Malaysia — May 2016.

Looking back today, I realise that this was not just my first international trip.

It was my first flight, my first passport, my first time leaving India, and my first real experience of seeing a world beyond what I had known.

And the funny thing is, the story started with almost no big plan.

The idea of going abroad

I had been working for around three years and had already travelled to a few states within India.

But an international trip was something I had never experienced.

Of course, like most Indians, whenever you think about travelling abroad, the first question that comes to mind is:

“What about the budget?”

Europe was somewhere on my wish list, but my savings weren’t quite enough for that dream yet.

So I thought—

Why not Malaysia?

It was one of the countries I had wanted to visit, and it felt like the right place to take my first step into international travel.

I was excited.

But honestly, I don’t think I fully understood how exciting it would actually be.

I booked the flight before I even had a passport.

Looking back, this still makes me smile.

I booked my flight first.

And then I applied for my passport.

Yes.

Flight first. Passport later.

Maybe that tells you something about how confident—or perhaps how blindly confident—I was about that first trip. 😄

At that time, I was working in Delhi while my home was in Haridwar.

My passport finally arrived just five days before the trip.

And when I got the message that it had arrived, there was no question of waiting.

I travelled from Delhi to Haridwar at night to collect it.

The next morning, I was back on my way to Delhi.

No tiredness.

No complaints.

Just excitement.

It felt like nothing could stop the trip from happening.

And somewhere inside me, I also had this belief that perhaps some things are meant to happen.

I often feel that God has already written certain parts of our journey.

We simply play our role in the story.

Maybe this was one of those moments.

Then came the shopping.

Once the trip became real, the excitement went into another direction.

Clothes.

Shoes.

Sunglasses.

Perfumes.

And, honestly, almost everything else that looked interesting.

My shopping somehow reached a level where the amount spent started getting dangerously close to the cost of my return ticket.

But this wasn’t completely unexpected.

I have always had a habit of shopping more than I originally planned.

And then comes my favourite part:

I blame the person who went shopping with me.

“You made me buy all this!”

And somehow, after saying that, I feel completely relaxed.

Because now it’s obviously not my fault. 😄

And then came my first flight.

1 May 2016.

My first ever flight was an AirAsia flight departing at 23:10.

I reached the airport in the evening.

And everything felt new.

The airport.

The check-in.

The boarding pass.

The excitement of knowing that this time I wasn’t there to drop someone else off.

I was actually going to fly.

Until then, I had only experienced airports from the other side.

If someone from my family was travelling abroad, I might have gone to the airport to drop them off.

But this time, I was the passenger.

And that feeling was completely different.

I had barely slept the night before.

There was too much excitement running through my mind.

At the same time, I had one very important concern.

Food.

I am vegetarian, while my travel partners were non-vegetarian.

So somewhere in the middle of all that excitement, I had this tiny worry:

“Will I even find vegetarian food in Malaysia?”

I was genuinely wondering whether I was going to survive four or five days on something other than proper food. 😄

Then I boarded the plane.

The cabin crew showed me how to fasten the seat belt.

Such a small thing.

But when everything is happening for the first time, even small things become memories.

And then came the moment I had been waiting for.

The aircraft started moving.

The speed increased.

And suddenly…

I was in the air.

My first flight.

My first time looking at the world from above.

It is difficult to explain what that feels like when you have never experienced it before.

And then… Malaysia.

When we landed in Malaysia, there was another little moment that made everything feel real.

My phone had no network.

For a few seconds, I was confused.

And then it hit me.

“I’m not in India anymore.”

It sounds like a very small thing.

But that was the moment the trip truly became real for me.

A different country.

Different surroundings.

Different people.

Different systems.

A completely different environment.

I bought a local SIM.

And the first call I made was to my mother.

I don’t remember exactly what I said.

But I remember wanting to tell her about the excitement.

Because whenever something truly new happens in life, there are certain people with whom you simply have to share it.

For me, she was one of them.

Everything was a first.

That entire trip was filled with small first experiences.

The first flight.

The first international airport.

The first time using my passport.

The first time being outside India.

The first time dealing with a foreign SIM.

The first time realising that even simple things—like getting a phone network or finding food—can suddenly become an experience when you’re in another country.

And perhaps that is what I loved most about the trip.

Everything felt new.

Nothing was ordinary.

Looking back

Today, when I think about Malaysia, I don’t just remember the places I visited.

I remember the excitement before leaving.

I remember barely sleeping the night before.

I remember travelling from Delhi to Haridwar just to collect my passport and coming back the very next morning.

I remember the airport.

I remember fastening my seat belt for the first time.

I remember the take-off.

I remember landing in Malaysia.

I remember looking at my phone and seeing no network.

And I remember making that first call to my mother.

Most importantly, I remember the feeling.

The feeling of finally stepping outside the familiar.

That trip taught me that sometimes you don’t need to have everything perfectly figured out before taking the first step.

You just need enough courage to begin.

I had no passport when I booked the flight.

I had never flown before.

I had never travelled internationally before.

And yet, somehow, everything fell into place.

Maybe that’s life.

We make our plans.

We worry about the details.

We wonder whether everything will work out.

And then one day, we find ourselves sitting in a plane, looking out of the window, wondering how we got there.

Malaysia was my first international trip.

But more than that, it was the first time I truly felt that the world was much bigger than the little world I had known until then.

And once you realise that…

you never look at the world quite the same way again.