(I had great plans for this blog, great promises of the great stories I would tell. But with great plans come great expectations and this subconscious need to be perfect. So there… a long hiatus from my previous unfinished series… stay tuned)

Travelling sounds great (even glamorous); travelling often (and for a longer period of time) sounds like an absolute luxury/ privilege, especially for the working population, whose time is never theirs.

Well… for me (the privileged one, I suppose), travelling this much has taken a toll on me – physically and emotionally.

I am officially homesick. 😦

I never used to get homesick, in fact, I enjoyed every moment of being away from home. But maybe that was because I was at home most of the time. (Could it be the “greener grass” problem here?)

Travelling actually takes up a lot of energy, maybe because of the strange environment, the foreign people, and just a whole different system from what I am familiar with. The mild anxiety of maybe getting lost while navigating, or missing the last bus back to my airbnb, or the fear of unknown dangers lurking in the dark corners of the city – it gets pretty draining.

There is also the “kiasu” (afraid to lose) side of me that prioritises exploring over sleep, since “I’m already there” and I definitely did not travel so far just to sleep the day away. Therefore, there is also a lack of sleep in the equation too.

Not sure about most people, but I almost always face digestive/ bowel problems when I visit a new country, god knows why. Sometimes the constipation lasts for more than just a couple of days, then eating becomes less enjoyable too. This potentially affects the mood, because food is the way to one’s heart and soul, right?

Lucky for me, I’m able to fall asleep almost anywhere, but I tend to really, really miss my bed at the end of a trip. I think missing out on spending time with family makes it a whole lot harder too, not to be homesick.

The greatest irony (or is it, really?) is that I thought I would love the “nomad” or traveller life, but… the more I travel, the more I just want to be home. Be with familiarity. Be with family.

Counting down to the day I go home…

(p.s. this is only the first day of my trip lol)