It’s again this time of year. Like children wait for Christmas we wait the moment when we can travel again. Our backpacks were waiting for us, at least we like to think so… It’s time for us to at last practise our Chinese and set up for our big South-east Asia adventure. Two months in China, two elsewhere. Seeing at last China how it should be seen, as a wondeful, diverse place where tradition and modernity try to live together.
Like children, we have dreamt about this moment for months and it’s finally here.
What is it like to be on the road again, nine months after working over time every single week, nine months only interruped by a one-week holiday, having spent the last ten days without a day off?
I have mentioned a few times in older posts how expectations can kill your travel and your dreams and here is a perfect example of it.
Being exhausted by work I asked my boyfriend if we could spend a few days in the quiet mountains, leaving the city for later. There we went, with 10kg each on the back, hiking a random mountain for three hours, planning to stop and rest in one of the last 农家乐 (Farmer’s house) before really heading to the top of the mountain.
Dreamers, we were. In January, with a freezing breeze continually blowing on our faces, we didn’t think that the farmers do not live in the mountain in winter. Without water and electricity, it’s understandable. But when we realized that we were already half-way, exhausted and cold. Some touching people offered us their home for the night but you see, we learnt long ago that if too many things go against us, then we should stop fighting it. The buses to go, the accomodation, the food, everything had gone wrong from the beginning and thus we went down the mountain, hurrying to catch the last bus to the city. Three days later I smile at this and think: what q great life I have, what luxury it is to be able to delay my travels for a few days. Sure, there’s the physical pain, the main fears, the budget, the winter and many other things that make backpacking what it is; but how glad I am to be on the road again.
