As glamorous as social media has the ability to make travelling look with its aesthetic filters and exotic Snapchat stories that stir a wave of jealously among friends and followers, there's a whole other hidden side to travelling that the geotags and Facebook albums don't show. Jet-setting isn't always picturesque and easy sailing, it's awkward and tiring at times, and mostly inevitable to avoid these common calamities, (all true stories speaking from my misfortunate experiences).
It's plane delays and long customs lines. Leg cramps in a 20 hour flight, and late night stopovers in foreign airports eating unappetising fast food and napping on the floor.
It's getting lost in an unfamiliar city with no map or wifi circling Bangkok for hours, getting blisters trying to find your way back.
It's being lost in translation not able to explain the directions of your hotel to the non-english speaking taxi driver. Then getting taken advantage of being a tourist and getting ripped off when they rig the taxi meter.
Or that time you trusted a stranger and get scammed a lot of money at the ATM because you're a bunch of vulnerable young girls just trying to have a good time in Bali.
It's that gross airport food taking effect, combined with a tainted foreign cuisine made of who knows what, that gives you Bali Belly. Then spending the next few days getting to know the bathroom instead of the local sights you'd planned.
It's the impossible task of reading foreign labels in the Balinese pharmacy, and later finding out you've been taking medication for a sore throat instead of a remedy for food poisoning.
It's witnessing your friends food poisoning make an untimely return at a sacred temple, vomiting somewhere she definitely shouldn't be. That's what the Instagram picture doesn't show, but she somehow still managed to look this cute though @sharnaekiss.
It's when the tuk tuk driver takes you to his friends business to forcefully sell you a suit instead of driving you to the destination you requested, then getting lost all over again in the vastness of the city.
It's currency conversion confusion and getting intimidated bartering with shopkeepers learning to accustom with the cultural shopping norms.
It's when the simple task of ordering a meal at a restaurant or catching the bus suddenly becomes a dangerous guessing game when English isn't an option.
It's coming home with an empty wallet and drained bank balance after your lavish adventures, but returning with the priceless treasures of a full heart, expanded horizons and gained cultural awareness.
However, despite all the language barriers, cultural clashes and moments of no sleep, no food and no cell phone, it is those moments that become the most priceless memories, life lessons and make the best stories. Every mishap and wrong turn is all part of the greater journey that shapes our human experience.
Travelling will no doubt test you mentally, physically and emotionally, but most importantly it will teach you to be more spontaneous, to dwell less on the past and learn to laugh at your misfortunes, to be grateful, and to appreciate moments and memories more than your souvenirs and Instagram photos. And along the way you'll learn just as much about yourself as you did the world.
Travelling wouldn't be the magical, rewarding, addictive and life-changing experience that it is if it wasn't for these awkward, frustrating, hilarious hardships.
"OF ALL THE BOOKS IN THE WORLD, THE BEST STORIES ARE FOUND BETWEEN THE PAGES OF A PASSPORT" - UNKNOWN.