So far this journal has only revealed the thoughts and insights into traveling, or things that are somehow related to that anyway. "What's your plan?" is the common question going around. And I do believe my response of shrugged shoulders is becoming irritating to some! So, here's the plan. There's a lot of pretty places to see in the world, and it's a little bit on the big side so I'm going to start by dividing it into smaller sections - makes it a little easier to tackle;) So I'm starting out with Southeast Asia, which includes - Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. While I'm over on that side of the world I would also love to see Tibet and Nepal. So far the plan is to have no plan, that way I will be open to whatever comes my way. I have no need for restrictions, no commitments to jobs over there, just the freedom to travel. And I'm not good at seeing the tourist sights so there's no way to plan when that's basically what people plan around. I will get to go wherever i want to go, whenever i want to go, with whomever i want to go! If i find somewhere i really like, i'll stay until i want to leave. if i decide i want to make some money and a job presents itself i'll work for awhile, until i'm ready to move on. If I want to get back to a more "canadian" feel, I'll jump down to Australia or New Zealand preferably and work for awhile there. Something tells me i'm going to miss the serving industry a lot, and the beauty of that is i can get a serving job in those countries.
So the planning end of this is quite easy. So far I have my flight - october 1st flying from Toronto to Hong Kong with an 8hr layover - so hopefully i can get out of the airport and view the city once again - then flying into Bangkok by 10:30pm. I am looking into booking my first night in a hostel so i can at least ensure i'm not wandering the streets of Bangkok drinking snakes blood. I could get a nice hotel for my first night but I think that it's best to be in a place where there will be other travelers. By the sounds of it there won't be as many travelers this time of year, since i'm flying in during the rainy season, which generally ends at the end of october. So that's the plan thus far, fly into Bangkok, spend the night, see what presents itself, maybe stay another night, maybe get on a bus or a train or a plane and go south, or maybe north, or east, or west! who knows! How am i supposed to know i haven't been there and i'm not there now! I've planned things before, and they never really pan out the way you expect them to. I went to BC, didn't like the job I had planned on keeping, didn't like the city I moved to - which led to disappointment. Moved to California, at least the school end of that deal worked out but my housing plan was shattered by the crazy esoteric healer woman who i'm pretty sure was trying to kill me by the balls of negative energy she shot at me every day. I went to Greece for a job, the job turned a little crazy due to the infestation of bed bugs and the crazy greek man that was scaling walls to climb into girls rooms. But each flaw in the plan always led to a better adventure so i learned to go with the flow. but now i'm just going to skip out on the part where i have to deal with getting out of the situations that don't work. We all build up ideas and expectations of things and play out scenerios in our heads, and when do they ever work out like we imagine? I would rather just be there, with no expectations and therefore no disappointments. I'm not flying out into an image of palm trees and beautiful beaches. I'm flying out into the idea that there's going to be many beautiful experiences, mirrored with less than beautiful experiences. I think denial and ignorance is what generally allows people to set out on the traveling road, because sometimes when you know what you're going into you really wouldn't want to go, but once you're there it's worth it.
I've made a packing list which i will somehow force myself to cut in half, and i've put in an order for a backpack half the size of the one i intended on bringing. So that's the plan - bring only what i need, book a hostel for my first night, see which way the wind blows me...
I've finally begun to get excited about this journey. I've been spending so much time convincing other people that i'm not being stupid that i haven't even thought about how amazing this is going to be! Just to make sure I hadn't gone completely crazy I asked my dad (a reliable source for my sanity) if he thought i was being stupid heading out on my own, with no one and no plan. He said, "No, if you waited for someone else then you'd be doing what someone else wanted 50% of the time, or more." that was enough for me. He says i'm not crazy then i'm good to go!
If my intention was to be vague i'm sure i've accomplished that. I apologize to those who stress over the absence of knowledge, but really if i gave you an intention of travel it would be on false ground anyway. Life has it's own direction, the wind blows where it wants, and when it all comes down to it we really don't have that much control. The secret to happiness must lie in the act of acceptance. Accept that we make the decision to go a certain way, but we have little control over what gets thrown in our path. Find comfort in the fact that I quite enjoy being alive and really don't have any intention of ruining that for myself:)
