How to travel the old fashioned way

Travelling has changed quite a lot over the last few years. Maps on paper have shifted to Google Maps. TripAdvisor is now our best guide. Instagram, our new journal. Everything is designed to make our travels as hassle-free and as easy as possible.

But travelling is more than just packing your backs and just going somewhere. The beauty of travelling is also in its intricacies. The journey, the planning that goes into it, the small details of how we do it. There's a certain charm to the old school ways of travelling and it's time we rediscover the taste of it.

Maintain a journal

When was the last time you actually wrote something with a pen on paper? Do you even remember your own handwriting? Or the smell of a fresh blank notebook? Although Instagram and vlogging have taken over the job of old school journaling, nothing beats the feeling of writing down small stories in your ragged notebook, attached with photos, small tokens of your journey, rough sketches and making a scrapbook journal that speaks louder than your Instagram stories. It shows that you cared little about what filter to use or what angle to take a photo from or how many likes you'll get. Rather you just wanted to live in the moments and carry those moments with you forever, in your own way.

Ditch TripAdvisor, talk to people

It is borderline blasphemous these days to head out somewhere without gathering everything you need to know beforehand. TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, Travelers of Bangladesh, all of these have taken the hassle out of planning trips. But in the process, they have also taken out the opportunity for us to truly engage with people, with the locals.

If you truly want to live the fullest while travelling and plan to do it the old fashioned way, forget about those handy websites. Get your grip on a basic itinerary and just head out. Talk to locals, mingle with them and hang out where the locals do. Get recommendations from them and you'll find that your experience will be far richer than what you'd get out of professional guide websites.

Keep a token of your travels, not souvenirs

It's no secret that souvenirs are touristy and pricy. Many travellers don't opt for touristy souvenirs, getting something incredibly local to keep the memory of that place with them forever. It could be something as insignificant as a bottle cap, but to you, that bottle cap will remind you of the bustling streets of Saigon where you stopped to have a drink in the hot summer of 2016.

There's no universal guideline on how to travel. To each, their own but in the end all that matters, is if you've truly enjoyed yourself or not. So, get out there. Do what you like. And live.