We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls. —Anais Nin
AT A GLANCE
- Travel if you can, when(ever) you can, while you can.
9,627KM The Parthenon is the most iconic of ancient ruins in Athens, which can also take you as far back in time as 2,500 years ago
I might have gone very far, but surely not far enough.
I’ve been 200 kilometers into the Arctic Circle, crossing the white vastness on a snowmobile and a dog sleigh to make it to Jukkasjärvi in Norbotten, the northernmost county of Sweden, where I stayed for a night in the Icehotel. But that’s only 8,928 kilometers away from Manila, 4,737 kilometers nearer than New York and only 113 kilometers farther than Lalibela in the northeastern tip of Ethiopia, where I went on a pilgrimage to the 11 medieval monolithic cave churches.
8,928KM The author in an igloo en route to the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden
Even Los Angeles is farther from Manila than Jukkasjärvi by 2,808
kilometers. To put it in further context, Tokyo is about 2,995 kilometers away,
Hong Kong is 1,128 kilometers away, and Davao City is just 150 kilometers
closer being only 978 kilometers removed from Manila. I’ve never been to South
America, but should I have the opportunity to go to Ecuador, I would be 17,498
kilometers away from my life.
9,635KM Graffitti in Athens, taken while Greece was deep in a debt crisis in 2018 and mired in a recession that didn't end until 2019
But I’m no good at numbers, and I don’t know if they are a good
measure of how far we can go. It’s possible to go to Ecuador, still feeling trapped
in your skin, bound to and burdened by the same, old familiar things. On the
other hand, it is also possible to stay where you are and feel like everything
is new, new, new, possibilities throwing doors and windows open all around you.
But why do we get away? I suppose it is wired in our DNA to always
wonder what’s out there. Way before the Grand Tours of 17th century Europe—when the young nobles would go on trips around France, Germany, Greece, and Italy to open themselves up to history and culture—to which modern tourism traces its roots, human history has been rife with stories of brave souls crossing great distances, often at the risk of death, in search of land, in search of food, in search of power, in search of knowledge, or in the interest of trade.
8,760KM Up, up, and away on a hot air balloon in Capadoccia end of spring in Turkey
In fact, a paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science by George Ferentinos and colleagues has revealed evidence, such as stone tools dating back 100,000 years found all over the Mediterranean, that the Neanderthals, considered a sub-species of modern humans, if not a totally different species, had figured a way to travel by boat and by sail before it even crossed our minds to cross the seas that way.
When I was a child, I used to wonder if there were anyone on earth who looked at the far horizon without ever imagining what it would be like to be on the other side. Maybe that is what contentment means, but as the late Vogue editrix Diana Vreeland, my favorite editor and also my imaginary style dictator, had said, “To be contented, that’s for cows.” So we get away, if not for good, then for a while, some more than others, but sometimes I’d like to think it’s a matter of opportunity or the lack thereof or a matter of circumstance, say, being in jail or suffering from an extreme fear of traveling, hodophobia or what some people call “trip-o-phobia.” We will go, if we can, when we can, while we can.
8,928KM The author with mountain village kids Martha and Teshagar at Blue Nile Falls in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
And it’s good to go too. In the late 1980s or early 1990s, “a time period characterized by rapid technological advancement and ever-increasing
indoor entertainment,” according to research scientist Courtney E. Ackerman,
environmental psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan developed what is now
called Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory (ART), whose main premise is that
a trip to nature or any trip that gives, in Ackerman’s words, “the sense of
being separate from one’s usual thoughts and concerns” positively affect our
mood, state of mind, and even relationships.
9,913KM The famous red rooftops of Prague in the Czech Republic
How getting away benefits us is not only a romantic notion. It’s
also scientific. Getting away restores us, refreshes us, rejuvenates us. It
allows us to step back from our life to see it more clearly. We learn along the
way not just about the world, but—more important—about ourselves.
Travel if you can, when(ever) you can, while you can.
