Tag: adventure

Montage of Tokyo city with Tokyo Tower and Mount Fuji, Santorini with white buildings and blue domes, and Paris with Eiffel Tower and Seine river at dusk

Scenic Wonders in my Dreams

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Daily writing prompt
What are your top 10 travel destinations?
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I am not very keen on traveling. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that I am geographically illiterate. I do not know much about places, and I do not understand directions. I once took an hour to reach a destination only eight minutes away. Not exaggerating — it is a true story. The even more embarrassing part is that I had maps open on my phone the entire time. You would think I would make one wrong turn, realize my mistake, and correct it. But no, I kept ending up at the same starting point after taking multiple wrong turns.

The next thing that deters me is that I am not a calm traveler. My mind keeps inventing scenarios of losing important things, or even losing myself in a place where I do not know anybody. That slowly develops into an abnormal fear.

But setting aside these irrational fears, I do have a list of places I would love to travel. Ironically, most of them are places where you need to walk a lot.

Japan has quickly risen to the top. The stationery industry there is revolutionary, and as a stationery enthusiast it feels like a dream. I have also become a big fan of the anime Demon Slayer. Many gardens in Japan have been drawn into the manga, and they look serene and beautiful. The Wisteria gardens and cherry blossoms especially call to me. I want to see them with my own eyes — the breeze, the sunlight streaming through the trees. It feels magical.

Santorini attracted me mostly because of the images I see online. Unlike Japan, I do not know much about this place, so I would want to research more before deciding what to visit. The architecture in the pictures is what drew me in. I imagine taking photographs and later sketching them into my art book.

Paris may be cliché, but it belongs on the list. The architecture, the food, the ambience — all of it is enough to attract me. Disney World adds its own magic, and I would love to visit all the Disney attractions around the world. Tokyo Disney is also on my list. Beyond that, Paris seems to have beautiful museums where you can sit alone and admire art in silence. That is something I would treasure.

So for now, these three destinations are the ones I am sure of. My list may change, and I may never be a seasoned traveler, but these places live in my imagination. They remind me that travel is not only about movement — sometimes it is about longing, about the beauty we carry within us even if we never set foot there.

Safety or Excitement

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Daily writing prompt
Are you seeking security or adventure?
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What would choose?

All my life I have been pursuing the objective of security. “Work hard to secure a stable future. Don’t deviate from the course. ” these were the mantras I followed almost all my life.

Uncertainties terrify me. I do not like to be caught off guard. I am from a middle class family. we never had a back up plan. We just had one plan and if we failed we ended up with nothing. My father took on the burden of his younger siblings when he was in high school. And when he married my mother his responsibilities became theirs.

I have seen them work hard all their lives. They gave up the adventure phase of a newly married couple to take on the role of providers. Seeing them like that inherently instilled in me the need to secure my future. My formative youth years was all about securing a good job that would allow me to be a provider when I had to take the responsibility of a family. I always chose the path that was well traveled. Little did I know, what I was loosing in the process.

It took me some while to snap out of the fear to try. The first time I tried to do something new I thought I would die of a panic attack. But I did not. I ended up having fun. I smiled and laughed and enjoyed my life. Being adventurous is definitely terrifying but taking the leap is worth all the happy memories.

Today, I try to embrace adventures whenever I can. Sometimes I feel drained but sometimes I end my day with a smile on face. There are a hundred things in my life right now that makes me want to cry so I have decided I am going to grab every opportunity that comes my way to smile.

I may not be able to handle excitement every single day of my life. But I would want to keep taking chances and giving up on the fear of change.

Out Doors?? Maybe Not

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Have you ever been camping?

Would you call it camping if we do it within the school compound?

I was part of the Girl Guides till middle school. As a part of the badging we were required to camp outdoors. However, for safety of the children it was decided that we would camp in tents in the school ground. I think more than the safety many of us were not okay with the lets say “outdoor toilet” situation.

Despite the adulterated camping experience, all of us were super excited. We made food using gas stoves that we carried, made a camp fire and had… let’s call them charred marshmallows. We sang songs , danced and shared scary stories.

We set up our tents which proved to be more frustrating than expected with the winds dragging us along with the tent. Finally, we had people sit inside the tent to finish the pitching.

It is definitely worse in the open, but right about past 2 am we all felt like we would freeze to death. That of course, made us huddle to together and when the morning came one would literally call us a “pile”.

The most hilarious part of the whole experience, was walking all the way to the school building to use the toilet at night. Nobody wanted to go alone so we all were using the “mind over matter” mantra. Thankfully, someone spoke in the darkness of the tent saying “Anyone? Washroom?” instantly 5 of us switched on our torches.

We reached the main school building with jittery teeth. While we were in the washroom thought we kept hearing closing classroom doors and people whispering. Of course, there was that one person in the group who seemed to know about the eerie history of the school being on a burial ground. Then all of a sudden we hear a lot of what I now know is a “Flapping” noise.

But unlike most people who take flight when there is danger, I stood perfectly still when the rest of my group ran down the hallway screaming. Funny when I am really scared, my screams seems to be muffled. Probably because my mouth just does not want to open to let the scream out. Anyways, when I finally figured out the noise it turned out to be a pigeon stuck in the exhaust.

My group did return with a teacher to retrieve me from the dangerous situation they had abandoned me in. But the walk back to the tents was just continuous bouts of laughter.

So going back to the prompt, there was camp fire, tents and half cooked food. And whether it was camping or not I leave it for you to decide.