In 3,5 months of travelling, I have known homesickness for a short period. It was at the end of month spent in Vietnam; it was so intense, hard emotionally and physically. I missed my friends, my parisian life, my home, fournitures, clothes, habits. I felt lonely and lost; sometimes I even regretted to have given my appartment away, and I doubted myself.

For the first time of my life, I was homesick.

I thought a lot, and observe that some things made me feel better. I discovered that in this situation, it’s good to give your senses something from your past life. Recreate sounds, tastes, atmospheres. You’ll understand. Here are some tips to fight and in my case, completely win over homesickness !

Let’s use our senses

Tam Coc, Vietnam

 

To wander somewhere reminding us our home (sight)

When you’re homesick, you can feel the geographic distance with your country expeeeending more and more. Those thousands of km seem so insurmontable, and sometimes we dream to get back to our comfy routine. The first thing to give me relief was to walk in… a mall. Big, cold, aseptic, generally full of Zara and co. I didn’t buy anything but I tried on clothes, I enjoyed the ac, I felt at home. Zara’s merchandising is quite the same on every continent 😉

 

Kampot, Cambodia

 

Relive an old habit (“touch”, comfort)

Take a day off visiting to do something you were use to do back home. For me, it’s bing-watching in my bed, while doing sudokus héhé. I took a day to do that, and I felt sooo good after ! Sometimes it’s important to stop running after the tourist interests and just take time to breath… because visiting for visiting serves NOTHING. You have to keep a light and open mind to learn everything about all those new cultures.

 

Make the communication with our friends more alive (hearing)

Choose skype video calling and voice memos (Messenger or WhatsApp) over big writing. Took me a long time to find this one, but it seriously improves the exchange ! Even if with the jet lag the answer is not always immediate, it’s so magical to hear our friends’ voices while they are directly reacting to our stories ! I think the discussion is more spontaneous this way, and it really feels good, it’s like they are next to us !

 

Chiang Mai, Thailand

 

Eat a little treat from back then (taste and smell) 

Eaaaaatttinng 😉 this is one is not easy ! But I succeeded to find a yummy pizza in Vietnam, almost as good as in Italy (in the south, Can Tho… I agree I was lucky haha); or a good french restaurant in Bali (Monsieur Spoon, Canggu). Taste and smell can make us relive very intense moments, and for few secondes, transport us back in time. It’s so comforting and I don’t mind the calories at all :p sometimes I also go to Starbucks… nothing reminds me more about my old cosy life !

If you have other techniques to eliminate homesickness, I’m so curious to learn about it 😀 please share ♥

 

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia