Monday, February 1, 2010

Internal monologue 1.0

So with just a few days left before I hit the road for 3 months, what's going through my mind?

Well here is one thought-

Three Months!!?? How is it going to feel being away from home for that long?! Don't get me wrong I am dying to find out, but I have no frame of reference to understand quite what it's like to live out of a suitcase for that long. Mostly I'm worried about my tendency to 'get comfy' and spread my wares wherever I land as though I was going to stay a while.

I once left a cell phone charger in a hotel room in Vegas; they shipped it to where I was staying in LA, only for me to leave it behind there too!

I once left a pair of jeans hanging on the back of a hotel bathroom door in Fort Lauderdale (with which I was never reunited), a cell phone in a hotel lobby, tax returns in a rental car... the list goes on.

You see where I am going with this- over 87 nights it's quite possible that I might lose/ leave behind the entire contents of my backpack, returning to London with an empty backpack. The backpack itself I'm sure will be safe as it's Tiffany's, so no doubt I'll be protecting it with my life.

This makes me think- if the weight of protecting borrowed goods is so great, maybe I should just borrow everything!

Ok not such a good idea.

On the other hand, if this whole journey is about self discovery and starting anew, then maybe purging the contents of the backpack wouldn't be such a bad thing- maybe some kid in India would enjoy a new pair of Ben Sherman trainers.

4 comments:

  1. How's it going to feel?

    Here's what I found on previous long trips to Asia:

    Time seems to slow right down. A month will pass you by in an instant when you are at home, engrossed in your routine, but on the road in a strange place with your senses constantly overloaded by new things, time just seems to pass more slowly ... a month could seem like half a year.

    Your experiences will be more extreme ... you'll meet the coolest people, the biggest a**holes, you'll eat the most delicious food and smell the most disgusting things, you'll see some stunningly beautiful places and some truly astonishing squalor. You'll be more relaxed/happy/infuriated/scared/amused/irritated/amazed/bored than you almost ever get at home.

    You may even return home at the end of your trip, exhausted from the long voyage, then realize you can't wait to get back to where you just were.

    Anyway ... that's what I learned. Your mileage may vary!

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  2. It's ok to loose stuff, as long as you make a pact with yourself to replace each item with something new in your immediate location. You may end up with a priceless eclectic collection by the end.

    Living out of a suitcase isn't so bad, I did it for 2 months in Japan... you start to realize how trivial all that stuff jammed in closets and storage space is.

    Have a great time!

    C

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  3. I can't even tell you how many chargers I have left at hotels. I left an expensive watch at a hotel once and they found it and shipped it back! I also left a pair of really nice underwear at a hotel and had the nerve to call and ask if they were there. I think that was pushing it, right? But I really did like them! Oh well, not as cool as finding Ben Sherman kicks, but maybe someone out there is enjoying my fancy underwear :)

    Enjoy... and my tip to you is don't bring anything you will miss if you lose it!

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  4. not to mention your excellent sense of direction may hinder your progress in circumnavigation...

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