Keith Wein

Travel can really change your life without your even expecting it to. Sometimes you have such a good time, you don’t want to come home; but my honeymoon in Cambodia and Bali in 2016 gave me a new perspective on what I wanted home to mean to me.

On this trip, my husband and I saw people of poverty who lived in conditions that we as Westerners view as horrible, yet we could see that they were really happy people. It made me appreciate so much of what I had, while at the same time, we saw what strength these people derived from their culture and environment.  

Bali is one of those places I had always dreamed of going. It has a magical mysterious spiritual power and beauty and I remember reading Eat, Pray, Love and thinking OMG I need to go to Bali. This trip wasn’t about relaxing and getting away to a beach in a beautiful setting. It was a route to learning about and appreciating another culture, and about myself, and it was life-changing. I suddenly understood how a travel experience can really enlighten you and change the way you view the world and live your life.

It was in Bali that I had my “aha” moment. Being there at that time in my life, I realized that spending time in nature, in those peaceful surroundings affected how I was feeling on a daily basis. I had lived in New York my whole life and after that trip, I felt differently about urban living and it actually led me to change the place I call home. I realized that if I made nature more of a part of my daily life, I would feel much more centered. My husband and I bought a second home in Seattle and have incorporated spending peaceful time in nature part of our lives! 

Part of my mission in planning trips for my clients, is enabling them to discover the culture and nature of the places they go. These are the experiences that we most remember!

For more on Bali, check out my blog post about where we went and what we did: https://127travel.com/blog-1/eat-pray-love-bali