Travel Fatigue, Have You Ever Had it?
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“What are you planning on doing in Jaipur?” our hotel manager asks us. “Not much.” We say. “Can you point us to a mall?”
Travel Fatigue
We are two months into our trip in India and travel fatigue has already kicked in. It has been a non stop adventure since arriving.
We have been on backwater cruises, taken yoga courses, have attended numerous festivals, rock climbed and been on safari to name a few. But right now all we want to do is rest.
We don’t want to see the Pink City, we don’t want to see the Monkey Temple or Amber Fort. We just want a mall.
Worlds Largest Calendar at the Mall in Jaipur
We want to barricade ourselves in our hotel away from the noise and the hawkers. We want to give our minds a rest.
It is exhausting fending off hawkers everyday. It is exhausting answering the same questions day in day out.
- Where are you going?
- Where are you from?
- Have you seen the temple?
- What is your name?
- One photo please?
- One Rupee please?
- First time to India?
We usually try to be polite. We try to answer their questions with a smile. And we make a point of not ignoring people when they say hello.
Sometimes it is a little difficult.
Once one person leaves, another person comes along to ask us the same set of questions all over again. It has become progressively worse in Rajasthan.
It isn’t so bad when it is someone that legitimately wants to say hello or practice English, but mostly it is a person wanting to be our guide or a rickshaw driver that will ask the questions and then go in for the sales pitch once he thinks that he’s got us hooked.
Creature Comforts
When we finally made it to the mall it was a little bit of heaven. We walked around its sanitized aisles in air conditioning. We didn’t smell exhaust fumes or urine and we didn’t have shop keepers yelling at us to come inside. We were allowed to just be.
We found a McDonalds. We went inside and had a McVeggie Meal, we read the paper and we enjoyed the familiar taste of their famous fries.
We then went to Baskin Robins and had ice cream. I had been trying to get some ice cream for days. Every time I went somewhere where it was on the menu and ordered it, I always got the reply that they were out, finished.
We stuffed ourselves and promptly felt sick. It is not wise to gorge yourself on western fast food when you haven’t had it for awhile.
We have been in Jaipur for four days and we haven’t seen one tourist site.
Instead we have watched Sherlock Holmes and Twilight, we have sipped lattes at the Barrista and we have had our dinner at Pizza Hut. It was so nice to have a simple salad.
We didn’t seem to be alone in our need for the familiar. We saw many travel weary faces sitting in McDonalds and Pizza Hut. People read books and wrote in their journals.
Some people had their heads in their hands.
Is Jaipur the stop where everyone just runs out of steam in their travels? It certainly seems like it to me.
We can’t bring ourselves to do anything. I am sure that the forts and palaces are beautiful and I am sure that years down the road we will say that we should have gotten ourselves out of bed to take a look at them, but I don’t think that we will make it to much while we are here.
We leave for Agra in two days to see the Taj Mahal.
The adventure is about to resume whether we want it to or not.
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Have you suffered from travelers fatigue on your journeys?
Have you missed out on a famous site because you were just not in the mood to leave the hotel or the coffee shop?
We would love to hear some of your experiences and how you got yourself back on track and in the mood to travel again
20 Responses to Travel Fatigue, Have You Ever Had it?
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Absolutely.
In 2004, a friend and I spent 4 months touring the Pacific, and after a month or so in Southeast Asia, travel fatigue hit us.
What you guys did – reconnecting with home through the familiar taste/smells of western food – is exactly what we did, except our vice was Outback Steakhouse.
We ate at every Outback Steakhouse in Southeast Asia – Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. And we loved it.
Sometimes you just need a little dose of the familiar to reinvigorate your appetite for the unfamiliar.
Thanks for the honesty!
Mmm, Outback Steakhouse. It is not my favorite at home, but sounds like heaven now! There is a great list for you to write about, The Best Outback in the world.
I think I might have to! Hope Jaipur ended on a positive note.
I lived in the Philippines (Cebu) for nine months and while most people in the city knew me as the American girl (I’m Canadian) who walked everywhere so they knew I wasn’t a typical tourist but they still often approached me.
There was a while where I wore headphones all the time because I just wanted to be able to grocery shop in peace. I often felt guilty about it because they were just curious and there weren’t a lot of female westerners in the city but I had to do it for my own sanity. I then realized I could never be a celebrity because I always felt like I was being watched.
The funny thing is if I ate at Pizza Hut or McDonalds, people always wanted to see what I ordered and then they watched me eat it
.-= Ayngelina´s last blog ..Parts of the pig that are delicious =-.
Haha! That is hilarious about watching you eat! I agree, I have a new respect for celebrities. The hassles of always having to talk to people is exhausting. And we are like you, we are always trying to be polite, but it is very hard.
We purposely avoided Jaipur and Agra on our last visit to India because Dan had horrible memories of touts from his first visit (1997). Instead, we stuck to Udaipur and Bikaner.
Traveling for two months almost non-stop is super tiring anywhere, but especially in India. The adrenaline that keeps you going at the beginning starts to wear off and you start seeing similar things everywhere you go so it’s not all “new and exciting” anymore. We often take breaks for a few days here or there to just relax, work on photos, write, and just not be tourists. It’s necessary to keep sane when on a long journey like yours. Enjoy just being for a few days.
.-= Audrey´s last blog ..Ecuador, More Than Just the Galapagos: Photo Essays and Panoramas =-.
Thanks Audrey. A break is important. We are now learning to take breaks. It is good to know that even travell guru’s like you take breaks once in a while.
We are taking a break right now because we are a bit worn out. We have been traveling non-stop for a month and have done a lot of stuff in Thailand. Generally, we try and take a break once a month for two or three days and do nothing more than chill in a really nice air-conditioned room, work on the internet, watch movies, and just hang out. I like to think about it as what we do when we are at home — sometimes, you just need a little time to hang out and do nothing. I don’t think it is unique to travelers — everyone gets fatigued after a while and it is important to figure out when you need to stop and take it easy.
@Akila makes a great point. I think sometimes people get caught up on itineraries and making sure they see everything that they forget to factor in down time.
Taking a break before the Taj Mahal will help you appreciate it rather than just checking it off your list.
.-= Ayngelina´s last blog ..Parts of the pig that are delicious =-.
Yes, i’ve had it too. That being said some of my best memories traveling are the days where we do absolutely nothing. I still remember holing up in Guatemala and watching Hitch in Chichi. We saw hardly any of the world famous market and it was a cool city but we just wanted to chill. We searched all over for some chocolate cake (couldn’t find any), bought some weird candy bars and just watched movies all night. It was awesome! Sometimes you just need the break. You’ll know when you’re ready to move on and until that time just relax and enjoy not doing anything.
.-= Bethany´s last blog ..Blood, Drugs & Sangria – How to vacation in a war zone – Part 2 of a 5 part series. =-.
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Pretty much everyone traveling on more than a typical 1-2 week itinerary will suffer from some sort of travel fatigue, because as Ayngelina pointed out, we rarely factor in some down time to our schedules….
I remember after month into a trip hiking around Europe we deliberately sought out a Best Western hotel in Avignon, France, because we knew they’d have room service and movies in English – spent two days holed up there just relaxing, eating, and watching movies and TV – it was pricey but SO worth it for our mental health, as we still had four more weeks to go.
Hang in there!
.-= Trisha Miller´s last blog ..Suzy: The Finale – Suzy Speaks! =-.
Too funny! I think everyone who has travelled has experienced this kind of fatigue. In India especially, I can relate. We almost skipped out of going to the Taj Mahal….but we went, and I am am glad because it would have been a huge regret.
Still, some days you can only appreciate so many temples….
Rest up guys!
Oh, I SO know what you mean!
We started our travels with 2-3 months in USA, Canada and the Caribbean and were raring for some “real adventure”.
We enjoyed traveling in S.America but after our 3rd month, we started craving a visit to the mall very badly. It was exactly like how you described – a sort of sanity bubble and a taste of everyday life back home. We took a break in Lima just like you guys did in Jaipur. We even sat in a cineplex lobby in an upmarket shopping mall just eating popcorn and watching movie TRAILERS in English – not even the movie. And we were happy.
Except for the famous salt plains, we skipped Bolivia totally cos we were just tired of being constantly cold and breathless in the hi-altitude Andes region. Asians are a rarity in some parts of S.America. We were always being asked whether we were Chinese or Japanese and got tired of having to explain (in Spanish, no less) where Singapore is and why English is our first language. Sometimes, we even feigned being unable to understand Spanish or English just to avoid talking, and spoke to each other in Mandarin only (yes, bad of us, but true.)
The break in Lima did us good. Refreshed, we continued for another 3 months through Chile, Argentina and Brazil. At the end of our trip in Rio, we spent 2 weeks just enjoying the beach and Rio’s lovely modern malls. We watched our first movie in a cinema in 8 months. It was heavenly.
Back in the USA, I went a bit nuts shopping at the outlet malls and Walmart. We hardly did any sightseeing – we were just bored of traveling already. We just watched lots of TV.
A month later, we are now in Hong Kong, relishing (real) Chinese food like crazy. Even then, we are looking forward to finally flying home to Singapore tomorrow.
But yes, taking breaks along the way really helped. Happy travels, you guys, but keep sane!
Thanks for this post. At one point, I was feeling a bit dejected at being a bit of a wimp for craving modern luxuries and wasn’t feeling like a ‘real adventure traveler’ like what I read about in people’s blogs. It’s nice to know that it’s normal to feel this way while on the road!
.-= Yi Lin´s last blog ..Onwards To The Red Rock State =-.
I’ve never experienced this, I guess because I haven’t done any long-term travel past six weeks…but I can definitely see how it would happen. Hope you recuperate soon!
.-= Candice´s last blog ..Climbing the Stairway to Heaven at Ely Cathedral =-.
I completely know where you are coming from on this – there were numerous times on the trip where I didn’t give a crap what major “must-see” site was nearby, I just wanted an American movie, some comfort food, and English. My the end of the 11 months, I was really ready to go home and just not have something that I felt compelled to be doing.
That’s what got to me by the end of nearly a year, feeling compelled to constantly move, explore, and *do* things. I am hoping that I can strike a better balance when I head to Central America next month
I am so happy to hear that you guys are recharging and that Sri Lanka is all that you expected 
.-= Shannon OD´s last blog ..A Little Answer…How to Pull the Perfect Pint of Guinness =-.
Thanks Shannon. It is so nice to hear from people wo have experienced the same thing. It sort of makes you feel at ease having people in the same boat.
That is awesome that you are off to Central America next month. Can’t wait to read what adventures you will be up to.
Like Candice I haven’t really done enough long-term traveling to have gotten traveler’s fatigue. But I don’t thin there’s anything wrong with seeking out MacDonald’s or a mall to be in from time to time, even in a foreign country. Everyone needs a break.
.-= Alouise´s last blog ..2010 =-.
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“Is Jaipur the stop where everyone just runs out of steam in their travels? It certainly seems like it to me.”
I had EXACTLY the same experience in Jaipur. Myself, my Girlfriend, and all the travellers we met seemed to have a dip in morale. The touts and hawkers are incessant, but that’s not unusual. What is it about Jaipur? Something in the (bottled) water perhaps? My morale lifted within days of getting out of there. I loved India and stayed for four months in total.