The appeal of traveling is being in the present.

Hmm. That’s it.

I can’t find any answer besides being in the present.

According to Merriam Webster, traveling is an act of going to different places instead of staying in one place. So it has to have someone who will act for it to exist. We, as people or animals (who also travel a lot), are the actors. All countries, cultures and natures already exist even before we even learned that they exist. What we only do is explore what are already out there.

Traveling does not also create something on its own. What it only does is enable us, as actors, to create something out of doing it. Elizabeth Gilbert wrote her book Eat, Pray, Love while in India, Indonesia and Italy. Many fashion designers are inspired by the things they see in a foreign country such as Sonia Rykiel and Brunello Cucinelli. Most philanthropists felt compelled to create foundations that promote the welfare of people living in scarcity in third world countries after they realized how abundant they are compared with them. I write on my website because I want you to see how people in other countries differ from us.

Traveling is going to different places instead staying in one place. But the most common definition we actually know is going to a place other than where we are right now. So if our home is in Philippines, to travel is to go outside Philippines. If we are staying in Seoul, to travel is to visit any city outside Seoul. Wherever we are right now, it is not a place for traveling.

If we are not in our home country or city (or we are traveling), we are outside our comfort zone. Wherever we are outside our home is a place where we have to take ourselves more carefully, be aware of everything around us or be conscious on how we should behave. These are inevitable things we naturally do because out there is a place we are not used to living in. And because we know we are taking risks, we become mindful of everything that we see, feel, taste, hear or touch. We suddenly become “in the moment”. We arrived in the present.

This is why traveling is so appealing to us. Back in our minds and deep in our hearts, we know we need to be in the present.

Everything around me seems to be pacing one another. One may be chasing a million peso in savings and another may be working to finish paying for a new house. Many are in anticipation of what comes next in smartphone or gopro features. Some are thinking about the presentation they will conduct tomorrow while others are already planning for their weekend. Everyone seems to be occupied with the future. This is why traveling is so appealing to us. Back in our minds and deep in our hearts, we know we need to be in the present. However, we can’t do it on our own because we are under pressure from different sides of our lives.

I believe the cheapest way to travel is to be in the present. Breathe in the wind, embrace your parents, savor your rice and soup, listen to the chirping of birds and crowing of roosters and see through the lives of people outside your own.

Let ourselves wake our body senses right here – where we are right now. Maybe after by doing them, we can also create like Elizabeth Gilbert, Sonia Rykiel and Brunello Cucinelli or feel so abundant that we will also want to become a philanthropist in each of our own midst.

I believe the cheapest way to travel is to be in the present.

I know this is a different kind of traveling from what we are used to but being in the present will let us enjoy each moment of our lives like how we always do when we travel.