Thoughts of a Nomadic One

Written: January 21, 2009

After a somewhat painful 19 hour train ride from Mumbai to Jodhpur, I arrived feeling sore and lacking energy. The reason for my state of being can be attributed to various factors. First of all, I suspected not eating for nearly a day may be an issue and I'd been doing that regularly in Mumbai and nearly that in Dubai. Secondly, I didn't sleep in a very good position since I put my main pack on the upper bunk and my pillow on top of that. Because of the height of the "pillow" and the shortness of the "bed" my neck was sore the whole night. Additionally, there was a draft coming in that made it really cold and the AC was pumping for a while as well. However, at 4-5 am, the heater turned on and blew directly in my face and I felt like I was suffocating. All of this contributed to me getting a sore throat, I'm hoping this goes away quickly since I wouldn't want to be sick for too long while traveling.

After bargaining down an auto rickshaw from 50 to 35 INRs to take me to the "gate" of Mehrangarh Fort, I still had a steep 200m climb up with my full pack. This was essentially a introductory training run for my EBC trek. I can already see that my pack (9kg) is way more than what I want to carry and I may have to invest in a smaller mountaineering pack. I used my expired ISIC card to gain student entry and saved 50 Rs. I took the audio guide that came with the entrance fees and proceeded to the numbered markers. I have to say, the guide was very interesting and informative. It even had commentary and contributions from the current royal family relating to tidbits of information and some of their memories. What's interesting about the fort is that it's never been taken by the enemy and many of them have been at the gates. At the main gate, there's an area with hand prints of Queen's passing though the gate for the last time before joining their husbands in death. I saw a man touch one of the hand prints and then touching it to his heart in remembrance. From the ramparts and many points of the fort, you can view the city spread out before you with the majority of the buildings painted in a light blue colour. This is the reason why Jodhpur is also called the Blue City. Apparently, the reason why the buildings are painted blue is because it's a calming colour and keeps the buildings cool during the summer heat. Seeing the indigo blue buildings in contrast with the vivid colours of life in India makes it especially dramatic.

Upon completing the tour of the Mehrangarh Fort, I walked to Jawswant Thada, the Jodhpur Raj's cenotaph. The place is also called the Taj Mahal of Rajasthan due to the exquisite white marble structure. On my trek back down through town, I stopped to eat (Gobhi Pakoda, fried cauliflower, and Mahkaniya Lassi a type of yoghurt) and then talked to a Spaniard named Mikel.

Well, more waiting at the station until my 10 pm train. Another overnight train and this time to the desert city of Jaisalmer! Hopefully this will be a better ride although I'll be in AC3 this time instead of AC2.

Cheers!

Written: January 20, 2009

Ah Mumbai, the city previously known as Bombay, what can I saw about this crazy place? What a shock arriving from the luxurious well planned Dubai to this crazy chaos. I arrived in the late afternoon and immediately noticed the humidity and bad air quality. Kids begging at my taxi window reminded me I was no longer in Dubai. Since Alan's hotel tip was actually a hotel in Delhi, I was stuck taking a suggestion from the taxi driver on a place to stay for 600 Rs a night, cockroaches included. At least it was conveniently located in Colaba.

I checked out the Gateway of India, the renovated Taj Mahal hotel and Victoria terminus. The last two were viciously attacked by terrorists in December. My visit to Mumbai coincided with the Mumbai Marathon and I was happy to see signs rallying citizens to "Vanquish the Terror!" It reminded me of London's post-Tube bombing's "I am not afraid" movement. I have been to many places that have been sites of terrorist attacks. From talking to citizens and people who have been impacted, I've learned that we cannot live in fear and terror for that is the goal of the radicals. We must also not let anger and revenge make us act less honourable or less ethical. We have to look deeper to the underlying problems that are causing the radicals to act this way rather than simply resort to force.

While talking to an Indian family my train ride to Jodhpur, I asked how Indians felt about the new U.S. President Barrack Obama and what are their biggest issue? Whether that be foreign policy, the economy or terrorism? It seemed the overwhelming issue on their minds were indeed dealing with extremists coming in from Pakistan. A young man from the family and I both wondered, why was there such tension between Pakistan and India. It couldn't just be because of religious differences since Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Jains live side by side relatively peacefully in India. He even said his best friend was Muslim. I have heard stories from others of some ill feelings toward people of other religions but not enough to resort to violence. What is the true source of the conflict?

Well I'm taking my first Indian train ride tonight in the overnight AC2 sleeper, should be arriving in the Blue City of Jodhpur in the morning!

===

Directions to Bandra Terminus (Western Rail) from downtown Mumbai:

Many trains depart from the Bandra Terminus in Mumbai for cities in the north. However, there are not many directions on the best way to get to this station. After asking a few locals, I believe the following way is the cheapest and most convenient.

• Assuming you're starting from downtown in the Colaba area, make your way to the Churchgate local rail station.
• From there, buy a ticket towards "Vile Parle" (First Class if it's during rush hour, otherwise normal is just fine and only 7 Rs).
  
• The trains going towards Vile Parle are on Platform 1 or 2.
  
• The closest station to Bandra Terminus is not actually the Bandra but Khar Rd so get off there. It's one stop past Bandra local rail station.
  
• From Khar Rd, make your way East (the right side since you've been heading north) and cross the tracks using the pedestrian overpass.
  
• When you descend overpass, you'll feel like you're in a village in rural India. Don't worry, you're on Jay Prakesh Rd. Go towards the right and at the first intersection make a right (Pipeline rd).
  
• Within a minute you should be able to see Bandra Terminus.
  

If you're ever lost in the area after getting off Khar Rd and wish to take a rickshaw, do not pay more than 12-15 Rs since the station is extremely close.

Use this link to see an aerial map. Bandra terminus is the triangle building south east of Khar Rd Railway Station.

This map shows the local train station map referenced in my directions.

Written: Jan 17, 2009

In my 4 days and 4 nights here, I’ve skied inside the Mall of Emirates, walked around Deira (old trading areas of Dubai), checked out the Burj from a distance (architectural symbol of Dubai). I’ve also met and partied with some friends of Rukmin. I even joined in on some post-partying karaoke with 2 British guys called Martin and Rich (seriously guys, “Two Become One”?)

I had a great time; I was able to catch-up with Rukmin and meet some interesting new people. Thanks to everyone for their hospitality and now I’m off to Mumbai!

Note: The normal Dubai price for a bottle of beer at a bar was 32 Dhs ($10.25) so I'm never complaining about Toronto prices ever again.

Two days ago, I was in the process of catching up with friends at a party when the following conversations repeated itself:

Friend: How are you doing? What's new?
Me: I'm flying off to Dubai tomorrow and will be traveling Dubai, India and Nepal for 1.5 months.
Friend: What ?!?

Even my closest friends were surprised at how sudden my departure was.
So how did this whole idea start? When did I start planning and how did I manage to get 1.5 months off?

I would attribute it to the following 3 factors: an email, a woman and a picture.

In early December, while I was finishing up my previous project I received an email about FlexLeave, a type of leave of absence lasting between 1 week to 3 months (till the end of Feb). The program had many benefits including retaining access privileges, time with the company still count. At first I thought it'd be a good way to take time-off without using my vacation time which I'm saving up. If a new project didn't work out and I run out of chargeable work I could take FlexLeave to keep my chargeability up.

I met this woman at an alumni party and she told me about her travels to India and Nepal. She was the one that planted the seed of traveling India/Nepal in my head. When she told me about her experiences, my mind tied the FlexLeave program to traveling India/Nepal. I thought to myself, "This just may be possible." However, at that point I wasn't 100% sure if I should do it now or later and whether I would get approved for it.

Finally, while reorganizing my travel pictures I came upon my one of my favourite from the RTW 2007 trip. It was the one of me overlooking Machu Picchu in the final days of my trip. Everything came back to me; I caught the travel flu (wanderlust) and became insomniac. I couldn't sleep; I checked flights, Wikitravel and researched constantly.

I talked to my manager/career counselor about my next project, business needs and determined that I qualified for the FlexLeave program and it made sense for me to take a bit of time off to travel while new projects were getting to start-up. Thankfully, my CC/HR and upper-management were all very supportive and soon enough I had the go-ahead and tickets! I even managed to perform a miracle before departure my getting an Indian travel visa within 1 day by drop-off, which is not allowed for people of non-Indian origins. I pleaded with the official that it was an emergency and I didn't have a ticket within 72 hours to show (a requirement for emergency visas which also only lasts 1 month) since I was going on standby. I wanted to get it immediately since I didn't want to spend my time/money in Canada but rather in the beautiful country of India. Six hours later, to the amazement of the other people of Indian origins standing in-line to get their pick-up, I had a 6 month tourist visa! Wei: 1, Indian Bureaucracy: 0.

I would have some mixed luck in the first few days of my trip. The night before my morning flight to New York, American Airlines called to say my flight had been cancelled due to weather. After a tense 2 hours, I was able to adjust my flight t NYC and the connection to Dubai to a later time. There were 2 advantages to this change; first of all, I wouldn't need to transfer between LaGuardia to JFK since I would now fly directly into JFK. Secondly, I would fly the Airbus A380 from New York to Dubai instead of the 777 earlier. Unfortunately, I had more bad luck and my AA flight was late so I missed my connection to Dubai. This was the first time I'd ever missed a flight and I was pissed since I was delayed by at least one day and did not think I would be on the A380 anymore! However, all was not lost; I had flight interruption insurance so I had $1000 available to spend on hotel, meals and sundry expenses. My flight the next evening was also on the A380 and I used this chance to alter my flight schedule slightly so that I would stay longer in Dubai.

The A380 was a gigantic plane. There are sleeping rooms with full beds and showers on the upper-deck and a bar! The food of Emirates Airlines was amazing as always and the ICE entertainment system is even better than what I had the last time I flew with them.

And so, here we go! It's good to be on the road again.

Written: November 5, 2007
Location: Toronto

Part 1 - Conclusion

I sometimes still wake up and forget where I am.

For the first few days after I got back home, I relished having nice clean showers with good water temperature and pressure, having my own bed, not having to figure out how to get from one country/town/place to another, feeling safe and my mom's home cooking. It wasn't very hard to get used to all of those luxuries quickly and starting new joiner orientation at my new consulting job 2 days after my arrival also kept me busy all day. Yet sometimes, I still wake up and for 1 second I wonder, "Where am I?"

Toronto, St Charles, Chicago, etc.

I got back to Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson airport on Friday at 1 pm. The flights from La Paz to Toronto via Miami through American Airlines were the most boring ones I’ve ever had. The only reasons they weren’t THE MOST boring ones I’ve ever had was due to my excitement to go home and the news that the Canadian dollar (Loonie) reached parity with the US dollar. I arrived in Canada with a broad smile, picked up my luggage and expected to head out and call for my pick-up. But it wasn’t necessary as my mom and sister were waiting in the arrival area and my sister was holding a massive sign with welcome back messages incorporating play on words of my name (yes, even after 20 years, my sister still thinks ‘Hi Wei/Highway’ is funny). After catching up with the family and a feast that my mom had been preparing for nearly 2 days, I slept the most relaxing sleep I had in several months. The realization that I was truly home didn’t sink in until Saturday night when I had dinner with two of my good. We caught up with what had been happening with each other, how our friends were doing, some of my travel stories and it was while we toasted our delicious Canadian beers (Rickard’s red how I’ve missed you), to my return, that I truly though, “I’m home.”

I’ve been delaying the writing and completion of this blog for a long time. At first I planned on writing it 1-2 weeks after my return for extra perspective. But after passing that landmark, it became sheer procrastination and then pure denial. In a sense, I refused to believe my journey was over. Now, after 45 days, I’ve decided it’s time for some closure.

In this 2-part post, I intend to thoroughly conclude and summarize my trip. The first part will be composed of tying some loose ends and finishing with some parting thoughts. The second part will be loaded with lists and details such as countries visited, best/worst experiences, favourite pictures.

Coming back to Part 1, how do I feel now?

Stable is the key word.
My life is now full of routines that I didn’t have during my trip. Get up, get ready for work, go to work, have lunch with co-workers, work, go home, work/relax sleep, repeat. On one hand, it is reassuring and safe; on the other hand, I am lacking the interaction and missing the dynamic aspect of traveling. What is encouraging though is that my work has somewhat alleviated that. I’ve been meeting really cool new people and been able to travel to Chicago for 2 weeks for training where I met and networked with employees from all over the world. I was also able to meet-up with a friend of mine in Chicago I’d met at Cambridge 4 years ago after my training was over. Although I now have a job and work responsibilities, it will at least be dynamic and keep my life interesting. I will also be able to travel and continually meet new people, to a lesser extent of freedom but still engaging.

How have I changed?

This is still a difficult question to answer.
Other than the large weight loss (which I am steadily gaining back), the answer can be broken down into 2 parts:
1) Discussion of complex political and cultural issues witnessed first hand
2) Greater dissatisfaction with materialism and mundane life

1. While it is normal for anyone to talk about their trip experiences (especially when one is asked so often), I've also had increased discussion about my time in Israel and Palestine, East Africa and South America. To many people, their perception is skewed by the media and when I present a contrasting view, it really gets a reaction. Many people inquire further due to curiosity, but some also due to suspicion. It is hard for some people to accept an experience or view point that is not aligned with the media's position. It is hard to understand certain things that are so foreign and unthinkable unless one is actually there, in the location, talking to the people affected, experiencing the culture and environment first hand.

This was the case when I talked about the suffering of the Palestinian people, the warmth and kindness of Ugandans, the friendliness of conservative Muslims in Zanzibar. My experience has enriched me with a greater understanding of complex political and cultural issues in many parts of the world. Perhaps in speaking about them to those who wish to listen, I can enrich them too.

2. Another major change I experienced is the adjustment to Canadian life again. While I do enjoy numerous aspects of having a stable life, there are also many issues that are even more glaringly irritating to me than before my trip. After surviving with so little for a few months and witnessing so many people in poverty, the consumerism and purposeless of mundane life is like a nauseates me everywhere I go. I am possibly eating 2-3 times more than I used to and while I love food and home cooking, I think I feel less healthy now that I'm eating regularly and in greater portions. I also struggled a bit first when I got back in adjusting to the routines of life. I was disoriented a bit by the complacency and lack of movement and exploration. After submerging myself into this society, I started feeling like I was drowning in the waves of materialism and meaningless fears. It really boggled me how much people cared about material goods and wealth. The obsession with getting promoted and making more money in order to impress some people or afford that new expensive car/house/cellphone/clothes disgusted me. I had a hard time understanding how people could truly be so paralyzed with such trivial fears and superficial goals in life. I'm not sure how I will adjust to this in the long term. I can only hope that I don't get totally sucked into that mindset and forget the the experiences I encountered and lessons learnt as well as my own purposes in life.

While I have gone through many changes, I've also realized things about myself I must change more.
One of them is my lack of risk-taking when it comes to human relationships. I am still too complacent and must be more aggressive especially now that I am no longer in University(thanks for the stories and advice Rhett!) It's funny how I barely consider the dangers of going into areas with numerous travel warnings or hesitate to tackle my fears, but when it comes to taking that leap of faith, my stubbornness makes me falter.

Where do I go from here?

I have to find ways to adapt. In order not to get sick of talking about my travels and people of hearing them, I have to be conscious of what I say and not get drawn into one of my travel stories. This is an incredible hard task but it is one that I must do.
My lower inclination to spend money on material goods except for necessity will be helpful since I need to save as much money as possible to make mortgage payments on the condo I'm moving into. Eating 1/2 ration in order to save on grocery bills will also help me physically and financially (Because it's just impossible for me to go back and live under my parents' roof after being away for 4 years of Uni and backpacking around the world).
My consulting work will also enable me to keep living my nomadic life; travel, meet new people, tackle new challenges. This will ensure that I don't kill myself over routine work. (In fact, I was made an honourary Chicagoion after hanging out with coworkers from the Chicago office during training!)

While the sights of my travels were amazing, it was the people I met along my journey that made it incredible. I want to thank everyone that I've met for their stories and hospitality(Erico, I will be visiting you in Brazil, soon!) In return, if any of you would like to visit Toronto, you'll have a place to stay.

Finally, the best cure to those wanderlust blues is to start planning your next one. Going to the end of the earth (Antartica) by motorcycling to Terra Del Fuego and then taking the ferry is an ambitious plan that I intend to make into reality in a couple of years.

I better start planning.

Part 2 - Summary

Length of travel: 16 weeks and 5 days, 117 days
Number of Continents visited: 6
Number of Countries visited: 26
Number of Flights: 33
Number of Train rides: 5
Number of Buses taken: Innumerable
Number of Car rented: 3
Number of Scooter/Moped/Motorcycle rented: 4
Number of Friends Made: Innumerable
Numbers of Friends met during trip: 9 (Andrew/Dana in Munich, Martin in Munich, Baris in Istanbul, Cath in London, Zab in Ramallah, Thomas in Kampala, Yuki in Tokyo, Jill in Singapore)
Number of items purchased: 7
Number of Photos and Videos taken: 3259, 9.25 GB
Number of Times slept in Airports: 5
Number of Movies Seen: >30

Bests:
Best Countries:

• Tanzania
  
• Uganda
  
• Turkey
  
• Croatia
  

Best Cities:

• Istanbul, Turkey
  
• Queenstown, NZ
  
• Barcelona, Spain
  
• Granada, Spain
  
• Munich, Germany
  
• Tokyo, Japan
  
• Singapore, Singapore
  

Best Activities and Experiences:

• Drinking wine at the campfire under the starry night huddled with two Swedish girls amongst the wildebeests, buffaloes and zebras, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania
  
• Mopeding around Easter Island, Chile
  
• Sandboarding the dunes in the Far Far North, NZ
  
• Hiking on Franz Josef glacier, NZ
  
• Mopeding Hvar, Croatia
  
• Exploring Machu Picchu, Peru
  
• Scuba diving and exploring shipwrecks, off the coast of Zanzibar, Tanzania
  
• Overnight bus to Buenos Aires with a bus full of Peruvians
  

Best Hostals:

• Oasis Backpackers, Granada
  
• Mate's Palace, Sydney
  
• YHA Brisbane, Brisbane
  
• Charlie B's Backpackers, Christchurch
  

Best Movies Seen: Amazing Grace and The Island

Best Foods:

• Fish and Chips, Monganui and Kaikoura, NZ
  
• Chorripan, Argentina
  
• Biftek de lomo, Buenos Aires
  
• Bocadillo con calamares, Madrid
  
• White Veal sausages, Munich
  
• Polish dumplings, Krakow
  
• Grilled kielbasa, Krakow
  
• $0.25 falafel, Jalezone, Palestine
  
• Fergbuger, Queenstown, NZ
  
• Night market foods, Taiwan
  
• Lobster, king fish, mussels and squid, Forodhani Market by the sea and setting sun, Zanzibar
  
• $20 Sushi breakfast, Tsukiji Fish Market
  
• Seafood pasta, Split, Croatia
  
• Indian buffet, Wellington
  

Worsts:
Highest number of consecutive overnight buses taken: 3 (Turkey)
Worst Foods: Horse meat jerky, Easter Island
Worst Movies:

• Turkish space movie
  
• Littleman (in Turkish)
  
• Nigerian evil mermaid movie
  
• Spiderman 3
  

Worst Hostal: rooftop bed, Backpackers Cozy Corner, Singapore
Worst experiences: (They were terrible at the time, now they're just funny to me)

• Overnight bus breakdown in 38C heat in Parmukale, Turkey
  
• Freaking out about lost Iron Ring, Brisbane
  
• Freaking out about kidnap/pirate taxis, Cuzco
  
• Sketchy overnight train from Prague to Krakow
  
• Waiting for 3 hours to get through passport control in T4, London Heathrow Airport
  
• Walking around in 40C heat wearing long black shirt and pants looking for internet, Dubai
  
• Being hounded by kids asking for money, Matemwe beach, Zanzibar
  
• Almost falling victim to a pickpocket, Granada, Spain
  
• Almost dislocating my shoulder snowboarding, Queenstown
  
• Mysterious periodic intervals of pain in the abdomen for 18 hours, Jerusalem
  
• Being in the bottom bunk of the sex bed, Granada
  

Best Pictures: (For complete pictures, see gallery)
Random black cube in front of museum in Hamburg
Diocletian Palace, Split
Shoe memorial, Budapest
Best falafel ever, Jalezone, Palestine
School children at Bunyoniy
The traditional and the modern
Girafe looking at you!
The long road
Road to Kilimanjaro
Public transit Africa style
Dan on the Dune
Homeless man in Tokyo
Ida looking through binoculars It's sanboarding time!
Girl with Alpaca
That is where I slept in Lima Airport between 11PM-5AM
Lake Tekapo, NZ
The At the end of my trip in Machu Picchu!

NOTE: I will be creating a "Walking Around the World" video for release in the future. Also, if you have any feedback or questions, feel free to leave a post or send me a message! I'd love to hear what you think.