky and unlucky country, and I felt a huge contradiction.
Nepal: Probably the most religious country I’ve ever been to. Without material and economic development, religion is indeed one of the few options. People are generally very nice and living on their instincts.
Japan: Probably the most developed country in the world, the abundance of details and organization are sensational. Nothing is built by magic; people’s hard work is behind it. This could only happen in Asia.