Your mountain is waiting on you!

Solo travelling has its downsides as well, it's not that perfect after all. To start with, you need a lot of courage to go on the road by yourself. You constantly have to motivate yourself in order not to give up. You do get scared quite often, you do feel unsecure with your decisions, but if you are strong individual, you soon can overcome all those nasty feelings. Sometimes you might get yourself in a really bad situation or get to the point it's so hard, all you want to do is book a first flight back home. It happend to me so many times before, haha. Either the homesickness kicked in really badly or the work was starting to get my mental health. Mostly happend while working 2 summers in US camp, I reckon I said like 3 or 4 times "I cannot do it anymore, I'm booking a flight tomorrow morning and going home, I'm done!." Or for example, when you get really sick, you become extremly emotional and miss your family more than usual. You want to call it a day, finish your adventure and return back home to regain your normal life back. Sometimes while on the road you ask yourself if it's worth it. Is it worth to have all your loved ones on the other side of the world, while you're stuck in some 3rd world country, dwelling in a cheap room, sorrounded by strangers? 

You miss out a lot. Your friends' and family members' birthdays and gatherings, holidays, your best friend's graduation, brother's first job and you're not there when they are going through rough times. The saddest part is that time passes. After a long time being away, people start to realise you actually ARE gone and not a part of their everyday life anymore. Some of them forget about you, they forget about your birthday or they don't write you for months. You have to realise that life does go on and you can't prevent it. It's true what they say "out of sight, out of mind". Some are just not capable to mantain any kind of long distance relationship. The good thing is, you realise who your true friends are. Who will wake up in the middle of the night to skype with you? Who will remember your birthday? Who will respond to your emails or write one out of nowhere just to see how you are doing? Who will be there for you while having rough times? It was bitter and extremly hard at that point, when I realise who doesn't care about me in the same way I care about them. There were "friends" who didn't do anything to obtain your friendship. For some it is really easy to let go and move on. An it's true what they say: "Some people are meant to stay in our hearts, but not in our life." On the other hand, I gained so much more, than I've lost. True friends stayed in my life and our friendship became even stronger. Now I know, I can always rely on them and that I have enormous back up back home. It's absolutely amazing feeling and I will be grateful forever for this!

Well, let's just stop with all the negativities about solo travelling. I hate to write negative posts. I just wanted to let you all know, not everything is perfect, even if it seems that way at first. Sometimes you have to work hard, overcome different barriers and sacrifice a lot in order to achieve and live your dreams. Each single begining is hard, there are times it gets tough and unbearable, but if you have a strong and optimistic mind, a bit of courage and support from loved ones, you can achieve almost anything in this world. You can do even more, you think you're able to do. Everything is possible. We can move mountains if we want, we just have to set our mind and heart to it. So don't wait, just do it, your mountain is waiting on ya,

till next post, see ya later alligator,

Mayita

Solo travelling, complete freedom and lifelong friends...

I wasn't travelling solo all the time. My overall first travel was to Morroco in 2006. I was young, unexperianced, wanting to satisfy my curiousity and looking for something new. I never had friends who'd be fond of travelling, at least not backpacking. So I looked up some travel forums, and got myself a travel mate. I visited beautiful and unspoiled Morroco with someone i barely knew. It was a great experiance so I repeated that kind of travelling and it was always a great advenure. I also traveled with my ex boyfriend and a couple of my friends, which was OK, but...that's all that was - just OK. But then, finaly that day came...the day I encouraged myself to go on the road on my own...

...and the whole perspective about travelling changed in that instant moment, travelling got a completely new meaning to me. For me, travelling represents freedom. When you're facing google map and you have the whole world to choose your next destination from. When you step out of the plane and have the whole country in front of you. You just have to pick your next step, no plans, no worries, just going with the flow. You can go where ever you want, anytime you want, without compromises and hard feelings. There's nothing and NOONE holding you back. You don't need to wait on someone because they need to use bathroom. You don't need to go from somewhere you love being, because your mate wants to leave. You don't need to deal with your mate having a bad day or argue on your next step. You can do what the hell you want to do - and that's what I call, a complete freedom! You can be YOURSELF, your real you - no yesterdays on the road. No past, no memories, just you, your backpack and infinite posibilities.

Don't get me started how people, you meet on the road care about you. They adopt you, they watch your step, help you out with any kind of problem your facing. They understand solo traveling can be hard and you need a good talk from time to time, they encourage you, they're trying to make you feel like home. They cook a delicious meal for you, take you into their house, laugh with you, show you pictures of their family and cry their heart out while telling you sad stories from civil war they survived. They take you to doctor's when you need assistance, they arrange great trips for you or get you better prices. When you're alone and away from your home for a long time, you need to share all that spare love and you need someone to whom you can confess. Not realising at first, you get yourself real friends, because those people mean so much to you while being so far from your friends and family back home. And that's how you get lifelong friends who you share some most amazing memories with. You love them so much, because they were there when you needed someone. And that's why it's so hard to say goodbye. But then again, that's why you work your way around to see them again in the future. 

People think travelling alone makes you lonely and solitary. Exact the opposite! You're in the wide open and available to everyone. You attract people and they're drawn to you in some inexplicable way. Imagine travelling in pair, you always have mental support, someone to talk to and you don't seek for that while traveling. Travelling solo, you do need those things. And due to that fact you gain so many new friends and crazy adventures. 

They enrich your travels. They help you to see life in different perspective. They become a part of your life. They change and transform you, and all in all they make you a better person. 

Thanks to my lovely friends and families around the globe who helped me out and were there for me. As I said many times before - when you enter my life, there's no way out of it! "Goodbyes are not forever, goodbyes are not the end, they simply mean, I'll miss you till we meet again"

Till next time, 

Mayita

Health on the road and alternative medicine

Cooking with Chinta, Unawatuna, Sri Lanka 2010

Another part of my blog is about how to lead a healthy life while being on the road. Travelling mainly just has positive sides. It fills you up with optimism, complete freedom, humbleness, hope and spiritual hapiness. It forces you to respect each single culture, race and religion, not to take things for granted and to be grateful for what you're  lucky to have. 

Beside all the positivities, travelling also has some weaknesses. For me personaly, the most negative side is unbalanced life. You're changing climate, food and standards of hygene all the time. You deprive on sleep or you don't go to bed early enough, you lack privacy and time on your own. You party a lot, or you just do lots of activities throughout the day. You eat crapy food (excluding Asia) and you work like a dog to earn money. Enyoing life and siezing each single day kinda becomes an addiction. It's quite easy to lead that kind of life for 2,3 weeks, but when travelling is a lifestyle like in my case, your health can soon worsen, due to unbalanced life. And excatly that happend to me. It got to the point I had to cancel my travels for at least a half a year, return back home and immidiately start with rehabilitation.

And because doctors in nor Mexico and USA, nor Slovenia could not figure out what the problem was (all the tests came out negative and blood exams were perfect), I threw myself into alternative medicine. Alternative medicine, according to Wikipedia is: "any healing practice that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine. It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence." So no more pills, painkillers and chemicals, just the products we can get from nature. One of the most important sides of alternative medicine is that our health depends on the food we eat. We can regain health with certain food.  I've read and studied numerious books, websites, tried out different food on me, and finaly found the diet I can lead on my travels and will keep me healthy and strong. Practically this section of my blog would be to present the food that helped me and restored my health. Even more interesting part of this section will be food/recipies I encounter while travelling. Everything from various tropical fruits, veggies, spices, herbs, diferent products from nature itself and traditional medications from different parts of the world..

cooking course Battambang, Cambodia 2011

Remember that, the HEALTH is only ONE and without it we pretty much cannot do anything. It values more than money and all the material things. Don't wait till it's to late, one day you might not be able to recuperate it. 

Mayita

My traveling story

My travels consist of two parts. Since I'm not really fond of staying in my own country and earn money here, I prefer to work abroad. It's easier for onwards travels and you spend less money rather than flying in and out of your country all the time. Basically it's not just working and earning money. It's also living in certain country, getting to know the everyday life, infiltrating among local people, their habits and their custums. Haha, it's so funny...almost every country seems perfect if you visit it for just a short period of time and do tourist-like stuff. The story differs if you actually try to live in one, suddenly you get to see the nasty and hidden sites as well. I spent 2 beautiful summers in North Carolina, USA, working as a camp counselor, unit leader, lifeguard and various instructor roles. Lived and worked in New Zealand for 5 months as an au pair. For a month I lived and work in mexican hostel as a receptionist. In March I'm throwing myself in the open again, trying to get a job around the Europe.

The second part is travelling itself. At first I was quite uptight. I did not want to travel anywhere that wasn't 3rd world country and kinda looked down on tourist spots and comercial traveling sites. But after I've grown a bit, I became more broad minded and open about everything. From time to time I do travel to more developed countries or touristic spots. If you're travelling by yourself, you often become lonely or homesick, nevertheless you always crave for a good company, long debate or just a simple chit-chat. It's really hard to find travellers or english spoken local people in the remote towns. That's why you have to travel to places where tourism gathers crowds. I won't say it fascinates me (all the touristy spots) but at least you give it a go, at the same time you spoil yourself with some awesome clubbing and meeting crazy backpackers. 

But at the end, the real travelling story starts when you sleep in a room for 2$ at some local guesthouse in Laos...when you book a boatrip with local fishermen to see whales in a goast town in Sri lanka...when you get lost while bycycling in the countryside of Cambodia and locals draw you a map on the sand in order to help you out...when muslim takes you to visit his grandma's farm and you learn how to make olive oil in Morroco...when you eat churros while observing the seals in the harbour in Mexico...when they check you up for drugs on the ferry to Indonesia, because they've never seen a tourist there before... when you spend afternoon playing with local kids rather than sipping coctails...when you eat shrimps right on the street while chatting with kids making bracelets...living in coexsistance with roaches, leeches, mozzies and spiders...muddy rides on the motorbike throught the jungle...happy faces and enormous smiles every way you turn......shy but welcoming looks...easy lifestyle...no worries...big hearts an beautiful souls...eternal hope to make a world a better place...BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE...people who adopt me and make me their own...people who remind me how rich the humble life is and how much you can gain when you open your heart...

Till next post, in a while crocodille

Mayita

"Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to truste strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours, except the essential things - air, sleep, sreams, the sea, the sky" Ceasere Pavese

Intro

Eventually all things in life need change, growth or simply just an upgrade. After a couple of years of blogging in my native language for slovenian people I decided I cannot bail out on my international friends. Years of travelling by myself brought into my life absolutely amazing people. Suddenly my circle of friends grew out the borders of Slovenia. Due to that, I made a decision to share my wandering around the globe with them as well. So this blog belongs to YOU, my worldwide friends, to my lovely friends back home and nevertheless to every single curious soul who will encounter this blog and might even have a desire to read it. 

After my passed experiance I write when I have an inspiration, I always write from the heart, trying not to get to personal and emotional. Hardly ever judgemental, but I do have a strong opinion and a unique way of seeing things. Mostly I'm subjective, but trying to look things objectively as well. Whenever I state something, remember that this is my opinion, it's not right and it's not wrong either. I appriciate each single comment, but don't like people who would comment without any reasonable basis. Please DO tell me your opinion and please DO leave comments and constructive criticism. As I said, I love people, I love sharing thoughts and experiance among us. Because various people give you different opinions, different points of view and due to that we can grow and become more broad minded.

Haven't decided quite yet in which derection I'll continue with my blog. I might update you with short past of my travels just to warm you up for my future adventures. Till then, guys fight for your dreams, no matter how big they might seem. You CAN do ti! Don't let negative and bitter people convience you in the opposite. it's your life, only yours, and who will live it if not YOU. 

See you later alligator;)) 

Mayita

"The only person who will stop you from fullfilling your dreams is yourself!"