Travelling Aspect of Travelling

Hostel living, living out of a backpack, boat rides, flights, buses and trains. Somehow all of these things have become a normal part of my life. I remember thinking when I first left that I didn't have a clue where I was going and people were surprised when I told them I had no plan. But I've surprised myself at how easy I've found the travelling aspect of travelling. This entry is all about the actual travelling aspect of travelling. That sounds bizarre but what I mean is, the lifestyle that you're living, the not being settled, only having a few precious items to your name, getting from one place to the next and ultimately putting more pins in the map. So I've got a lot of thoughts buzzing around my head and to put them down as words seems quite hard right now. For one I'm currently sat on a coach to Kuala Lumpur, I'm tired and have just written a good 25 pages of my journal. See what I mean about lots of thoughts? Maybe now isn't the best time to write a blog but when better than when you're trying to kill time on a long bus journey. So where do I start? Travelling isn't just about visiting beautiful new places every day and soaking up a different culture or meeting new people and getting drunk (which all are amazing aspects of the whole experience, not going to lie!). Travelling is about realising what you can live without, what you don't need to stress about anymore, that life really is too short to worry about silly things, that a backpack full of belongings is the only thing you actually need. The first thing is living in and sharing hostels with people you've never even met. Things you've previously cared about all go out the window. Some of the hostels can be a bit grim to say the least. A cold shower and putting toilet roll in the bin, not the loo soon become a normal part of your day. Sometimes the showers aren't really what you'd define as clean. Sometimes people have sex in them without being discreet. Sometimes people have sex in the next bed from you.. Without being discreet! Sometimes lights are left on, people come in drunk, others pack their bags and leave really early in the morning and wake you up. There's everyone's mess all over the floor and sometimes every time you turn over your bed feels like it's going to break or there might not even be a guard on the top bunk so you could fall out. Sometimes the walls are paper thin and you can hear every little sound in the corridor in the middle of the night. Sometimes you love a hostel, feel at home there and make lovely new friends, and then within a few short days you're packing up your belongings again and moving on to the next joyous one. No where is home. You have no privacy or me time. That said, I love it. Despite all of the things I have just said about hostel living they are all part of the charm and for me they are in no way negative aspects of the whole experience. Yes they can be grim and sometimes interesting but that's what I love about it. Where are you going to end up, what sort of hostel will you be in next? You find yourself comparing hostels to previous ones that were good places to live and stay. After all this, the hostel in Bangkok still ticks all the boxes for me. Living out of a backpack is surprisingly amazing. You think you need all of that crap back home but actually you'll be more surprised at what you can live without. I don't need straighteners or a hair dryer, tonnes of makeup and lotions and potions that are supposed to do lots of different things. All I need is my essentials and basics. I even find I have too much stuff and want to send some of it home! It's lovely when you realise you can survive on a few items of clothing and a few essential toiletries. At first I found carrying and putting on my backpack nothing short of torture. It felt like such a mission to pick it up and try and get the beast on my back. When it eventually got on my back, it would feel horrendous. How will I ever get used to lugging this thing around with me everywhere I go?! I wondered aloud a fair few times! But now, as with everything, I've gotten used to it and it just feels like second nature to me shoving it on in a hurry when you're running for a bus or getting chucked off a train without realising it was your stop. My backpack is my home and my pride and joy. It has everything I need in there and I have even learned to pack it efficiently, quickly and in a way that makes it feel less heavy. One of the fun parts of travelling is the travelling. Waking up and deciding to go somewhere new and how you'll get there. A boat to the next island, a flight to the next country, a bus to the mainland? At times when we've been fast asleep on our means of travel I've thought back and thought we definitely look like travellers. When I've seen people who are travelling passed out on a bus, fast asleep with the backpack beside them, I've wondered why they are so exhausted. Now I know. If you're on a long journey, the only thing you want to do is sleep. On a boat I just can't help myself, I'm asleep within minutes. I've travelled on long bus journeys back home and manage to stay awake the entire time, but I think where we're constantly on the go and we have disjointed sleep in the hostels and we're so busy all the time, sometimes a long journey seems like quite a good time to get some much needed kip. It's all very exciting though as yet again you're off somewhere new. A new place to explore and to meet new people, share experiences and learn new things. Each bus ride, train journey, flight, boat ride is taking you into the unknown. I think one of the biggest things about travelling is what it does to your outlook/attitude. Things you'd stress about at home seem irrelevant when you've got no timescale, no pressure, no deadline, no commitments. Take last night for example.. Stef and I had a mad rush from Langkawi back to Penang to pick up Stef's camera and then head to the airport to get a flight to KL. We hadn't booked a flight but hastily scoffed down a McDonald's, hopped on the hour long bus journey to the airport, half an hour before the said flight departs, hoping and praying the whole time we'd make it. We didn't. The gate was closed and the plane was boarding. What did we expect with no reservation and turning up half an hour before the flight departs? This is something I would definitely stress about back home, I'd have made the booking, been at the airport a good length of time beforehand and I wouldn't have needed to rush or stress. Stef and I just said, 'oh well!' Shrugged our shoulders, got on the hour long bus back to George Town and said we'd sort it out tomorrow. I've always been a sucker for being on time for things and stressing out when I'm rushed or panicking about something going to plan. All that stress has gone out of the window as really and truly I just don't care! So what we didn't make that flight? We had no hostel booking for KL and no real need to be there on that day.. So we stayed an extra night in Penang and now we're on our merry way on the bus! All is well! No need to worry or panic about a thing. I think it just makes you very laid back about stuff you'd stress about back home because you know there's no reason to stress about stuff like that when you're away. That's the beauty of having no plans. You can come and go as you please, you don't have to worry if something didn't work out the way you wanted it to. Carefree and going with the flow. And that feels amazing! I was going to write a little bit about each place we'd visited in this blog but realise I have written a LOT already. I told you I had lots of thoughts! I'm going to write a separate blog containing just a little bit of detail about each place so this one isn't like War and Peace. I probably had more to say about the aspects of travelling but I won't bore you with those now! Off to enjoy the rest of this bus journey! Can't wait for KL!