English Writing - The Importance of Travel

Hi, you can call me Rama.

Here I want to share with you a bit about my travel experience. 

I have a Bachelor's degree in Computer of Science. I had worked as IT System Administrator for at least four years. Back in 2012, I worked in detik.com as part of the Infrastructure Team.

I decided to resign from detik.com on February 4. Two things triggered me: feeling the urgency to break the routine and a dream to be a Writer. AirAsia had promoted their cheap ticket intensively since 2011, and I already booked a ticket to Malaysia and Tianjin half a year before my resignation. 

My first destination was Penang and Langkawi in Malaysia. I was free and excited. It was not the first time I traveled abroad but indeed my first time solo traveling. I knew it would be fun to explore the city when I first arrived on Penang Island. It has a calm and peaceful ambient. The island also contains lots of delicious food and has soft sandy beaches. I could have visited the night market alongside the beach when I felt bored of being alone. 

Apart from the experience that I had in Penang, I also realized something that uncomfortable. I had to call it loneliness yesterday. Now, I can finally say it is solitude. I start to wonder about many things in life, including my purpose and dreams.

I left Penang behind. I even did things that I never imagined in Langkawi. 

I had a fun time at the beach party and was surrounded myself by friends from overseas. I am the only Indonesian there. At that moment, we were all traveling to feel, learn, and experiences new things. Not for taking photos and selfies. We sit together in the sand, which has dug and shaped like a circle bench with a wood table in the center. We talked about passion, dreams, world cultures, news, and our next destination. It is all from a different perspective. I learn how beautiful diversity is and the urgency that we should appreciate the opinion of others. The excitement part does not end yet.

The next after a morning on the beach. Under the bright sun. Half surrounded by the blue-sparkling sea. I swim with this beautiful girl, and she is just wearing a tosca bikini. I saw deep in her green eyes. We were talking about uncommon things. She is traveling solo, and she is a German. Smart and brave. She has a cute eagle tattoo on the back of her left wrist. And her question on the beach that I still remember was, “How can you believe in God?”

I must leave Langkawi not so long after that mesmerizing event. 

I met my Indonesian friend at Kuala Lumpur Airport. My next flight was to Tianjin, China. From there, we took the CRH bullet train to Beijing. It was the most unforgettable train trip that I had. It ran as fast as 400km/h without any tremble. In 2012? It is a crazy train. The ticket fare was around 300 IDR as far I can remember. Then we took a train from Beijing to Harbin.

Harbin is the capital of Heilongjiang, China’s northernmost province. It is a big city filled with wide roads and buildings with marvelous European architecture. It might be around -4 degrees of Celcius when we arrived there in February. It was winter season, and there would be an Ice Festival Event in the city.

It is not about the festival this time. I want to tell you about my experience visiting a China Snow Town, a small town located in the Xuexiang National Forest Park, Hailin, Heilongjiang, China. A place that Wikipedia says is one of the most emblematic snow-related touristic attractions in China. I think the China Snow Town deserves its title.

China Snow Town is like a world in fairy tales. I see snow is everywhere. It is even bulky at the top of the roof. I can imagine it is like there are invisible giants with big warm eyes, spraying snow in the shape of foam, to every inch of the land in the town, just for having fun. The temperature is -35 degrees of Celcius! I was freezing to the bone. The snow was falling in front of my eyes one day, and it was softy-cold and white as cotton. 

We stayed at Bii-Bii inn. The inn belongs to the locals. I think I would never have met an inn like that anywhere. Every room has a big stove under their bed to warm the bed and the mattress. I smiled and was amazed seeing how they came up with a solution to handle this extreme cold in bed.

Visiting Snow Town was a challenging experience. Almost nobody spoke English in town. We communicate with body language and by drawing something on paper. We would use google-translate if only there is a signal. Soon I realized it became one of the most unforgettable moments while I traveled in China.

I had traveled to China for a month and still thought it was not enough.

I finally became an author 5 years later. I had published my first novel in 2017, and I have been still writing until now. Being a writer brings me to understand more about the psychology and empathy of human beings. I have a deep interest in neuroscience, which helps me examine how human cognition and emotion work. 

Traveling had an impact on me. 

It opened my eyes and unlocked my second stage of consciousness. 

Even so, I still see many people living in the bubble, dragged by the assumption that traveling is just wasting money. It is sad. I hope everyone can have a chance to travel and see the world. So they can understand there are enormous enjoyment and feeling outside their home.

For me traveling is not only for taking pictures, posting on social media, and waiting for likes. But also to reflect and understand ourselves. To experience how vast and wonderful the world is. To push the courage, to learn and accept the uncertainty in life. Those things are the importance of traveling. 

To travel means to live to the fullest.

sincerely,

Rama Setya Nugraha