UK, Czech and The Art of Travel

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My return to Europe brought with it a myriad of emotions. It was a move I felt I wanted and very much needed after the uncertainty of the previous 9 months.

A month later, I found myself back at London Heathrow with an 11-hour delay, waiting to return to KL and on to Sydney. During this journey, I read Alain De Botton’s The Art Of Travel, a gift from my friend Bill in Manchester, and the perfect accompaniment to the longest journey I have ever made. De Botton makes many astute observations as to the reasons why we travel, and it is with reflection on these musings that I compile this entry of my blog.

One thing that surprised me, after all the temples and palaces and skyscrapers and mountains and glaciers and beaches that I had seen and photographed, was how much my friends back in Europe seemed more interested in me than where I had been. I talked about the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat and China Beach and the Monsoon Palace and KL Twin Towers and Hampi and the Sydney Opera House. But they wanted to hear about “me”. They commented that my blogs had been very informative, but over time, as they became more polished, they lost a sense of my experience of the travel. De Botton suggests that we often forget in our plans for travel that we will bring ourselves along. When we imagine palm-tree fringed beaches, we don’t figure ourselves and our anxieties and ups and downs into the image. This is definitely true, but is maybe more symptomatic of holidays than travel. I was brought up in a culture of escaping to “2 weeks in the sun”, where the other place would be a refuge from “real life” and it often was disappointing to find that our family behaved just the same in Spain as in the UK. But when I embarked on this trip (and my previous travels in Greece and Turkey), however, I was fully aware that I would be present on the journey and was as interested in how the trip would affect me as much as in what I would see. So why did I not describe more fully in my blogs how I felt? Perhaps partly because I felt I would expose myself too much, or maybe because it is much more difficult to describe feelings rather than simply what you have seen. Words and descriptions hide all those everyday thoughts and feelings that make up the whole picture, but too much detail becomes just too tedious to read. But perhaps I did, as many of us do, focus too much on where I travelled to, and not enough on why or how I travelled.

De Botton suggests several reasons why we travel: because other countries are exotic, to fulfil a sense of curiosity, because (if we are from cities) nature provides us with a relief from the strains of working life, and because of the sublimity and beauty and art that some places hold. I can agree with all these reasons, and point to examples of each from my time in Asia. I have many special memories left with me that will likely last me a lifetime (but this then reminds me of a common travel conversation I had, about whether we or not we would bother travelling if we weren’t going to remember it later). Certainly my growing fascination with Asia stems from all these reasons to travel and I’m left now wondering why I didn’t travel sooner, why more people don’t travel, and where I will travel to next.

Exotic depends on your point of view and your own culture. And one thing that I hadn’t necessarily considered is how much my travel companions would add to the experience of my travel. I was concerned, initially, about travelling alone, and some friends said I was crazy to go alone for so long. But I actually spent relatively little time alone (bar a few bad days in Northern Thailand when I got fed up with gap year backpackers). I was fascinated by the different people I met, and learning their experiences and their cultures and even bits of their languages, meant that I was learning about more than just the countries in Asia that I was physically visiting. The sheer mix of nationalities that travel is amazing, but I was most intrigued by people that seem to have a mix even just within themselves! To give some examples, in India I travelled with a Japanese/Finish-Canadian girl. In Nepal I trekked with a Japanese-Brazilian guy from Australia. In Thailand I travelled with a Tibetan-Swiss guy. In Malaysia I met an Iraqi-American and a Moldovan-American, both of whom live in Malaysia. In Indonesia I met a Hong-Kong/Welsh girl from England. In New Zealand I travelled with 2 Iranian-Americans. And in Japan I met a Mexican/Vietnamese-American. I consider Satomi, Cristiano, Dondi, Alla, Chau, Puyan and Josephine to be my friends now, but I can’t imagine between them what they would consider normal and what exotic.

In addition to these friends, I also made friends with people from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Irak, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the USA.

I also met people of most of the world’s major religions, which also impacted greatly on my understanding of the world. I met Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Shintos. So many different ways to look at the world, and yet just one world to live in.

But back now for a moment to my friends' questions. They wanted to know more about me than my destinations. How did I feel travelling alone? Did I make any friends? Did I meet any girls? Did I fall for anyone? Did I fall in love? Which was the best country? Did I ever get fed up? Did I get sick? Did I ever want to give up? What were my best experiences in my travels?

Briefly, I can answer: fine, yes, yes, yes, no, India or Indonesia, yes, yes, yes, seeing wild tigers and visiting Watunggong village. I can’t go into too much detail here on these things, but I will, when I see you again next, elaborate further, if you are still interested.

Actually, with a lot of you, I have already had the chance to elaborate and talk through my travels in more depth and a rewarding part of my return was being able to reflect like this with people that matter to me. But my return to Manchester and Prague also gave me the chance to see how my friend’s lives had moved on in the time I had been away. And many had changed considerably! I only regret that I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to in Prague as it will be a long time before I get a chance to visit again.

So, what have I actually been doing since my last blog? Well, I returned to the UK from Japan, quite exhausted but extremely exhilarated. I spent the first few days back at home with my parents, enjoying the comfort of the family home, and visiting my brother and my sister’s family, which included reuniting the travelling bunny with it’s owner, my niece Hannah (for those of you that have not seen it, I posted an alternative blog to mine, featuring this stuffed toy in various key places along my travels. The blog is posted at www.travelblog.org/bloggers/hannahsbunny )

I won’t blog the all details of my Christmas as it was similar, probably, to most of yours. But I will mention some highlights for me, which include:

Seeing my mum and dad again at Manchester Airport
Drinking pints of bitter with Jon W
Christmas dinner with my family and an evening at my cousins (despite having flu!)
Going for pizza with Steve and Kate
Returning to favourite pubs in Manchester with a schoolfriend I’ve not seen for almost 20 years
Meeting Bill and Lexy’s son, Nate, and watching him have dinner
Sunday lunch out with the whole family in Bury
Chatting with Kevin about his new job and new car
Meeting Lucia again on NYE (9 months after we parted in India) at the Charles Bridge in Prague, just a few hours before the end of the year, and then celebrating midnight by the castle with her.
Staying with Bob, watching BSG Razor and talking rubbish with him for a few days
Spending some quality time with Lenka
A night out with Zsofi and the Italians
Watching New Year’s Day fireworks with Katka and seeing her new offices
An afternoon slivovice with Alessandro
Handing in my final notice at Synovate
Seeing Joe’s daughter, Anna, walking and smiling
A beer with Sonja and Carmen
Playing pool with Claire and Keith
Lads night out in Manchester on my last night in the city


So that is it. My travels are over. Tomorrow I start a new job in Sydney and everything changes again.

I’ll leave you with some photos of my favourite places on my travels and with some facts to maybe inspire you to travel (again) yourselves…

Furthest point South and East: Stewart Island, New Zealand
Highest point: Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal (4130m above sea level)
Lowest point: Waitomo caves, New Zealand (30m below sea level)
Shortest journey by plane: Wellington - Picton, New Zealand (20 mins)
Longest journey by plane: Tokyo - London (12 hours)
Longest journey by bus: Hanoi - Hoi An, Vietnam (13 hours)
Longest journey by train: Kota Baru - KL, Malaysia (14 hours)
Longest journey by boat: Bali - Flores, Indonesia (35 hours)
Longest non-stop walk: Annapurna Base Camp - Sinuwa, Nepal (10 hours)
Most time spent travelling with 1 person: 17 days (with Dondi in Thailand)
Biggest city visited: Tokyo, Japan (population 20 million)
Smallest village visited: Wattunggong, Indonesia (population 300)

Length of time travelled for: 38 weeks

And lastly, I’d like to say a big Thank You to Lucia, Priyam, James, Kate, Sally, Shay, Christina, Satomi, Jon, Robin, Jeet, Irina, Salik, Cristiano, Mike, Anais, Sylvie, Dondi, Aor, Kris, Viv, Karen, Dave, Stuart, Dan, Fleur, Jantian, Jan, Leo, Belle, John, Leanne, Chrissi, Seema, Ilona, Stacey, Andreas, Daniel, Emily, Patricie, Edita, Matilda, Alla, Erin, Omar, Angela, Hywel, Cara, Zsofi, Rob, Pauline, Sanju, Joel, Vian, Dince, Chau, Chris, Mike, Jenny, Joe, Julie, Melissa, Susanne, Annabel, Ines, Alex, Aaron, Puyan, Dimitry, Jason, Julie, Paul, Neil, Tim, Emma, Sharon, Sally, John, Duncan, Sarah, Fumie, Dan, Etsuko, Wayne, Keiko, Akiko and Josephine for being so entertaining and keeping me company on my travels.

And thanks to all of you for reading my blogs and writing your comments and making me feel less alone in this world than I ever expected.

Keep in touch…

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