The randomness of the title is quite apparent to me. I guess it is two subjects which require separate posts but both happen to be constantly on my mind right now. I always have to have something on mind it seems and with no real worries to speak of at present the focus seems to have moved towards areas of the trip which always tend to be left until the last minute, practicalities and the age old question, why am I going travelling?
I have neither the stereotypical answer 'to find myself' or a unique, deep answer which makes my adventure any more interesting than anybody else's. The truth is there is no sole reason that makes me want to travel, there are many. I do agree with what many have said regarding travelling being infectious, this will be my fourth major trip now, this one is actually set to be twice the length of the other three put together. Firstly I can at least console myself with the fact that I am not travelling to escape from anything, that may have been the case in the past but one does not normally spend three and a half years saving up consistently to run away from something, chances are you'd want to run a lot sooner if that was the case. I think the first reason is the genuine curiosity I have always had about other countries and cultures. I've had this since I was a child and studied South America in geography and watched the world cup in 1990 with nations I'd never even heard of. I also feel that I fit in with both the people and the lifestyle on the road. I love arriving in a new town by bus and rushing with 50 other travellers for the last 10 beds in a youth hostel, I also love getting to know the people staying in that hostel, exchanging stories from the road, sharing tips on where to go next. I have never felt more confident than those last few months in Central America in 2008/09 and I like that side of me, I never knew I had it until then. It is being in these bizarre surroundings with these crazy new friends that inspires me to do such random things as hitch hiking on the back of a truck in Belize, cave diving in Guatemala, climbing a volcano in Nicaragua, snorkelling in Costa Rica, the list goes on. I see glimpses of that person at times here in this tiny village in the Peak District but I almost feel as though people here know me too well and to start again and then again the next day where I can be myself or I can change who myself is on a daily basis if I want, it doesn't matter.
I suppose that is the main reason now I think about it, I'd say that's a damn good reason to look forward to this trip, there is also the small matter of getting pissed with my best mate around the world of course which is also a very good thing. Then looking beyond that there are the usual reasons like getting a tan, finding exotic women and eating something that isn't Maccy D's for under a fiver.
I would say at present I am looking forward to India the most, I feel going from Istanbul in Europe and landing in the utter chaos of Delhi is going to be the biggest culture shock we are likely to face though in all honesty it could very well be stepping out into the Eternal city of Rome and its millions and millions of people after 3 and a half years of living in a village of a couple of hundred. I think there are many things i'm looking forward to about each country and the trip as a whole as well as the many many many things I have yet to discover yet.
A small piece about smart phones then. I have never owned one until a couple of days ago. My friend had sold me one for £40 and I decided to get it working. I am admitidly late to the i-pad/android/i-phone craze and don't know that much about it. The phone I have the is far from one of the best on the market but it does have several features which make me think having one may now be essential for travelling. the apps for flights/hostels and city maps aside I feel that if I were to purchase one which has all this plus a decent camera, radio and keypad for the blog I may have many of the essentials in one fairly small phone which would leave me with valuable space for other things in my backpack and i'd also save considerably on costs for things like internet cafe's which can amount to a fair bit over a period of time.
I do have several concerns though, firstly the cost of something decent like an I-pad is considerably more than the modest android that I currently posess. To spend that amount of money I'd need to know that the thing would work pretty much everywhere and that I would be able to do this using wi-fi connections without being charged ridiculous amounts of money as I have read about in a BBC News article. I would also need to buy one outright and avoid any contract as I am only in the UK until September(that feels so good to say :-)). Then there is the risk factor, firstly the cost of replacing all the essential features would amount to a lot in the first place. There is also the risk that carrying such a device would make me/us more likely targets to thieves in the first place. This is the reason I've no plans to take a laptop or have resisted the temptation to buy a four figure priced camera but this seems like a risk that may well be worth taking, I just need to get the facts first.
If anybody knows anything about this please leave me a comment.
Thanks
Chris
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