The Travel Bug: A 35-Year Love Affair

The Travel Bug: A 35-Year Love Affair That Only Gets Stronger

I don’t have a stomach bug. I have the travel bug, and it’s terminal (in the best possible way).Some people catch it for a summer after university. Some get a mild dose in their thirties and recover. Me? I was bitten at 18 and the infection went straight to the heart. Thirty-five years later, it’s stronger than ever. Retirement didn’t slow it down; it just removed the last restraints.

Every single day since 1988 I’ve thought about travel. Where next. What I’ll eat when I get there. Which little guesthouse has the creaky wooden floor and the million-dollar view. Where the street stall serves the crispy pork that makes me close my eyes and whisper “thank you” to no one in particular.

People ask if it ever fades. The answer is no. It evolves. It intensifies. It becomes identity. There is exactly one treatment that works: you have to travel. Suppressing the bug doesn’t make it go away; it just makes you miserable. I’ve tried. There were years when 60-hour work weeks meant I could only feed the addiction once, maybe twice a year. Those were the years I learned the art of doing “the best you can do” with whatever cashola and annual leave you’ve got.

Here’s the truth I wish someone had tattooed on my 22-year-old forearm: Work is a vehicle, not a destination. Every paycheck, every promotion, every extra week of leave was just more fuel for the next trip.

Points and miles are steroids for the travel bug
Credit-card sign-up bonuses, airline status matches, hotel free-night certificates; learn them like a second language. I’ve flown business class to Asia for the cost of airport taxes more times than I can count.

Invest in future-you
I never earned a fortune, but I lived on less than I made. Rough rule of thumb across 35 working years: 80 % went to current travel, 20 % got invested so future-me could keep travelling when the paychecks stopped. That 20 % compounds into freedom. Quick math even a broke 25-year-old can do:
Save $6,000 a year (about 20 % of a $30k salary) for 35 years at a boring 7 % average return = $315,000–$800,000+ depending on how aggressive you get. That’s decades of trips paid for by younger-you high-fiving older-you across time.

Proximity is underrated
When money or leave was tight, I discovered the magic of “close but fascinating.” Weekend train rides, cheap regional flights, overnight buses to places most tourists overlook. You don’t need 30 hours in the air to feel the rush; sometimes it’s four hours and a completely different universe.

Retirement:

When the Bug Finally WinsNow the calendar is mine. I keep a rolling two-year plan: usually two or three big international adventures per year, plus a constant rhythm of weekend getaways when I’m home. The passport is fat, bent, and held together with rubber bands. The frequent-flyer accounts still tick upward. The only difference is I no longer have to beg a boss for the time off.If you’re reading this and feeling that familiar itch under your skin, listen to it. Feed it whatever you can right now; a $300 weekend escape, a clever points redemption, one extra week of leave sacrificed for a longer trip next year.Because here’s what 45 years of this beautiful addiction has taught me:The travel bug isn’t a phase.
It’s a lifelong companion.

And the only way to live peacefully with it is to let it take you exactly where it wants to go. See you out there. I’ll be the silver-haired guy at the night market, eyes closed, smiling like an idiot over a $2 plate of something life-changing.

Safe travels,
A very happy, very incurable traveller