I am back in Delhi now, hanging at my friend's house reading assorted books and watching assorted tv shows for a few days. So I suppose my blog post has to be nothing else than a sort of thought out reflection about my experiences traveling.
I'm not backpacking around India - in fact I have a roller suitcase - and am not always traveling by the cheapest modes of transportation. I fly whenever possible to avoid the train and the bus. I don't quite have the hippie traveler mystique.
I'm not brimming with energy ready to throw myself into every situation, and in that sense am not in the 'inexhaustible obsessed with everything dive right in' traveler category. I get tired. I like to pace myself. And I'm cautious.
What I'm leaning most towards, but still have a long way to reach, is that category of traveler that is so calm about the situation, it seems almost disinterested. I don't mean for that to sound bad, I mean to say that this traveler adopts an attitude that all will be well, and all will work out, and the flow will guide itself. I've a long way to go on this yet.
I travel around India in my skinny jeans, college sweatshirt, and roller bag. I've traveled this way by taxi, shared jeep, train, flight, and tour guide from the south to the north. I started my packing with a fair amount of worry as to flights being on time, a constant preoccupation with where I was going and how I was going to get there and what I would do if something went wrong and where I would stay. The how I'd get places is a big one. It is still the main source of my anxiety. Everything in my travels has gone smoothly though, which I have greatly appreciated.
Traveling by yourself is good in so many ways, but mostly you learn how to rely on complete strangers. To give you directions, to take you to where you need, to ask for help. Traveling puts you forever in a new place and forever at the mercy of those who you turn to for help. You have to trust them, you have no choice, but again, I have met incredibly helpful people.
When traveling by yourself you talk to yourself a fair amount. You have to do something to keep your mind busy. I have a theory that that is the source of a lot of anxiety. You have too much time to mull around problems in your head.
Meeting people is an exceptionally good thing to do. Sometimes you hit it off. Sometimes you go back to your coffee by yourself. Sometimes you exchange contact info. Sometimes not.
Always carry a book on you. Lunch is often boring without one.
I've found its best to decimate my guidebooks and ruthlessly tear out pages and keep those on me. The guidebook to India is fricking huge, and I feel like a fool pulling it out when I'm asking an auto driver for directions. plus its huge.
I've gotten incredibly more relaxed about traveling the past few weeks. The anxieties are of course there. But sometimes, when I feel I'm approaching that calm traveler category, I feel as though its not so much that I am moving, but that the world around me is picking up and changing, and depositing itself differently in front of me. At the eye of that storm, all is calm and peace and I can watch as it goes by. This feeling I generally get in car rides.
I have only gotten sick once. Bad chicken.
I have more traveling coming up soon, this time to Nepal, for seven days or so. I do not know if I will be bringing my computer on this one as my internet stick doesn't work outside of India, so I may rely solely on internet cafes and my cell phone. But I leave on the first, so thats not for another few days.
I'm not backpacking around India - in fact I have a roller suitcase - and am not always traveling by the cheapest modes of transportation. I fly whenever possible to avoid the train and the bus. I don't quite have the hippie traveler mystique.
I'm not brimming with energy ready to throw myself into every situation, and in that sense am not in the 'inexhaustible obsessed with everything dive right in' traveler category. I get tired. I like to pace myself. And I'm cautious.
What I'm leaning most towards, but still have a long way to reach, is that category of traveler that is so calm about the situation, it seems almost disinterested. I don't mean for that to sound bad, I mean to say that this traveler adopts an attitude that all will be well, and all will work out, and the flow will guide itself. I've a long way to go on this yet.
I travel around India in my skinny jeans, college sweatshirt, and roller bag. I've traveled this way by taxi, shared jeep, train, flight, and tour guide from the south to the north. I started my packing with a fair amount of worry as to flights being on time, a constant preoccupation with where I was going and how I was going to get there and what I would do if something went wrong and where I would stay. The how I'd get places is a big one. It is still the main source of my anxiety. Everything in my travels has gone smoothly though, which I have greatly appreciated.
Traveling by yourself is good in so many ways, but mostly you learn how to rely on complete strangers. To give you directions, to take you to where you need, to ask for help. Traveling puts you forever in a new place and forever at the mercy of those who you turn to for help. You have to trust them, you have no choice, but again, I have met incredibly helpful people.
When traveling by yourself you talk to yourself a fair amount. You have to do something to keep your mind busy. I have a theory that that is the source of a lot of anxiety. You have too much time to mull around problems in your head.
Meeting people is an exceptionally good thing to do. Sometimes you hit it off. Sometimes you go back to your coffee by yourself. Sometimes you exchange contact info. Sometimes not.
Always carry a book on you. Lunch is often boring without one.
I've found its best to decimate my guidebooks and ruthlessly tear out pages and keep those on me. The guidebook to India is fricking huge, and I feel like a fool pulling it out when I'm asking an auto driver for directions. plus its huge.
I've gotten incredibly more relaxed about traveling the past few weeks. The anxieties are of course there. But sometimes, when I feel I'm approaching that calm traveler category, I feel as though its not so much that I am moving, but that the world around me is picking up and changing, and depositing itself differently in front of me. At the eye of that storm, all is calm and peace and I can watch as it goes by. This feeling I generally get in car rides.
I have only gotten sick once. Bad chicken.
I have more traveling coming up soon, this time to Nepal, for seven days or so. I do not know if I will be bringing my computer on this one as my internet stick doesn't work outside of India, so I may rely solely on internet cafes and my cell phone. But I leave on the first, so thats not for another few days.
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