The Continuum of Travellers

We have met such a random cast of characters on this trip so far...and we are not even talking about the local Indians, the Westerners who have moved to India to pursue a life out here or even the plethora of animals residing on the busy streets and beaches. We are talking about the traveller...the backpacker...the adventurer...the deep thinker...the poet...the believer...the non-believer...the escape artists...the smoker...there are so many it is hard to categorize them all. Alex has already been around the world so this is her second time and from what she tells me, this trip is a very different experience than her first one...no doubt her age and life experiences play a role in that, but also the places she visited as well. This is my first time, despite dipping my baby toe in Israel and dipping my big toe in Europe, but this time is such a change from those times. I had such a preconceived notion about who the traveller was...what they look like...what they wear...how they act...what they read...the activities they embark on...even how they talk and the words they use. Alex found this so entertaining and certainly humoured me throughout my soliloquies about how I will be when I travel and what I will pack and what I will wear. She is a good girl...she really is, but she knew better. This is how I pictured it...Me and Al at the airport...Alex looking cool and chill as usual and me with my very thin nude coloured money belt craftily hidden beneath my travel friendly outfit, which would consist of those beige or black travel material trousers that your can zip into a pair of shin length knickerbockers and then even further into some shorts when it was very hot (oh, and they get dry super fast when wet). I would be wearing a tank top with full spf 50++ lotion slathered into my lily white skin, extra lip seal with spf 15++ on my lips and hair in a ponytail. My big backpack would consist of the most amazing first aid kit the world has ever seen including all malaria tablets, creams for random abrasions, tummy upset pills, gauze, Neosporin, etc...and an eclectic array of travel friendly and very neutral travel attire including hiking boots and clothing for both hot and cold weather. A sleeping bag would be attached to the side of my pack and the smaller carry on pack would consist of camera, random wires for re-charging, Ipod, money, passports, USB with all documents scanned on, all travel itineraries and the Lonely Planet India book with pages highlighted and dogeared for reference. So, do you have the picture in your mind...please remember that Alex would just be her normal usual cool self with some very street hip outfit on, flip flops or even bare feet and 1 book to read that she would trade with someone on her journey. She is a minimalist after all. Well, after much discussion and a bit of convincing, Alex forced me to abandon some of my more "nerdy" ideas, such as the money belt and zipper trousers, but allowed me to pretty much take the rest of my traveller's image of the perfect backpack contents and clothing. So here we are nearly eight weeks in, travelling...I am a traveller, just like Alex...I can say that I am part of the elite club of so few that actually break free and do it...travel the world and you know what...we come in all different shapes and sizes and everything I pictured before we left and all the preconceived notions and imagined figures I concocted in my psyche do actually exist in so many forms. There is the Chill Traveller who comes away with no travel book to be fettered to and just goes where the wind takes them...they pack light and spend money on musical instruments, mind expanding drugs and experiences and books galore rather than a clean and comfy place to rest. There is the Fork in the Road Traveller who escapes the real world at home, as it is getting to hard and decisions must be made to come and find which path to take...and sometimes it isn't always the one littered with rainbows and butterflies. They need a clean clear space to think, to focus, to sort it all out. Their time is spent filling days with activities and misadventures, while their nights are spent thinking, aching, pining and crying over lost love or new love (not just the love of a person, but maybe a career or some other attachment). There are the Baby Travellers and they are usually young and have great skin and are looking for a party...club, restaurant, beach...no matter the location, just party party party. They are very active and eager to meet new people to find out where to be seen and heard! There are poets and artists and they come away to be inspired and moved and find some sort of muse. This usually happens around every corner and not always in the most obvious places like the Taj Mahal. Then there is me...what kind of traveller am I? I don't actually think I even know. I had no idea what to expect...despite my preconceived notions about clothing and first aid kits...(I didn't even think that India would have palm trees), but they are everywhere. I think it is more about the getting there than the destination for me...I thought we would come away and work with the disabled and neglected children, but this is so far from what we want to do and when we have found ourselves in places with this population, we tend to spend more time with the abandoned dogs surrounding the school or daycare centre. I think this is going to change me...change my life...Alex's too. Maybe that is what happens for everyone who breaks free from the tethers of "normal" life and the confines of the cages we build around ourselves...not that I am complaining, as my cage is quite plush, but this world is vast and people live in so many ways. So despite the type of traveller I am or Alex is, despite what category we may or may not fit into...I think it is the lines we walk, the experiences we have, the people and animals we meet, the food we taste, the music we hear and the flowers we smell (all the flowers, not just the pretty ones) that make all the difference...not the outfits we wear or the first aid kit we string together.