Often during my month in India, a rickshaw driver would pull up to me and try to convince me that where I was going was too far to reach by foot. And I’d just be thinking, “I once walked 800 kilometres across Spain. It ain’t too far.” 😉
So, I’m travelling again! And my upcoming travels might very well be the most intense and diverse that I’ve ever embarked on. This trip was supposed to be all about India, and I’m spending just over a month in the country, so it primarily will be about India. But in my attempt to look up flights to get there, I (eventually) ended up booking a more complex itinerary involving 6 countries on 2 continents – Taiwan, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, South Korea, and Malawi (that’s in Africa, folks) over the next seven weeks.
How? I figured out that I could use my MileagePlus miles from United Airlines to book a Toronto-Taipei, then Seoul-Lilongwe-Toronto trip. I then used my British Airways Executive Club miles to get me from Taipei to Hong Kong to Delhi, and then I purchased separate tickets on AirAsia from Calcutta to Kuala Lumpur and onwards to Seoul to close the gaps. The result? This…
Why? There’s always more to see, and there’s things to see again in Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Seoul. Whenever I’m somewhere for the first time, I’m not concerned about “doing everything” there is because I figure that if life has brought me to some incredible places, life might just be great enough to let me see some of these places again, and I can always do things that I may have “missed out” on the first time around. On the other hand, I’ve never been to India or Malawi. India has increasingly become a country that I’ve wanted to visit and explore, and attempt to know and become familiar with. I’ve heard a ton of stories from fellow traveller friends who have explored this vast country and their stories are always intense and strongly opinionated. I have to go and experience it all for myself. And Malawi – this country has come up at least twice from friends the past year. This was essentially a “bonus” country on this trip; I learned that I could go here without spending any additional miles. I’ve never been to sub-Saharan Africa, so this is a dip in the water that will hopefully lead to more forays into the continent in the future.
I’m nervous and beyond excited, adrenalin is pumping through my veins even though it’s just past 1 am here in Toronto. I’m about to board my flight to Taipei and I hope you join me over the next seven weeks to explore a bit of this beautiful world of ours! Cheers!
Among my favourite activities when I travel is to people watch. Unlike trekking, another favourite pastime of mine, it requires little physical energy and can be done basically anywhere there are people. It’s just fascinating take a step back and observe the happenings of every day life all around you.
A year ago today I was in Patan, Nepal on a day trip from Kathmandu. Nepal is a great country to people watch because there’s always plenty of people walking by and just hanging around on the streets and in the squares, and there’s seemingly always something going on. On this day, I went a bit (read: a lot) camera crazy and took hundreds of shots, positioning myself atop a temple or two or a rooftop restaurant, capturing moments of daily life passing by…
Travelling and trekking have kinda become my thing the last couple years. It’s a great feeling to have an almost endless array of stories, many of which are simply inconceivable to the imagination, to tell friends and family at various occasions.
Still, it’s hard to believe that I’ve actually lived some of these experiences – how what was once just a vague, perhaps outlandish idea in my head somehow manages to simply become reality, sometimes through determination, sometimes through sheer chance.
I remember reading guidebooks of Nepal at a public library in Toronto in the autumn of 2013, researching a bit about treks. A few months later, a year ago today, in fact, I found myself in this video, at Deurali on day 6 of my trek to ABC, Annapurna Base Camp, in Nepal. It was already a wonderful feeling to just see the Himalayas all around, and to think how far my body, mind, and spirit had taken me. In many ways, it’s still so surreal…
I hope to see more of the Himalayas when I visit India next month, and will definitely keep you all posted!
Beautiful, glimmering Lake Atitlan boasts a number of cities and towns on its shores, each with its own unique flair or claim to fame. San Pedro is the main backpacker hub, while San Marcos is reputed for its alternative and hippy vibe. Panajachel is the main tourist and transport hub, while Santiago Atitlan boasts a strong indigenous character.
There’s also an unassuming town village called Jaibalito on the north shore of Lake Atitlan. It has a population of about 600 – plus me. There are no roads leading into or out of the village, so the only ways to get here are to hike the mountain ridges from the next towns or to take a lancha (small motorized boat) into the pier. I’ve spotted a tuktuk, but there are no cars to be seen!
There’s a loud population of stray dogs, young kids can be seen playing on the streets during the day, older kids can be seen fishing from the piers, evangelical music echoes into the night, and gringos fleeing the northern winter add another element to the town dynamic.
Pier where lanchas dock. Across the lake are Volcanoes Toliman and Atitlan
I’m staying at a guesthouse/hostel called Posada Jaibalito. It has the cleanest dorm I’ve slept in the country the past four weeks (and at 35Q a night, also the cheapest I’ve come across), a couple of welcoming hammocks, a restaurant serving flavoursome German food, a decent kitchen, interesting guests, and more than a handful of roaming dogs, chickens, and ducks. It’s homely, and a comfortable refuge to base myself around the lake. If I’m not on the hammock listening to music or reading a book, I’ve been enjoying the hike to neighbouring Santa Cruz or taking a lancha to further towns on the lake.
It’s more or less what I’ve been looking for during my last week or so in the country. Every day, I debate whether to stay another night or leave but I can’t come up with a good enough reason to pack my backpack and so I stay. It’s been a wonderful way to relax before returning home in less than a week!
Fisherman on Lake Atitlan from Jaibalito pier during sunrise
It’s no secret that I have the travel bug and that I’ve had it for years now. The thing is, it’s a chronic infection and it gets more severe with the passage of time. I find that the more I travel, the more I want to keep travelling. I look back over the past few years of my adulthood (if I can call it that), and especially the last couple years since quitting my job, where travel has been so primary and fundamental to my life and I still somehow find myself pausing in amazement.
With a tremendous fondness, I reminisce the people I’ve met and shared experiences with and the emotions I’ve felt while standing amidst astonishing landscapes or extreme environments or imagination-defying architecture. Truth be told, I could (and have been) among the mundane and the unassuming and the overrated and still cherish those times with great affection. When I’m in a new environment, my senses and emotions are heightened and I feel more alive, more alert, and more aware of everything…
The odour of stinky tofu infiltrates the air while strolling through the night markets of Taipei…The city lights of Hong Kong, Tokyo, and New York violate the dark night sky and flash in all its consumerist and capitalist glory…I look up at same night sky under Lake Titicaca and understand why our galaxy is called the Milky Way…The hypnotic and mesmerizing call to prayer of the muezzins echoes from the minarets of the mosques during sunset in Istanbul…The voice of the squatter outside Leon, Nicaragua demands a bribe to enter the abandoned former prison which overlooks the city and the surrounding volcanoes…The lingering flavours of an exquisite Rioja wine tickle my tongue after a long day of hiking on the Camino de Santiago…The freezing cold water flowing mightily against my legs bring on a sense of urgency while I cross a seasonal glacial river while traversing to that glacier in Georgia…
Through travelling, I’ve had my own preconceptions challenged and I’ve learned not to assume or accept anything as fact simply because that’s the way I previously thought. There have been times when I’ve found myself in tense, uneasy or uncomfortable situations, and was still able to appreciate the emotions that were causing my heart to beat more profoundly. I can even value every uneasy feeling I get, and ask myself if I am really unsafe or just unfamiliar with how things are in another place.
Once I get going, I find that it’s so easy to push aside any worries and anxieties that might have been holding me back. I don’t ignore them, but I do my best not to let them dictate what I know I’m capable of. And once I get going, I become even more addicted and want to continue travelling – to keep exploring, discovering, learning; to keep finding those places where I’ll stand in awe and fascination; to once in a while, shake my head in disbelief at some strange and unpredictable encounters.
The travel bug is taking me to Guatemala today. ¡Vamos!
Well, 2015 is here. It’s another year…
The past two years have been so incredibly meaningful, dotted with innumerable occasions that my soul yearns always to remember.
Like a firework bursting in the black sky ignited by a single spark and illuminating the night, my life has been like a firework with the initial decision to quit my job to free up time for travel having produced treasured accomplishments, triumphs, memories, friends – each highlight part of a collective memory but flickering uniquely and unmistakably in the kaleidoscope of my mind.
The past couple years have been filled with experiences where I’ve not only stepped outside my comfort zone, but expanded it so that I now feel comfortable in so many more situations and environments. They have been years where I’ve pushed myself to my limits and reached new frontiers in what I now know I’m capable of. They have been years where I’ve crossed lines that I assumed were so far beyond my reach, only to realize my surprise when I discovered that my strength could take me so far beyond these lines. They have been years where I’ve periodically stopped and shaken my head, marvelling at how everything comes together almost magically at a common time and place to create something really special.
And they’ve been years that will fill my upcoming years with laughter and merriment each time I recount the strange circumstances in which I’ve found myself that sound utterly ridiculous to declare as fact (That time a guy tried to mug me in Morocco/That time the marshrutka dropped me off at the side of the highway in Georgia, 10km outside of the town I wanted to get to/That time I hiked to the top of a mountain in Taiwan only to have a 360 degree view of dense fog/That time I rode a bicycle in Thailand to a hospital to get the stitches on my foot removed/That time I fell in a moat in Myanmar/That time I was sleeping in a hammock at a hippy lodge in Nicaragua/etc/etc/)…
Like any year, I know this one will also be filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, trials and tribulations that will continue to make me question and wonder.
But you know, 2015 is another year of life. It’s another year in which I continue to breathe and I know that once in a while, my breath will be taken away by something so beautiful and unexpected. It’s another year in which my heart continues to beat, and I’ll appreciate that sometimes it will beat lightly in comfort and safety while other times it will pound to its limits, like on a challenging trek.
It’s another year to dream, another year to learn, another year to love, and, of course, another year to travel!
The past years have been so good to me, and I’m grateful. Yet somehow I know, without any tangible proof, that the best is still yet to come. Always.
Somewhere among these terraces lives a 58 year old man (possibly 59 now) whom I met back in March on the last day of my 9-day trek to Poon Hill and Annapurna Base Camp. While I was trekking back to lower ground, he stopped me outside his modest home at the edge of a cliff with a view of immeasurable beauty, eager to make conversation and learn a bit about me and what had brought me to Nepal, to ask if I had any cigarettes or candy to share with him.
Though it didn’t come wrapped in shiny paper, meeting him and sharing his company was a gift, one of countless gifts I’ve received this past year. Despite the fatigue in my muscles, the hunger in my stomach, the solitude in my heart, the fact that I was sleeping in a different bed almost every night warmed by a sleeping bag I had only rented, the unsettling reality that I had a little less money with each passing day… Amidst so much uncertainty and perceived dysfunction, I felt immense peace, joy, and love at the time.
I struggle to find this peace at times, especially being back in Canada where the world seems to spin so much faster and I sometimes feel like I’m being left behind with the much quicker pace of life. We struggle so often to find something so right or ideal that we often fail to recognize what we do have. This Christmas, I am grateful for what I do have – the presence, health, and support of my family being the greatest gift after an exceptionally difficult month.
I recall the peace I experienced that day and wish this peace for all of you. I’m thankful for the interactions I’ve had with you, no matter how much time or distance has separated us. I am grateful to you, as I am grateful to that 58 year old man, for being part of my life in one way or another, and contributing to the wrinkles on my face from smiling so often.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays 🙂
After I quit my job 20 months ago, one of the first things I did was apply for a new passport in preparation and anticipation for all the travelling I’d be doing.
Well, that “new” passport has been used and abused, stickered and stamped on more times than I can count. It’s been my most frequent travel companion. And all the pages are full. In a way, it was a sign for me to come home.
Flipping through the pages is like reliving my journeys or reading my biography. Every visa is the beginning of countless stories, every exit stamp the end of a chapter.
Last month, the German immigration officer at Tegel Airport in Berlin was struggling to find a place for my exit stamp and told me, “You need a new passport.” I applied for a new one today and can only hope to have a fraction of the experiences and adventures with my next passport.
The only downside – I can’t spontaneously leave the country until I get the new passport within a couple weeks!
I’ve been back home in Canada for just over a month now, and I still get astounded at how expensive things are here compared to many places I’ve been the past year and a half. I can’t help thinking that the value proposition for staying here all year round quickly decreases when you realize how fast your money goes out of your pocket here and just how far your money goes elsewhere. A few examples from a day out last week:
GO Train from Ajax (suburb of Toronto) to Union Station (downtown Toronto) – $8.10 CAD
Train in Thailand from Bangkok to Ayutthaya (~83 km) – 20 THB, or ~$0.67 CAD
TTC (Toronto public transport system – subway/buses/streetcars) – $3 CAD
Microbus in Nepal from Kathmandu to Boudha (~7 km) – 30 NPR, or ~$0.34 CAD
Chicken shawarma in downtown Toronto – $6.54 CAD
Chicken kebab in Sofia, Bulgaria – 2.70 BGN, or ~$1.96 CAD
Medium coffee at Tim Horton’s – $1.65 CAD
Espresso in Berat, Albania – 50 ALL, or ~$0.51 CAD
Haircut (including tax and tip) – $20 CAD
Haircut in Kalaw, Myanmar – 1000 MMK, or ~$1.11 CAD
These numbers make the thought of travelling again all the more appealing! …
Patrick and the World 