This year I have been dialing back. Like way-way back. I decided to travel like I used to before the whole social media hoopla - with just my clothes, shoes and a digital camera. Except now, my phone was also my camera.
Once I started blogging enthusiastically somewhere around 2010, I wanted to account everything in my posts - what I wore, what I ate, where I went, whom I met. It was all very exciting. It was also a lot of fun. I was thoroughly enjoying it. Until one day, when I stopped enjoying it.
I have always tried and stayed true to myself. When I listen to my heart, I find life a lot more joyful, productive, and overall gratifying. As soon as something stops giving me satisfaction and I find myself losing the passion for it, I stop doing it. Unless I am contractually bound, or doing it for other practical reasons I never feel obliged to do anything I don’t want to do (or be anywhere I don’t want to be).
Sometime last year, I stopped enjoying ‘travel blogging’. It was coming in the way of my love for travel. The bulky camera, which is accompanied by chargers, cords, memory cards, tripod, lenses, and laptop was way too much stuff to lug around when you are trying to travel light. I also found that the whole process of taking pictures and making notes was taking away from what I aspire to gain from the whole experience. The purpose of going away for me is to rediscover myself from within and discover something new about the place from outside. When I am busy trying to 'create content' versus enjoying where I am, how am I supposed to do that?
So this year I decided to leave all of these gadgets behind and travel with only my phone and Skyroam. That’s it. No other technology required. And can I tell you that it was blissful. I have been enjoying my vacations, living in the moment, the self-imposed pressure to share real time is off. I do still take pictures but mostly for myself. At the end of my each travel day I share snippets of my day on Insta-Stories for purely archival purposes and then wake up the next day and go on with my adventures.
It has been so wonderful. I have found the joy which had been missing in my travels. I am more present in the moment. And going by the pictures in this post (from Prague) I think the phone is as good as a big-ass camera I used to lug around. And the cherry on the top is that I feel inspired to write and share my thoughts again, after a really long time, as you can probably tell from my last few posts. A true win-win situation I would say.
SNAPSHOTS FROM PRAGUE
