Is travel only about seeing a new place? Capturing a “I have been there” picture? Find a good story to tell your friends? I believe travel is way more than that.

Personally, traveling has been a great learning experience for me – it has helped in a better understanding of myself through understanding humanity as a whole. It has taught me patience, self belief, self-respect, self-dependency, taught me the basic essence of life, tolerance and more importantly taught me that the best moment is NOW.  It has made me more balanced and more focused – when I set out to travel years ago – I did not have a clear understanding of why I was traveling – now I do.  Now I feel connected to the world in more ways than one.

Here are the Top 10 things I learnt – 

1.  Trust you gut feelings. More often than not, it works better than your head.

2. You can never communicate effectively if you don’t listen first. If you listen, you wont need to communicate much

3. We are all the SAME – our reasons to live, our attitude, our faith – the very fiber of existence is the same.

4. Life’s little pleasures are found in the simplest things – like finding your favourite book in the street corner or the smell of freshly baked bread in a distant land.

5. Kindness is universal – understood, accepted and welcomed. Best way to make friends!

6. The more you give, the more you get – often way more than you expect!

7. Trust and respect people, they will in turn trust and respect you.

8. Your existence is the greatest miracle.

9. You don’t need millions to travel the world.

10. The moment is important – what is to come will come. Stressing wont help.