Travlyng: A Network for Globetrotters

From answering to the calls inside to finally stepping into and becoming a citizen of the world is quite a long journey and also a formidable one. But those who yearn always find a way for they know it is just the beginning of a long, long road!

"We think too much and feel too little."

Perhaps, these words stayed with me longer than they should have had. Millions of years ago, when the world was but one giant landmass, humans were light years away. Earth was a gigantic, infertile landmass with extremes of temperature but without borders. By the time we evolved, lost our tails and invented fire, the earth had broken apart from the pangea to individual landmasses, and nature shaped and moulded the beings thriving there in its own pace, rhythm and conditions.

‘History became legend. Legend became myth.’ The life of the old world, one which is so distant today, really seems like a dream. Fueled by war, xenophobia and fear of its own tribe, today we find shelter in the strange romanticism of a post-apocalyptic world of sorts, if we consider the cataclysmic effects of the great wars. The world as we know cannot be undone and it cannot be brought back to the far-flung distant dream. Many would agree that it is counterintuitive to evolution even. However, the whole world is snowballing towards one titanic conflict whose result everyone knows but no one talks about, a lot like how differently abled children are talked about in front of their parents. Yet, congruent to history, a tribe has always existed that dared to think beyond what is given, and that which is held constant and irreversible. This is the tribe of our lovely passengers, the travelers

Being a traveler

Despite war-torn, pot-holed roads, or grave tidings of disease, epidemics and poverty, travelers are the only connecting threads among all the worlds which exist within ours. Giulia Pini, a vigorous travel blogger, has succinctly internalized the philosophy of a traveler.

I would say that I am a natural living traveler, since I really love to go everywhere with everyone. I would consider myself a CITIZEN of the world. I really feel at ease wherever I go. Every place, country and city feels like home to me.

Traveling can never really exhaust itself. Even if you return to the same place time and again, you realize your exploration of the place was the latest dialogue you had with the place and there is so much more to talk about. Kay, a scientist, a fiction author and now a travel blogger, talks about this very dialogue that every traveler has with each place they visit.

Like in Mexico, I learned ways that the new government is cracking down on organized crime. In Taiwan, some locals took me shrimping (like fishing, but for shrimp). In the UAE, we found the coolest hidden gem - a lake to kayak in!! When you hang with locals, your travel experience dives a little deeper than “10 BEST things to do.” You also get more of a feel for how your own culture is perceived around the world.

Embracing differences

Today, the ideal citizen would be a replica of another, who talks to no one outside their communities, filled with pride for their own existence and labels while living the same lives everyday. Humans haven't been more afraid of the unknown and differences than in this age of rationality. Ironic, but true. But here is Liliana who wonderfully details all that was strange to her, as she travelled across the Mediterranean. Traveling entwines your life with the one bustling in the places you visit, and somewhere deep down, it all stays inside you.

I was in Luxor, one of the biggest cities on the river Nile. The houses are so different than those of Europe. They are without doors, or windows or a ceiling. In front of the houses the people sit on the ground, talking together and smoking shisha. The bazaars are huge and the butchers shops are on the normal streets, it means they butcher the animals on the street and selling them. Then I saw the land between Luxor and Aswan. The people there drive archaic and broken cars, or old wagons that are pulled by donkeys. A man was passing me on the highway riding a horse. Then I saw some people with sheep, horses, donkeys or dogs and then I visited a Nubian village. They have crocodiles as pets. Over 90% of the land is desert, only where the Nile is crossing there is green land, with palms, grass and sugarcane fields. I have also traveled to a Bedouin village in the Arabian desert. And they have camels as pets. This was my first camel ride.... this was lovely.

Her story of experiencing and internalising differences surpassed her broken English. Not many words are required to express ecstasy; much like laughter, the language of connectivity is a constant throughout the world.

Letting go and letting be

For becoming a traveler, you need to let go of everything at least once in your life and just be.

I mainly go by my own feelings, what I’m interested in visiting. That’s my way of upholding authenticity. If I’m truly interested and excited to visit the destination, it will show in my posts, my writing, my photos,

says Per Brogevik. He is one of those people who vividly record their travel tales and through them inspire others to travel, narrate their own tales of similar places or beyond.

Well, I try to write interesting travel stories as much as I can, but also use guest bloggers on my site to fill the gaps. I started out in April last year and still have a lot to learn.

This is taking and giving it back to the world. The current socio-economic system produces tourists who spend more on lavish hotels than the flowing river beside. Being a traveler entails allowing yourself to go with a flow unusual to your immediate world, but not to you. For you it is answering a long, pending call from a distant, warm, old friend without any memory. But strangely enough, they wait for you.

In the film, ‘Shawshank Redemption’, Red took the long, long journey to Zihuatanejo, Mexico, keeping in mind the final words of Andy. ¨Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. And I hope that this letter finds you and finds you well.¨ Red would have committed suicide while trying to survive life in parole, but for Andy´s kind words he thought, ¨I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”