“I’ve had itchy feet from a very young age and, as a teenager, all I wanted to do was get out of Oman and explore the world – and that’s where I got my opportunity,” quips Anisa, pointing out that her travelling to Austria for her Masters in Tourism and Leisure Management honed her passion for travel.
Although she has been travelling with the family since her early days, it was the desire to travel alone that set her on the travel path – firmly. She has since travelled Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Svalbard, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, Wales), Asia (Bahrain, India, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, UAE) Oceania (Australia, Indonesia) and Africa (Egypt, Tanzania).
Endowed with an adventurous streak, Anisa’s decision to travel to a specific destination is based on the activity she wishes to do there or the experience she wishes to gain.
Consequently, she does not tend to rate a destination or her memories on a rating scale. However, her most memorable experience was her backpacking trip through Europe in 2013, with no plans for the 8 months of travel – “just a train ticket and an open mind and heart to experience as much as I could,” she muses. On retrospection though, she wishes she had more time to see Egypt during her business trips there. “I just ended up hustling through the busy streets and traffic of Cairo,” she laments.
To her, travelling is the best form of education. “It means being vulnerable to accepting what the world has to offer and having those lessons higher on the priority list than the comfort of your own home, where we all undoubtedly feel safer but hardly grow,” she states, reflectively
Travelling helps me understand myself better. It is food for our soul – the more we travel, the more people we meet, the more experiences we gain, the closer we get to understanding ourselves as we understand the world around us.
So, has travel changed her lifestyle?
“Travel has immensely changed and continues to change who I am – I make it a point to travel every year, alone, to a place I have never been to before and do something I never have done before. It makes me braver, it keeps me curious, it hungers me for the world. Every trip has had its own lesson or its own theme – mostly, I always managed to seek through my travels what I need most at that point in my life,” states Anisa, attributing her curiosity to her mixed culture family which shaped her view of the world early on.
Providing her perspective on the general feeling that travel is expensive, she maintains that travelling could be as expensive or as cheap as one chooses it to be. So, instead of opting for all-inclusive 5-star hotels with guided tours every day, she prefers to spend on trips that help gain experiences. Her tips for wannabe travellers:
- Buy the tickets as early as possible
- Find alternative ways of transport and accommodation
- Rent bikes rather than cars
- Stay at a youth hostel or family-run B&B rather than hotels
- Eat like the locals
On her travel bucket list is a visit to the Americas. “Central and South America is definitely on my list, but I would need at least 6 months to do that, as I don’t like to travel to a place just to say I have travelled there. New Zealand for its amazing outdoors; Japan for its culture and uniqueness; basically, everywhere else. I would be the one who would spin a globe and travel to wherever my finger lands,” she states.
Anisa’s destination recommendation…?
Barcelona! “I lived and worked there for almost a year and have never felt anything like this city, it was literally alive! Even in the middle of the night, with no one around – there is this raw energy felt from the streets, the buildings…it resonates everywhere. I can’t explain it any better!” she states.