No longer being fascinated by travel does not necessarily mean growing up

From “traveling is like aspirin to relieve worries” to “traveling is actually like that”, the change sometimes takes only a few spring and autumn years.

“Disenchantment” of travel used to be what I thought was mature.

This trip for more than 70 days is the first long-distance trip after many years. The form is still the same as when I used to pack the backpack, but the mood is different.

In the past, when I went out, I didn’t need to bring pickled mustard tuber and instant noodles. I always felt that I could adapt to everything, and the food outside was not difficult to swallow.

So I still didn’t bring it this time. I originally thought about bringing a small pot to cook it myself, but I gave up because my luggage was too heavy.

Unexpectedly, this small decision made me regret it later.

The first stop of the trip was Sri Lanka in South Asia, which was pretty much what I imagined. Although local food is not better than domestic food, at least rice is acceptable.

In the past, I have had several experiences of encountering amazing food-in Indonesia, Malaysia, and even in some parts of Southeast Asia that I was not interested in at first.

 

I thought it was the same this time. Although I didn’t bring a pot, it was a pleasure to find street shops in itself.

Transportation in Sri Lanka is cheap. I walked from south to north, didn’t calculate carefully, but it should cost no more than $28, which is incredibly cheap.

What impressed me the most was the freshly squeezed juice at the entrance of the Colombo store. The price was almost the same as the small train ticket I bought later-it was a few hours’ drive from Colombo, and the fare was only the price of a glass of juice.

How many hours can you ride on the train for a glass of juice, even in third class seats? Actually, there is not much difference between third class and second class seats in Sri Lanka. For backpackers, having a seat or not is an experience.

I thought I could endure hardships as before, but gradually I lost interest in traveling.

Would love to experience the local transportation before leaving. Every place I go, I go out of my way to feel it. After waiting for more than half an hour for the tram in Alexandria, I felt boring after a few stops.

I think I probably no longer yearn for the distance. After all, no matter how far away it is, once you arrive, it is easy to “disenchantment”.

What you see in front of you is the distance that you once missed. But when reality hits imagination, many feelings eventually turn into “nothing more than that”. What has changed is not the distance, but the once passionate travel heart.

Do I really not enjoy traveling anymore?

On the road, I thought the answer was yes.

People always have to learn to face the reality, and travel can make us temporarily escape from the present and leave the familiar environment and interpersonal relationships. Freshness comes to your face, how can it not be exciting?

Travel allows us to see the other side of the world, as concrete and tangible as parallel time and space.

It wasn’t until I returned to my hometown that I discovered that I was not “disenchanted” by travel, but that I lost my expectation of life.

 

Why are you not interested in many things? Why is it easy to get bored in everything?

Some people say that the coldness of reason is maturity. But it doesn’t seem mature to me.

I will still look forward to the next departure, but when I really walk on the road, my enthusiasm can easily lose support.

What supports me forward may be just a delusion-thinking that leaving can solve everything.

I have never known what maturity is, but I know that my “disenchantment” of travel is not the result of rational thinking.

Li Bai said in “It’s Hard to Travel” that “you draw your sword and look around at a loss”, but he also wrote that “you must travel and visit a famous mountain by ride”. Life is like a dream, half of which is scenery, and waking up from a dream is sometimes easier than carving a boat for a sword.

Disenchantment of travel, disenchantment of distance, and keep a normal mind about everything-perhaps because the strategy is so easy to get, everything is no longer full of surprises.

There is no strategy in life, only experience. The so-called maturity and immaturity ultimately lead to the same goal.