Homosexuality, live-in relationships, premarital sex, inter-caste/inter-religion alliances, travelling together before getting hitched, all anathemas.Yes, we still live in a country where we’d rather pretend these things didn’t exist than talk about them. But the times are definitely a changing, slowly but surely. We are the millennium children, we are a generation trying to fight the status quo and keep our parents happy at the same time. We take up Herculean tasks.

To take off on a trip (pre marriage) with your significant other, the love of your life, the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, is not really a commonplace happening in these parts of the world. Not even with the person your parents have chosen to be the love of your life. But in spite of it all, under the possible threat of becoming a social outcast, here’s why you must take that trip before taking the final leap of faith.

1. The 24/7 challenge

Image Source: Flickr @Vera& Jean-Christophe

Can you deal with each other’s company ALL THE TIME, like literally 24/7? Only one way to find out!

There’s really no escape when you’re travelling, no work, no social commitments, not even the gossip from your domestic help. Even if you’re living together, it doesn’t usually mean you spend every waking hour with each other. When you’re travelling together, there’s really no other way.

2. Discover - yourself, each other & the world

Image Source: Flickr @martinak15

Of course there’s the novelty of a new place, a new surrounding and making new discoveries together, like finding a small café that serves the best bacon & maple syrup pancakes in the world. You’ll talk about this place to everyone you know.

But both of you will also discover new things about yourself, and about each other; like your hair develops a life of its own in humid weather and that she can totally kick your ass at rock climbing. You might even discover some life changing, profound truths.

3. Great Sex

The novelty of a new place, a new surrounding and making new discoveries together….need we say more?

Ok we will! First things first, whether the two of you have decided to stay celibate until you have officially tied the knot or otherwise, the line is where you draw it, together, mutually. But don’t say we didn’t warn you, the temperatures are bound to get sizzling. Travelling together is good for intimacy and intimacy is a good thing.

4. The compatibility test with no cheat codes

Travelling together will bring out your differences like nothing else will.

What if one of you would rather laze in bed and wake up late, while the other wants to trek up a hill to watch the sunrise? Perhaps one of you packed khakhras and maggi from home and the other wants to eat chocolate covered spiders for dinner? One of you wants 5 star luxuries and the other would rather spend time at a local homestay.

Sometimes you will find amiddle ground; sometimes you might be so far apart you can’t even see the ground. Hey, it’s always good to know before right?!

5. The ultimate test of true love

Montezuma’s revenge, Delhi Belly, call it what you will. A bad stomach while travelling is definitely the ultimate test of true love. Period.

The perfect partner is one who will hold your hand through it all, the good, the bad and the ugly.

6. Experience the best & the worst

And everything in between. Life isn’t always about the awesome happy moments, in fact it’s a lot more about the difficult times and how you deal with them as a couple, together. Sharing a passionate kiss against a beautiful sunset is the easy part,a ten hour journey on bad roads is the not so easy part. Deciding who gets the bathroom first is the hard part!

Anything can happen – a delayed flight, a bad hotel, an accident or God forbid, no hot water, Yikes! There’s really no one else to turn to, it’s the two of you against the world, not the two of you against each other. You have got to stick it out together, and that’s how a marriage works. Or at least, that’s how a marriage should work.

7. Try new things together

Like pooping in the great outdoors, together!

Not up your alley? Of course you can always go for conventional things like skydiving or river rafting. Whatever it be, try something that neither of you hasever done before. Being a pillar of support to your partner when you’re not so sure yourself, there’s definitely a life lesson to be learnt there.

8. Get out of your comfort Zone

Travel accelerates the acceptance of change. It throws you in the most bizarre situations, where decisions must be made without the luxury of time.

You will really get to know each other’s most primal, instinctive responses when posed with a problem. When there’s a live bear/tiger/fire breathing dragon in front of you, there’s no time to filter reactions. Yours and your partner’s course of action in a moment like this could change the course of both your lives.

Ok, let’s get real. Situations that you will more likely be faced with: who carries the extra water bottle on the trek, somebody’s shoe breaks and you’re already late for a show, one of you left something behind at the hotel room and you remember exactly 10 minutes after you leave the place…the fire breathing dragon should start sounding like a puppy right about now.

Travel is the most honest judge of a relationship, outside of the two of you. If it’s meant to be, it will bring you closer together in every possible way and if it’s not, you will see the warning signs.

Push each other, take the road not taken, and pick the difficult choice because it’s the right one! Your life partner should make you want to be a better person (there’s more than one reason why this one’s a cliché). Here’s to happy marriages!

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Shivangi Rajendran

As the newest member of the content team, Shivangi Rajendran comes from the world of professional dancing. With a passion for travel and a flair for writing, the Masters in Mass Communication is just an added advantage. A gypsy at heart, she doesn’t believe in planning and is always ready to pack her bags and leave.

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