"You can't drive around with a tiger in yer car, you can't drive around with a tiger in yer car, you can't drive round wif a tiger in yer car, but you can be happy if you've a mind to" ~ Roger Miller, from the song 'You Can't Roller-skate In A Buffalo Herd'
I dunno, nothing better to do. Need some change in my life. "Why India? Just go to Footscray, there's heaps of Indians there. Europe? Fuck dude, I'm from Europe, what you wanna know?!" Yep, thanks Goran (my bestie). It's hard to explain the urge I have to want to travel. I'm sure everyone will get it at some time in their life. Hurry up, 'cos I can't be arsed explaining myself.
I guess this trip evolved out of hatred. Hatred for my job, being stuck in my dead-end, stress, anxiety, depression, 9-years-of-bitch-bosses-bitch-colleagues-f*ck-sh*t-w*nk-AAAARGHH job with much wailing and gnashing of teef. Hatred for all the money I was earning and immediately blowing on I don't know what. Clothes, toys, stuff and things. Unnecessary things, necessary at the time (yes I really needed that pair of furry bear mittens. Just in case. Because, you never know ay...) but so easily put away in storage and forgotten. Perhaps when I return home, I'll realise how fantastic all this stuff really is and how much a part of me they-aaaah who am I kidding, I'mma eBay the lot of that garbage. Anyone wanna buy a commie flag? It's coming back into fashion, honest.
A big inspiration was of course Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman's 'Long Way Round' and 'Long Way Down' docos, two men riding motorcycles around the globe. Real old-school boys-own adventure kinda stuff, yeah! I've always loved motorcycles, so this concept of world travel immediately struck a chord with me. Ping. I needed to escape the tedium of nine-to-five (or six-to-four in my case) and live, proper live, with all the danger, uncertainty and adventure that my life was lacking, and that the world outside of Melbourne, Australia promised me.
I couldn't have begun this trip without the support, encouragement and incessant nagging and prodding with pointy objects of my dearest friends who put up with all my whining and being miserable in my rut for so many years. Thanks cats n' kittens, you know who you are. I know who you are, and I'll miss you all, and your nagging too ^_^
The realisation that there was more to experience out in the world than what Melbourne could offer me (ace coffee and food, fantastic company, so much culture and ummm why did I ever leave..?) finally propelled me to quit my job (burning my forklift truck to the ground 'accidentally' a month before I left, ahahaha!), collect up all my shiny shiny monies and fling myself around the world in search of something, I don't know what but hopefully I'll find on my journey. Illicit drugs perhaps.
It was only once I got on zi plenn zi plenn, and 'please fasten your seatbelts and make sure your seats and folding trays are in their full upright position' that I looked beyond all the boredom and same-same that I was escaping and saw everything and everyone I held dear, getting smaller and smaller-hey-I-can-see-my-house-from-here before they were enveloped by cloud and separated by ocean, borders, long long queues at airport Customs & Immigration (pick up your game Heathrow airport). I've left a lot behind. There's a heck of a lot to miss. Aww. In the famous words of Arnold Schwarzeneggar from Terminator, "I'll be back"... Oooh also, "I'll need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle". Haha, youse should download that PocketArnold iPhone app! "I hope you've left enough room for my fist, because I'm gonna RAM IT INTO YOUR STOMACH!!"
Aaaahh... yes yes.
