Why Traveling to Asia Opened My European Mind: Japan/China/India Shock

I have visited Japan, China, and India and all these trips have always left something new in my mind. I live in the Czech Republic, a small country in the middle of Europe that many people in Asia have never heard of. My country is quite peaceful, not very multicultural. Visiting Asian countries was often quite a cultural shock to me, and many times I felt like dreaming, as if the trips were not happening at all. Some people ask Why do you travel that far? We have a nice nature here in our country, why go to the other side of the planet? Sometimes it is even for this very reason to actually appreciate more what I have at home! I am not the type who would love to spend years abroad. I always look forward to coming home after a few weeks trip. To be honest, I often look forward to coming home before the trip even started! Seeing the amazing places, that we usually see in documentaries, in person is something else! Feeling the energy, actually being there, exploring various hidden corners, it feels different than watching a TV. Meeting local people, eating the food, learning about a different lifestyle... Visiting different countries often leaves an unforgettable trace in one's mind!

The Biggest Adventure of My Life in Japan

Visiting Japan was my dream since I was a child. I have been practicing karate for almost 20 years now. I am also an anime fan, I learn Japanese, so yeah, if I had to name one country that I definitely wanted to visit, it would be Japan! One day my friend who travels a lot asked me if I wanted to join him going to Japan. My first thought was I don't know, it's too sudden. I wanted to go there sometimes in the future, not like this year! But these are exactly the breaking points in one's life. People often ask me if I was not scared of such travels. Honestly, I always am! But these are the moment where despite the fear and doubts, you just say OK, yeah, why not? and then you contemplate What the hell did I sign for?

Anyway, off we went. And not just like that, an usual Japanese vacation! We had no hotel booked, only three bus tickets bought. We brought a tent and marker pen for hitchhiking signs. Seriously, two guys going over the whole world, just urban camping and hitchhiking, that's what I call an adventure. I don't call myself an adventurer, many people did really crazy trips that I can't really compare to but still, for me this was something I never done before. Never been away from my home for this long, about three weeks, and never been that far!

I have written another article about this trip. I expected Japanese to smile but ignore us. It was quite the opposite! This trip showed me how kind people are! Many locals stopped their cars, apologiying for not being able to take us, leaving us some food and small gifts. We got invited for a dinner many times by the drivers, one guy took us 150 km further than he originally went in the middle of the night! Yea, he had to go all the way back afterwards! Of course not all plans went well, for example, we couldn't see the iconic Mt. Fuji because of the clouds even though we walked around it for the whole day. We also got caught by the police for hitchhiking at the highway's service area, and also when urban camping in Tokyo, twice in one night. But these things are parts of the adventure! I clearly remember a moment we went in a small car with one old lady who spoke a Japanese dialect that was very hard to understand for me. I suddenly realized that one can kind of feel at home anywhere! We have met so many kind and nice people in Japan. Despite being practically homeless there, I felt so safe! It was a nice heartwarming feeling of freedom and safety! I had this feeling that there is a lot of kindness in people's hearts all around the world.

Felt Like in a Documentary in China

Of course I saw the Great Wall on the TV. I knew what to expect. Well, at least, I thought so. The reality was totally different! Really standing there, tired from the jet lag, was somehting else! Seriously, the vastness of the mountains around, the incredible length of the wall, it all struck me! We also went to visit the unmaintained parts of the wall and I could feel the history there! The remnants of the magnificent wall slowly being devoured by nature, it felt really mystical. China is huge! We have traveled it from the north to south and saw many places that were in a totally different environment. For the first time I was in a really high mountains, about 5 km above the sea level, of Yading so I felt a lack of oxygen and every step felt quite heavy. And then, a few days later, we were in a topical area of Guilin with the iconic hills. Changes of the environment like this feel dream-like. It was hard for me to believe that this trip was actually happening! Seeing such marvelous landscapes that we often see only on mobile or desktop wallpapers was just epic.

Experiencing the huge modern city of Beijing full of people, watching the poor villagers with yak herds in the small mountain villages, being so close to one of the oldest and rarest historical treasures in the world, the Terracotta Army, feeling the peace during the sunset in the mountains, and suddenly, without warning walking right into a dramatic anti-government demonstration in the technological giant city of Honk Kong, all these things happening in a few days really opens one's mind. The diversity of the world was right here in front of my eyes! How can I judge people, how can I even have any opinions about stuff happening in the world? The world is so huge, so many things happening, so many people, so many feelings, so many cultural and historical backgrounds! To read more about this trip, visit this article.

My Most Exhausting Trip to India

During our hitchhiking in Japan, we got a ride by an Indian businessman. He told us that Japan was such a boring and dead country compared to India, that we should definitely visit India one day! Afterwards, we laughed with my friend, ensuring each other that visiting India is definitely out of the question. Too many risks, sicknesses, scams, food poisonings, etc. A few years later, we were remembering this event sitting at the airport in New Delhi, covered in the typical Indian smog.

My friend had planned many travels but he admitted that planning India was the toughest task yet! Everything was so uncertain! The trains are often delayed or even cancelled. Same with planes. We had 9 flights and 6 long train travels planned in two weeks in order to see all the places on our list. Some people who had been to India told my friend that this itinerary was most likely destined to fail due to delays etc. We couldn't even buy the train tickets by ourselves due to impossible finishing of the registration process on the official website. We had to buy them from a guy who offers this service which at first sounded really dangerous for people like us who are sued to official and organized European ways. I think that one of the millions of gods in India had mercy on us because we pulled it off! Everything went according to the plan! Again, I wrote down some tips about this trip in a separate article.

I could imagine living in Japan, even in China but India? Maybe I am just too European, not an exotic lover. India is a beautiful country full or astonishing places but the cultural shock was the biggest one I ever had. Just walking down the street was really tiring! Watching the ground to avoid stepping into the sewer or holes on the road or cow dung, non-existent sidewalks, stray dogs, cows, and monkeys everywhere, people sleeping on the streets. The amount of perceptions was crazy! The strange smell of smog as if your neighbour was constantly burning tires in his fireplace, extremely loud traffic where cars honk all the time, stall sellers shouting, people asking where are you from at every corner and wanting to take selfies with you, that all was quite mentally exhausting. Pedestrian crossings are made just for fun there and crossing the street is a leap of faith. The cars often stopped a few centimeters in front of us and he just had to step into the overcrowded road! Yea, the guy in Japan was right! India is definitely not a boring country!

Sometimes I wondered how could, for example, Buddha attain enlightenment in such a noisy country? But maybe this was the very reason! Imagining someone who lives in such culture leaving the towns and entering the silence of a forest, this must be another kind of a shock to the mind! The intensity of the peace and silence must be much higher because of this extreme difference. We had a great guide at Khajuraho temples who explained us a lot about Hinduism. How the variety of gods in this religion serves as a great individual way so that everyone can find what suits them the best. In Rajahstan we saw how cultural clashes, such as when Muslims entered India, can sometimes end up in a nice harmony and integration of the cultures into each other. In Hampi we saw how once one of the biggest cities in the world can end up in ruins spread over kilometers of vast lands, and we felt like in Indiana Jones movies too! Ajanta caves showed us how monks escaped the society and spent their lives in silence since the ancient times before the current era. Ellora caves are examples of a great patience where incredibly huge and detailed monuments were be carved from a raw stone by many generations of artisans.

The extremes and contrasts in India really made me think a lot, appreciate the comfort I have in my life, and also feel more open to ideas and other people's opinions, which sometimes sound ridiculous. India is a technological giant that sends rockets to space, while having many people lying on the streets in piles of trash. The religious monuments are proofs of great and deep spirituality, but one has to haggle to avoid being overpriced almost everywhere. I have to apologize though! We have prepared for a lot of scams in India, really even made a list of them! But Indian people were really kind and random people on the streets helped us a lot. One weird guy was quite annoying at the train station, we wanted my shoes or something, I didn't understand much. People standing around immediately intervened and one lady kindly escorted him away with a loud cuff on the head!

Reborn in Each Country

My mom was traveling me since I was a child. I have also visited many other places during vacations. Croatia, Egypt, Tunisia, England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey,... After returning from such trips, I always feel changed. It is not possible to always describe these feelings in words. There might be no specific realizations or thoughts. One just feels like a different person. One sees things at home differently. My mom spent two years working in a military hospital in Syria. When she returned home, she felt like a total stranger. Everything was so different to her, the environment, the people, even her mother tongue. Sometimes we need these changes. They can actually help us move forward. Sometimes even deeply rooted problems we carry inside us break after such an experience. We suddenly see the whole life in a wider field of view. The things we thought were important before seem too distant now. The mind suddenly feels refreshed even though the traveling itself is usually arduous. Sometimes all we need to do is to open the doors our houses and just take the first step outside!

Keywords: tourism, meditation, adventure, travel
#travel #japan #india #china