It’s happened again…
I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business. I surfed to two, three new travel blogs and caught up on one that I haven’t read for a while. And it bit me. I could teach English, again. “Somewhere exotic, I want to go somewhere exotic”. Somewhere more exotic than northern Vietnam, where I was for my last teaching adventure. My mind starts to wonder and I’m googling teachingjobs, Dave’s esl café is a long-time favourite but never explains living costs. Should I worry? Or just go?
The reality though, is that I don’t like love term travel. I like my life, I like my home, and I love living in Australia… But I still want to pursue adventures in foreign lands.
So what do you does a traveller do when travel calls but either a) you can’t, or b) you don’t want to travel for an extended period?
I have goals here, in Australia, after all. But how does anyone conquer the absolute, overwhelming desire to travel? Here are some ideas that I’m going to be pursuing.
Travel locally
Making new friends in Kings Cross, Sydney
It’s all too easy to think that travelling must be big. Chances are the place you are living in is a tourist destination in its own right – and if it’s not, there are still local places to discover. Try hitting your local tourist information centre. Enlist your friends to find new and exciting places. If you get really desperate, make your way to the next closest town, stay in a backpackers hotel, pretend to be from out of town and see what travellers do when they come to your neck of the woods. It could be enlightening!
Plan a trip
Although we all have goals and lives to adhere to, there is nothing saying that you can’t plan your next big trip. Narrow it down to continent, country, and city (or places) that you will go. Plan what you will do. Know your budget, and then start working towards it. Goals written down have a habit of becoming reality so if motorcycling around South America is what you want to do make it happen. Get that motorbike licence and figure out where to start. It can only happen if you start making plans.
Scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef
Upskill
If you are going to motorbike around South America or you just want to find a little adventure at home, the quickest (and probably) cheapest is to learn something new. Learn something new, something fun or something that will propel you forward in your dreams. It could be getting a motorbike licence, learning to teach English, learning to scuba dive or taking language course. Whatever takes your fancy is sure to at least partially satisfy your craving for something new.
When you implement these things, awesome stuff happens. During the last year of my degree I planned a mega trip to France, Italy, Morocco, Malaysia and Thailand. I don’t like being idle or under-insured so I got a motorbike licence and French lessons before I went. I studied French in France and Thai in Thailand, and achieved intermediate in both languages.
There are plenty of ways to indulge your desires to travel without spending a stack of cash or even leaving your town. Of course, there is no harm in booking a flight and seeing a new part of the planet either.
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