How to travel as a gentle soul

For some reason travelling gently makes you feel like you’re not doing it right, or there is something wrong with you. What a strange notion to have. It’s your life, you get to decide how you live it. So why do these feelings creep in?

I have thought about why this is the case. Honestly, this thought has been on the back of my mind for the first six months of the journey.

For the most case, it’s because we consume too much travel YouTube content. We get so normalised into thinking this is the way you have to travel. And if you are not doing it like them, then you are not doing right.

It can really mess with your head. Believe me, it has happened to me; and from time to time it can still catch me out.

First of, let me just point out, that for the most part, these YouTube travel content makers are totally different to us. They are already extroverted and love moving every single second of the day. That’s what makes for good content. That’s what the algorithm on YouTube put these style of videos at the front.

The nature of these content creators is extroverted, they are full on and intense (well to us introverts). As we consume this style of travel, it can make it feel like us introverts are weird. But of course we are not. We are amazing, we just do things differently. And because we are introverted we tend not to be out in the middle of everyone every second of the day. So we are hidden.

For soft, introverted people these methods do not work for us. For example, a travel day no matter how long the flight, can be at minimum a 6 hour day with all the immigration and customs procedures. Lots of interacting with people.

After a day like this we are exhausted. And it can take us a day or two to get settled.

It took me almost a year to realise that I was wasn’t strange.

There is a way that soft introverted people can travel, and make the most of accomodating our needs as well as enjoy where ever we are.

Be gentle on yourself and allow yourself to travel the way you want to travel. I came to this realisation because if I travelled like most people seeing sights every minute of the day. I won’t last long travelling. I love exploring new places, and I want to keep on going for as long as I can. So I decided to stop comparing myself to others and just embrace who I am.

There are some amazing benefits to this. It allows you to immerse yourself in the local community that you are staying and enjoy what your neighbourhood has to offer. Something that people out sightseeing every moment of the day might not get to appreciate it.

This ultimately lead me to writing because I wanted to share this with the world. To let other people that are similar to me, that not all travelling has to be done in the same way.

Ensure you have enough food. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, we all need food. What I mean, is make sure you have enough snacks available for you on the travel days. Snacks that can sustain your energy like nuts and dried fruit. I love fresh fruit, but on these travel days it is almost impossible to get fresh fruit and vegetables.

Make it a top priority to stock up your cupboard and fridge at the accomodation you are staying. As soon as you get in, force yourself to go the nearest shop and get food. This can be very intense for us, but if you are able to push through this moment then it enables you to stay in your accomodation for a couple of days without having to leave to eat.

By doing this it gives you a chance to recover from the intensity of the travel day.

Just Keep going

What ever it is that you are doing, just keep going. Live in the future, see what that looks like. Be crystal clear and stick to your processes.

As we start the new year we reflect we ponder, we wonder. What was our year like, what do we wish we did better, what can we do better. For the most part we start our years of with a bang. Not just literally as we issue in NYE with fireworks. We start of the year with such strong convictions of what we want our year to look like.

As the year came to an end in 2025, I reflected on all the aspects of my life that I have achieved. I pondered how come I wasn’t able to achieve the lofty goals I had set out. I had an incredible year travelling, meeting cool new people and experiences cool new things. However, some of the elements I would have hoped to achieve did not come into fruition. Up on reflection there are aspects that I can improve on in 2026. One of those being more focused on my goals and blocking out the noise.

Leading into 2025, and actually for all of 2024 I wanted to expand my horizons. I wanted to meet new interesting people, and get out of my comfort zone. One of my traits, that is either for the good or the bad is that I can be very focused. To the point where I become stuck in my ways. Leading into the travel adventures I wanted to be more open and expand my life. I must say, these have been greatly achieved.
Though, when I take time to navigate the past 2 years I may have lost my focus on achieving goals I had wanted.

As we issue in 2026 I have taken the time to read insights from humans that have achieved great things in their lives. The two elements that I keep on seeing is, persistence and focus. If I was to be honest with myself and taking the time to reflect on the past 2 years these are two elements I have lacked.

This year, and the years forthcoming will be different. I will ensure I maintain persistence and focus.

How to travel S.E. Asia

I have spent the most time in SE Asia, and there are two things that are certain

1. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable

2. Be prepared for sensory overload

On the second point first…I was riding my scooter on Koh Samui (an island off Thailand). I was cruising down the street all very civilised, albeit trying to navigate a thousand pot holes. And then I noticed this scooter with a trailer attached to the side. And I was like that’s pretty cool.

Then I noticed this thing had smoke coming out of it. And I was like, shit, this thing is on fire. Then as I got closer I was engulfed with smoke, and a strong smell, then I noticed he was cooking something as he was driving.

Then a dog ran out on to the street, which I navigated. Then all of a sudden I was engulfed with four other bikes, then a bike from the other direction just started rinding at me….ha ha. This is SE Asia. Organised chaos.

It is a very beautiful region, but it can be intense. From smells, to overcrowded streets to bright neon lights. It can really overburden your sensors.

Then to my first point. Trippin through SE Asia, you really need to be comfortable in being uncomfortable. What do I mean by that.

It can be crowded, it can be very hot, it can very wet, it can be very loud, there can be lots of insects, there can be lots of rodents….and this can all happen in the space of an hour.

It’s not to say it is always like this. But believe me, if you are living in little local neighbourhoods, you are going to experience a lot of things that may put you out of your comfort zone.

If you just go and stay at 5 star hotels, well you are not going to really experience any of this. If it gets hot, you just go back to your room and put on the aircon. If it gets wet you just go back to your room.

But for me, I totally love living with the locals. And only on very rare occasions I will stay at a nice hotel. Mostly it is on transits or travel days where I can’t get an affordable airbnb.

Experiencing SE Asia is really cool and something that I would recommend everyone does. To be honest I probably had one of my biggest life changing events occur while I was travelling through Cambodia.

If I had of just sat at home, this would never have happened. So I am a huge advocate of trippin the globe.

Musings from a gentle traveller

For the past 12 months I have been doing freelance travel writing. I left my home behind, sold everything and left to explore the world.

This has lead me on another adventure called …..

Diary of a gentle traveller

This is my musings from a gentle little fella following the stars in the sky tripping around our beautiful planet.

For me travelling is something so amazing and so cool. It is already something mind blowing. Having to see everything and experience it all doesn’t really interest me. It is already exciting enough.

I often speak to fellow travellers and when they ask me have you seen this or been there. For the most part I respond with a ‘no’. The shock on their face; they can’t believe that I would travel all this way to not see these things.

Actually, there is a story about this. I was in Koh Samui in Thailand. And for those of you that don’t know Thailand is known for many things; the land of smiles; legal marijuna; night clubs; partying etc.

I was chatting to this guy and he asked me ‘do you smoke weed’, and I was like ‘no’. There was a little shock, but nothing to exhuberant. He then asked ‘have you been to this nightclub.’ I said ‘no. I don’t drink.’ Ok, now the expression was starting to become a bit more evident. He then said ‘have you been to the full moon party? Surly you have been there?’ To which I replied ‘no.’ His jaw almost dropped to the floor.

But to me, all those things you can do sort of anywhere. Ok, I am sure the full moon party is unique to Thailand. But to me it’s just a party full of toursits being drunk and stupid. I can get that at home.

I spent 2 months in Koh Samui. And I didn’t do any of those things. What did end up happening is hanging with some of the people that have lived there for 20 years and they ended up showing me some of the unique spots that only the locals know about.

I remember getting on 3 boats to get to this remote beach of an island of an island. There were very few people there, and it was so beautiful.

If I had of spent my time drinking and getting high I would have never spoken to these people and I would have never had this sort of experience.

It is worth taking the time on your travels to slow it down. Get to know the people, and the most beautiful events take place. You notice a higher power looking after you.

You have to leave something in the tank. Sometimes it’s nice knowing that you haven’t seen everything. You might want to come back to that country. It’s nice to say, oh, that’s right I really wanted to do that last time. Let’s do it this time.

It gets you excited again.

Plus I figure you are never going to see everything in this world. So why not slow down and enjoy where you are and spread some Love to those around you.

Travel Days

Travel days are super fun, but of course they are super intense. I must mentally prepare for these days. Even then, it can still affect me. I prepare myself to face challenging situations. I have been very lucky to date, that for the past 12 months my travel days have been pretty smooth. But you have to be prepared for all sort of things when you enter an airport. And even more challenging when entering a big airport like Bangkok or Seoul. Because there are heaps of people, and they are all trying to get somewhere. In some cases they are trying to get there in enough time to get on the plane. So there are a lot of emotions. Things can get intense.

If you are able to take the stress of yourself, and allow yourself to be cool and just go with the flow it will make these days a little bit easier.

I remember I was travelling from Koh Samui to Kuala Lumpur. What is about a 2 hour flight turned into an almost 24 hour ordeal. If you weren’t calm and chilled, this would have totally broken you. I won’t go into every detail, but it was during that worldwide internet outage. It affected all flights around the world. And I just so happen to travel on that day. Thankfully the plane was safe. But had to wait in Singapore airport for almost 18 hours. But that is ok, Singapore airport is cool and it’s massive so there is heaps to do.

But that wasn’t the intense part.

The intense part came when I arrived in Kuala Lumpur airport at 2am. I am guessing they were transitioning into electronic immigration process. There were no signs anywhere saying you had to first submit your visa request before going through immigration. Luckily I saw something right at the last moment. Was able to fill in the form and process through immigration. But, no one really knew this. And we were all herded into a mass area to go through immigration. And some people made it all the way through to put your passport through the electronic immigration process. But if you hadn’t done your online form, you would have been denied. As there are no staff anymore because everything is electronic, people got rejected and were furious.

As you can imagine after this bit of fun, I make sure For instance, I get myself ready to be around many people, go through the protocols to board planes, and so on.

I am sensitive to loud noises and bright lights. So I make sure that I get ready for these moments as well. Maybe I have to put on my headphones, or wear my glasses inside. And that’s cool. I sort of just do what I need to do to get myself to be ok.

I then mentally prepare myself to have the travel day take up the whole day.

For some inexplicable reason, on my travel days, it always seems to take at least 6 hours out of the day. Of course, this depends on the length of the flight. You have to arrive at the airport a couple of hours in advance. Then, it takes a couple of hours to go through immigration and customs. Afterward, you have to organise yourself at the other end and get transportation to your destination. So, it always ends up taking much longer than you anticipate.

I am still constantly surprised by how long it takes. For example, a 1.5-hour flight around Southeast Asia takes at least 6 hours out of your day.

It’s cool, I see it as apart of travel. Of course there are other ways around this. But for now this is the way that I am travelling. So you have to take the good with the bad. And remember to enjoy; because at the end of the day you are doing something super cool that not everyone can do.

So enjoy!!!

You really got to let go

It’s a hard thing to do….really it is. Even if you think you are a chill person and can just let things roll off your back. Believe me, trippin and especially trippin through Asia, it will put you in some situations that will test your ‘chillness’.

Especially for westerners who for the most part are pretty comfortable in their surroundings. Because for the most part it is a privilege to be able to travel. You are probably living a pretty good life in your home environment. So taking yourself out of that place into SE Asia will stretch you….for sure.

I think of myself as a pretty chill guy. At home I surfed almost everyday, lived a very relaxed lifestyle. And I thought ‘yeah I will be cool’. Honestly, I get tested….a lot. Even after 12 months I find myself at times getting a bit bent out of shape over things.

The best way I can describe SE Asia is organised chaos.

And if you are not prepared for this type of living, it can really grate on you. And in those moments you have to be able to take a step back, breathe and allow the chaos to exist around you…..all the way trying to remain chill.

I remember speaking to a guy that lives in Thailand. And he has a work visa, so there are things that he has to go through every couple of months to remain in Thailand.

He was telling me some stories and he finished it off with ‘you lose a few neurons every time you have to deal with them.’

It’s not anything against the people. It is just the different culture. And you have to be able to take yourself to that place that puts you in zen. Otherwise you may struggle

Believe me it happens to everyone.