Purposeful Travel: Or How I Learned Not to Yell in a Japanese Train
What if your next vacation wasn’t about checking off, but tuning in? You don’t return with just souvenirs but return 'slightly' changed.
We’ve all done it.
Landed in a charming little town, looked up at centuries-old cobblestone streets… and immediately Googled:
“Top 5 things to do near me.”
(I once ended up at a McDonald’s in Venice because it had the best-rated seating view. My ancestors have not stopped judging me.)
So here’s a wild idea:
What if your next vacation wasn’t about checking off, but tuning in?
What if we didn’t just visit a place… but let it visit us?
✈️ Why Purposeful Travel Matters
(Or: How to Not Come Back From Holiday Needing a Holiday)
Let’s be honest.
Most of us plan travel like we’re assembling IKEA furniture—too fast, mildly panicked, and somehow missing the point entirely.
We book the flights. The hotels. Add a checklist of “Must-Do’s” that includes everything from sunset point to authentic cultural dance (that suspiciously happens every day at 6:30 PM just for tourists).
And then we come back…
Exhausted.
Overfed.
Spiritually empty.
With 900 photos of ourselves not looking at anything.
That’s when it hit me:
Maybe travel isn’t about covering distance... but expanding perspective.
What if we stopped treating every trip like an exam?
No grades. No rankings. No “Did you even go to Paris if you didn’t climb the Eiffel Tower while holding a croissant at sunrise?”
🥐 Spoiler: You did. Paris forgives you.
What if we slowed down?
What if we asked less, “What’s there to see?” and more, “What’s here to feel?”
Because here’s the truth:
You don’t find magic in the Top 10 lists.
You find it when you get lost.
You find it when you listen.
You find it when a grandpa in a mountain village offers you tea, and you're not in such a hurry that you say,
“Sorry, we have to leave for the glass bridge.”
Reusable Bottle at a Time
Let’s start with the obvious: The earth is not your hotel room. You don’t get to leave your towels on the floor and expect someone to wash your conscience for you.
Here’s how to travel like you care:
♻️ 1. Bring Your Own Crap
Reusable water bottle, cloth bag, bamboo toothbrush, collapsible bowl, dignity…
No, the hotel shampoo is not a souvenir. And no, you do not need 11 tiny bottles of hand lotion with the words “Hotel Splendide.”
🐢 2. Slow Travel Is the New Luxury
Fewer flights, more trains. Fewer cities, deeper stories.
You’ll remember the meal you cooked with a local grandma more than the airport lounge with unlimited cheese cubes.
Your 'fast-paced' European tour: If 'fast' is a geological time scale.... I get it. You're spending good hard earned money. You want to see the world.
But if you’re doing 12 countries in 13 days on a bus tour… let’s be honest:
You’re seeing more upholstery than culture.You don’t understand a country by peeking out of a moving window and saying “That’s cute!” before the guide yells, “Back on the bus!”
(You understand motion sickness, maybe.)Back when I was working, I took up roles in different corners of the world—not just for the job, but for the people. To sit with them. Eat what they eat. Fumble through their language. Watch how they argue, laugh, and queue up (or don’t).
Now? we do slow travel trips regularly..slower than a Delhi rickshaw whose driver has stopped for chai twice.
We spent three weeks driving through just one state—Gujarat.
The reactions were classic:
“Three weeks? One state? What is there to see?”Oh, friend. Where do we even start?
Salt deserts that shine like mirrors.
Temples that whisper stories older than your skincare routine.
Food that changes every 50 kilometres—and so does the dialect.
When you go slow, the world opens up like a well-made thali—layered, diverse, and impossible to finish in one go.
So yes, skip the highlight reel. Stay for the bloopers.
Travel like you mean it.
🌞 3. Support Local, Not “Global with a Local Font”
Eat at family-run places. Buy handmade goods. Skip the T-shirt that says “I Got Leh’d.”
Ask yourself: Did a local person benefit from this? Or just Jeff Bezos? Why not support both and yourself, even better if you are an Amazon shareholder!
🥘 Cultural Immersion: Stop Being a Tourist. Be a Temporary Citizen.
Let me be clear. You do not need to wear a lungi in Kerala to “blend in.”
In fact, please don’t.
But you can go beyond photo ops with camels and try something deeper.
👂 1. Listen First, Speak Later
Learn 10 phrases in the local language. Even if all you get right is “hello” and “I’m lost,” people appreciate the effort.
Bonus points if you accidentally propose marriage at a fruit stall. That builds lifelong connections!
я знаю все - in Russian, this means I know everything (I know). After a first few introductory words, I would say this…and maan, everyone else laughed..ice broken…onwards!!
My attempt at mastering the local lingo usually draws attention for all the wrong reasons!!
🥄 2. Taste the Culture (Literally)
Try the local thali. Try the weird fermented drink. Try that snack whose texture scares you.
You’ll survive. Probably. And at worst, you’ll have a great stomach bug story for your next party. You don’t want to know why i was in a hospital loo for a full day in Bangkok but maan..i have a party story to tell!
I totally get the comfort food craving – who doesn't love a good hug in a bowl? But let's be real, if you've landed in Italy and by day two you're on a frantic search for butter chicken, dal tadka, or (the horror!) a sweet, not-spicy sambar, then my friend, you're not just missing out on the pasta-bilities, you're actively insulting Nonna's secret sauce! Your stomach is whispering 'mamma mia!' while your brain is screaming 'masala!
My stomach: a brave explorer of the world's weirdest snacks (results may vary). Did you know some cultures enjoy fermented shark, fried insects, or cheese with actual maggots? No, I'm not suggesting you have to try them (unless you're feeling particularly brave and have a strong stomach), but simply seeing them, smelling them, and contemplating the culinary diversity of humanity is an experience in itself! The point isn't to become Bear Grylls, but to open your mind to the glorious, sometimes baffling, tapestry of human existence.
🎭 3. Don’t be a Wallflower, Be a Weird-Flower
You want a story? Don't just take the hop-on-hop-off bus. Get delightfully lost in a labyrinthine market and accidentally buy a very questionable souvenir. Try to order coffee in a language you've only practiced on Duolingo for three days. Attend a local festival where you have no idea what's happening but everyone's smiling and offering you strange snacks.
Show up with humility, not entitlement. You’re not the main character here—you’re a guest at someone else’s well-worn dinner table.
These are the moments that truly differentiate a traveler from someone who just changed their Wi-Fi password to "hotel_guest_123."
🎎 4. Understand the Culture Before You Accidentally Offend an Entire Nation
Here’s a radical idea: when in Rome… don’t behave like you’re still at the Bangalore airport lounge.
Every place has its rhythms, its unspoken rules—and trust me, you don’t want to be the person on the wrong beat.
In Japan, for instance, silence is golden. The trains sound like meditation halls. Speaking loudly in public is basically social arson. And backpacks? Worn on the front—because nobody wants your oversized North Face bag smacking their face during the morning commute. We land back in New Delhi and my son says “Appa, this place is so loud”…I know we had just been to Japan for 2 weeks!!
(In Tokyo, I once whispered a joke to my wife in a metro. Three people flinched. One took out a notepad, probably to report me to the Ministry of Vocal Offenses.)
In Thailand, pointing your feet at someone is a no-no. Especially sacred objects. Your dusty size 11s don’t belong in Buddha’s general direction. This isn’t yoga class.
The rule of thumb?
If you wouldn’t do it at your grandma’s house, don’t do it in someone else’s country.
Observe. Ask. Follow the locals.
(Unless the local is a tourist from your own country. In that case, follow literally anyone else.)
🏙️ 5. How Well Do You Really Know Your Own City?
Here’s the thing—we all think we know our hometowns.
We’ve grown up there. Fought traffic there. Fallen in love, failed exams, and found late-night parotta stalls there.
But ask us about its history? Culture? Heroes?
We suddenly sound like tourists who forgot to read the brochure.
I live in Chennai. I’ve lived here most of my life.
And yet, it wasn’t until I started doing walking tours of my own city that I realized—I knew the traffic signals better than the timeline.
Did you know Gandhiji’s ashes are buried in Chennai?
Or that fierce, fearless women from Madras were part of the freedom struggle—long before Instagram activism was a thing?
And here’s the kicker:
One of the key men who wrote the Constitution lived in a house I must’ve passed hundreds of times during college.
I never once stopped.
Never once thought, “Hey, maybe this building has a story.”
We cross oceans for culture, but ignore the treasure chest at the corner of our street.
So if you’re looking for meaningful travel, maybe start with home.
Book a walking tour. Visit that museum you keep postponing.
Ask your city what it’s been trying to tell you all these years.
You might be surprised how much you don’t know… about the place you thought you knew best.
✈️ Purposeful Travel = Balanced Travel
When you travel with intention, something shifts.
You spend less money (because you stop doing the overpriced, soulless “Instagrammable” stuff).
You conserve more energy (because you’re not cramming 12 museums into one day).
You come back with better stories (not “we went to Bali,” but “we accidentally joined a village wedding in Ubud and were made honorary uncles”).
In short: Purposeful travel is Peak Balanced Life.
You don’t return with just souvenirs (oh we love fridge magnets).
You return slightly changed. And possibly with a better gut microbiome, thanks to fermented millet.
🚀 Before You Go...
Here’s your Ramkey Packing List for Purposeful Travel:
Curiosity > Camera
Refill bottle > Refill rage
Sarcasm (for airport delays) + Sensitivity (for everything else)
One open mind, slightly dented but functional
So, next time you're abroad, instead of reaching for the familiar, reach for the unknown. Your taste buds might be confused, your GPS might fail, and your dignity might take a slight hit, but your travel stories? Oh, those will be legendary. Now go forth and embarrass yourself wonderfully!
Leave nothing but good vibes, tip generously, and for heaven’s sake—stop asking for ketchup in Italy.