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Published: April 9th 2010
Gawd Almighty!- I've been recently having some serious flash-backs of stuff that’s happened during my 13 months away - both good and bad. I realise that I’ve managed to NOT record some of the most memorable moments of my entire time away, either consciously or unconsciously. Some tasty flashbacks include:
•
Adelaide: having spent an exotic, sunny and welcoming Christmas with Hannah and her large family and then being asked to leave on Boxing Day because I'd threatened her big mental German Shepherd Dog
•
Koh Phi Phi, Thailand in a shitty, tiny hostel room/cell having a night time trystwith an English chick who’d gotten locked out of her room next door to mine
•
Bangkok, Thailand being chased and attacked by a group of rabid dogs in the centre of the city behind a temple. They smell your fear you know.
Good times - as they say.
Which gets me to thinking why I started this travel blog in the first place. Firstly, to avoid sending out over-long group emails updating everybody on my travels. You know the ones where you feel slightly snubbed by the impersonal nature of, “Hey, everybody! (but to no one in particular)”. Secondly, I thought it would be fun way of writing instead of the dreaded diary - combining second-rate-misanthropic travel journalism 😱 with
exquisitely amateur photographs.
But soon after I hit the road I procrastinated about writing things-up, as travel-writer Paul Theroux
observes:
“...the very things that stimulate writing are frequently obstacles to the writing process. Travel is a great stimulant...but it is hell to write while you are travelling.” I couldn't agree more. I'd feel a lack of motivation followed by strange tinges of guilt and then I'd suddenly awaken and write everything up in one long marathon session of recollection and typing. Blogging is more difficult than I thought. What's more - who you are writing for is an important motivator - and as my own mother doesn't get to read about my travels online - despite the many months away from home - that motivation is very hard to maintain.
But I haven't given up. Looking back over these entries (over 70 now) I've since realised that writing about my adventures has been one of the most worthwhile things that I’ve done during this whole trip. And crucially, I found a friend who most
munificently printed my blog entries and made it into a 200 page book whereby she sent it onto my mother as a Christmas present. All that writing has now suddenly become very special as my mother tells me over the phone about reading Burmese jungles and camping under the stars in the Aussie outback. This certainly makes up for the lack of up-to-the-minute accounts.
I hope you can keep tagging along on the adventure.
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