"It's traveling!"

My friend Benno, also known as my personal editor or alternately the first person to read my blog and to IM me comments, asked me a few questions about my last post that I thought I should expand on... He asked me to explain what I meant when I said backpacker/traveller, tourists, and gap-year-tragedies. I certainly do not consider myself an expert on this topic, but after having backpacked for a few months, I can attempt to share some thoughts on the matter.

In fact, I guess I have been thinking a lot about the backpacking phenomenon lately... It seems to me that if you have a little money saved up, this is the perfect time to pick up and disconnect. I met so many people who had just been laid off and in their words "paid to travel." This seems to be a time that is shaking everyone out of their comfort zones and forcing people to think outside the box. People typically leave their homes to reevaluate and try and see things from new perspectives.

My favorite part about traveling, and forgive me if this makes me sound uninteresting or whatever, but more than seeing the sites and the country, is meeting new people. People fascinate me. Up until my arrival in Angouleme on Thursday night, I was still meeting people - people who wanted to share. Somehow people seem more open when they don't know the other. When in transit in London on Thursday, after having slept a few scant hours on the plane, I found myself in that uncomfortable waiting mode (when traveling, waiting is undoubtedly the most frustrating part, put me on the plane and I'm a happy girl), when a German girl with very sweet eyes asked me if I would like to switch magazines with her. One thing lead to the next and minutes later we were having an in-depth conversation about her long-distance boyfriend living in New York who she was planning on marrying. Later that day in Roissy, I stood in line with an ex-60s hippy on her way to Bulgaria to visit her daughter in the Peace Corps. Just by her description, I think those of you who know me will understand why this woman and I just hit it off!

My friend Calvin, Canadian boy I met in Laos, to me is many ways the ultimate "traveller." Every time something new and insane happened to me, I would laugh it off and say, "more stories!" He would respond, " it's traveling!" that kind of stuck - it became his catch phrase, I'll always remember him with his hippy baggy Thai pants saying those memorable words. He would know about traveling since he spent most of his youth on a boat around the world - lots of stories...

But there is a major difference between the backpackers who try and live a genuine experience, by not staying in the most expensive resorts -ok they cannot afford it, but it's more than that - and the tourists on holiday who just want to relax and soak up the sun. The holidayers only have a set number of days and lie in front of the sun screaming "burn baby burn!" Ha, no I'm categorizing I know, not everyone is like this, but inevitably when one is on a strict timeline, one simply cannot live the experience the same way those who do not worry about time do. Maybe that in itself is the most precious aspect of backpacking, in theory, you stay as long as you wish... When you like a place, stay an extra day, an extra week? Why not? I'm reminded of an Israeli couple we met in Laos, who when we asked for how long they were traveling - standard introductory question - they freely exclaimed, " 'til we die!!"

What I also loved about traveling was the unknown, the spontaneity of the whole affair and while my particular journey was relatively unsponstaneous compared to others, I still loved not having a plan... Getting on a bus going to a town you heard is worth seeing, but having no idea where to stay, and by extension to meet? Who would have predicted that on that fateful day on the pier on Koh Tao I would meet a doctor who would in turn treat me to 4 days in fancy resorts? He, by the way, was the ultimate Flashpacker - backpackers who have had enough of roughing it!

I will be brief on my analysis of "gap year tragedies," for they are by far the least interesting, and the ones Darragh and I hiked across all of Koh Phi Phi to avoid. On my way to Koh Phi Phi, I found myself stuck in a minivan with 4 drunk Irish girls. They had been chugging the beer since 8AM and were not going to stop. Those girls can hold their liquor! Well, it was simply revolting to watch. They were sweating like animals and to make matters worse they were blasting their hardcore trance music in the car subjecting all of us to listen to it. It was too loud for us to listen to our Ipods. One of the girls kept rudely screaming, "Taxi man! Volume!" A few days later, I heard of an English girl walk into a tattoo parlor again on Phi Phi demanding the artist to remove the tattoo she had gotten the night before. The poor man tried to explain that the tattoo was ummm permanent? The girl in her feverishly wasted state was apparently under the impression that the tattoo was removable. When she found out that the god-awful tattoo was there for life, she apparently freaked out - serves her right. If you have not guessed already, I have no sympathy for these types.

Apart from my unfortunate encounter with the Irish girls, I have to say that I almost exclusively met people worth talking to and from whom I learned so much. I will miss them! Print this post