Are you a Tourist or a Traveler?

So I just finished watching the Netflix film “A Tourist’s Guide to Love”. It’s filmed majority in Vietnam. A lot of provinces in Vietnam were featured.

There’s one scene there that the guy told the lady that she should be a traveler, not a tourist. And the lady asked what’s the difference and the guy said “A tourist wants to escape life. A traveler wants to experience it.” And the lady asked what’s about escaping life, and the guy said “You never know how long life’s gonna be. Why waste it on escape? Spend it on experience instead.”

After watching the movie, there’s one thing that I really wanna do. To be a traveler in Vietnam.

I was in awe the whole time they’re showing Vietnam. Such a beautiful place.

On the other note, while watching it, I came to relate at least.

When I started traveling alone, by myself, solo; I used to do it to escape life, the reality, the pain, the heartbreak, the sadness, the longing, the emptiness. I used it as a diversion to do something to avoid or ignore those things. Yes, I did it when I got broken-hearted. 😁

And I am very grateful to my previous employer for letting me extend my business trip at my own expense to travel, and actually, to escape life.

I kept on doing it over and over again. Until I started to enjoy my alone time. I started to connect to everything – my surroundings, Mother Earth, different people including strangers, etc. I started to appreciate the small things in life.

Then I was able to enjoy it. Enjoy traveling on my own. Traveling to different places to learn their culture, their story, their language, try their authentic food, meet the locals, discover their beautiful home.

And I would say, this was the time I have became a Traveler.

I even go to countries over and over again to get more experiences and to see more of them. There was even time that I felt like I was a local when I was there. Maybe I am too feeling but yeah! Hahaha

So ever since, I travel to live life, to experience life, to see the world. Coz really, the world is so big and wide, our time is so short, there’s no way we should just spend it to escape. Life should not be meant for escaping. It should be meant for living and enjoying.

So let us live our lives to the fullest, the best we can and the most that we can get out of it.

So that the end of life is not full of regrets. But full of happy stories and fun memories.

We don’t need to spend much for that if we can’t really do it. Small things should be fine.😊