You should all be ashamed of yourselves!! Travel is fun! You can't have negative feelings about it! Bored! Come on!! Ha, ha, ha... Just kidding!!!
I get bored quite often, especially when I am travelling alone... And lonely sometimes too, though not so much, I am pretty good at keeping myself company :-) I just look in the mirror and start a conversation... Ha, ha, ha...
No seriously, the worst times are ,when travelling alone that is, when I am having a meal... It is so much nicer to eat with somebody... When I am alone, I just scoff the food away and leave... Sometimes I get the feeling everybody is staring at me wondering why I am sitting alone, but that is most likely paranoia! Ha, ha, ha...
Now i'm travelling central and southern India and 3 days ago was the first time I talked to some other western tourist (had the chance to chat, finally) in 5 weeks! There were just not many of them, I didn't see any for 3 weeks and a few the last two weeks, but they were always in groups and hard to approach... I can tell you I was quite happy to strike up a conversation with them and for 2 days we travelled together... What a revelation not to be the only one to be stared at on the bus and not the only one to be asked the same question over and over again... The one thing I really appreciate when returning home is the annonimity! Nobody looking at me or talking to me... I could never be famous, what a horrible life that must be!!
The advantages of course are also plentiful, you meet more locals, some of which you can have really good conversations with... That is not the standard, what your name, country name, job etc.. conversation... And in the end those are the most precious experiences I think... Sights are nice of course and I can really enjoy walking around a beautiful ruin or temple, especially early morning and off season when I have it all to myself, but things that linger on in my mind are the small things... A little kid coming up to me and explaining to me in perfect English about the history of an ancient monument, or a student telling me about his future plans, the difficulties and the hopes he has, while sharing a crowded general class train carriage... That is what I remember the most... Actually it is true what they say, just getting to a place is mostly more fun than the actual place!
And as for having to always do something when travelling... A load of bullocks, I often just hang around and do nothing even if I could be more 'productive' and do a beautiful trek like everybody else, or see this or that ruin in town... If I would do all that my brain would get an overload and I suspect I wouldn't even enjoy it... At times I don't enjoy things as they are now, that is when I need to take a break...
Nough said!
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