Why do I travel?

We all have reasons for traveling. I’m always questioning the rationale of why I travel. Personally, it is for one or a combination of a multitude of reasons, which include

• I’m a lost soul, trying to figure out why I like many things and have many interests but yet I have no one overwhelming, overarching, singular passion
• I like to eat. Differently. All the time.
• I love photography, but I am too lazy to be great at it. However, I have a secret: taking average shots set in various locales in the world, makes you appear to be a good photographer.
• I am jealous of everything I am not. For example, I would like to learn to dance well but I have too much ego to suck donkey stones and look like an ass in public, yet I am jealous of great dancers.
• When I travel alone, I truly feel like I am the captain of my destiny (if just for a couple weeks) and there aren’t the day to day expectations of growing up, clocking in, replying to work e-mails, checking the Blackberry or actually planning for your retirement.
• I love challenges. Nothing tests your “cojones” like buying a ticket at random, getting on a plane to somewhere that no one speaks your native language and actually trying to “make the experience”. If the trip results in something extraordinary, it’s because I did it. Alternatively if it sucks, it’s because I didn’t plan, speak to the right people, didn’t smile at a waitress or just didn’t do something right!
• I love sports on TV too much. It makes me lazy. I’m also cheap(-ish) when it comes to entertainment. I have found that observing people on the road is incredibly cheap yet insightful entertainment.
• As a Trinidadian, I speak English … Trini English! Yet I find that having a conversation through hand motions, nods, guffaws and humming as well as the use of singular words incredibly satisfying when both parties actually understood each other in the end.
• I want to be a better person, better friend, better brother, better son and better mate … not the best, just better. Best is subjective and somewhat impossible, better is achievable and less subjective.
• I’m not religious, but traveling is a somewhat spiritual journey and process for me. I see everything clearer and with more perspective after every place I see. Every place I have been has enriched me in a way that nothing else can reproduce or recreate.
• Defying logic. Everything that has brought me the most happiness in life has been illogical. Love, travel and expensive rum & scotch are all illogical at heart. They involve illogical expenditure of resources, for little material gain. Fuck logic!