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May 13th, 2012

The exciting conclusion of my day in a small Laotian village - quite possibly the most interesting and rewarding experience of my trip this far - is currently a bore to think about. I’m not quite sure if its procrastination that keeps me from finishing the story, but every time I attempt to finish it, nothing decent get written. I’m not excluding the possibility that this is always the case, but am nevertheless keenly aware that whatever I write about it reads like uninteresting garbage. To better times ahead!

Recently, I’ve been toying the idea with extending my trip – which has no finite end date that I’m aware of anyway. However, I think I want to make it longer, or at least slower. The logistical hurdles of riding a motorcycle across Asia particularly are high, and make a speedy trip both difficult and unappealing.

Currently, I’d have plans to ship the motorcycle to India in a week or so. I’d have to cross India and make it to Pakistan by July or August, giving me a whopping 45-60 days to explore Nepal and India. Though I’ve been to both of these countries before, I’d like more time to explore them. Extra time would help on several fronts. I’d be able to travel through “The Stan’s” (Pakistan to Tajikistan to China to Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan) at a more leisurely pace, and I’d have more time to arrange to mountain of paperwork necessary for travel through this region with a vehicle. It would also mean waiting in India until mid-March of 2014, as the roads in and out of The Stans freeze over.

I would therefore spend 9-10 months in Nepal and India, which seems like enough time to do more than travel through them. Its somewhat of a major decision. 10 months is a long time, and I’m not exactly sure what the point is. I’m highly suspicious that nobody else does either, so that’s a relief.

I’d like to volunteer in India. Ideally, I’d like to teach precocious adolescent Indians… something? About English, about culture, about life, about chemistry, about poker, it doesn’t really matter. I’m officially unqualified to teach any such things; which is to say there is no piece of paper that says I should teach anyone anything. My idea to teach is a flight of fancy, but a man can dream. Here’s a Hail Mary: If anyone knows of institutions in India that would dare to let paperless people teach, let me know.

That was vague.

In any event, I imagine that I’d find some volunteering work for some amount of time. Also, I’d be able to attend to the meditation practice which has been very beneficial to me. I’d have time to do some more retreats and serve at the centers. Although even I think I’ve been travelling for too long already, what does that even mean? What path am I supposed to take anyhow?

What I love most about travel is that it’s a wonderful metaphor for life. You come, you go, you see, you meet, you do, and you learn. Eventually, it ends. My trip is finite after all. In the final analyses, there is no singular point to it. It’s just a trip. The Taoists believe “The journey is the reward”, and I tend to agree. I suppose all travellers eventually intuit what Robert Louis Stevenson so eloquently penned

"Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour."

How about that for a metaphor on life?

I have my doubts about 10 months “waiting” in India. Then again, I’m stuck on this rock no matter what. I’m only waiting if I think I’m waiting. I simply feel absurd living this life, and want to make sure I’m not crazy; or that I am crazy, but that everyone else is too. I’m just trying to fit in.

Perhaps life is just plain crazy. It seems pretty coconuts to me at times. We love each other. We bomb each other. Some organizations try to help those in need. Other organizations do their best to wipe entire groups of people out of existence. A recent invention, which is growing rapidly in popularity, are organizations that don’t really care what they do, so long as they acquire pieces of paper that everyone agrees are worth just about anything. They have the power to save the world, and the power to destroy it. Once they’re up and running, there is almost no incentive for them to change course. What a show!

I think some time to reflect in Incredible India would be well spent. It’s the most topsy-turvy place I’ve ever been. Indians seem to know how to go with flow amongst all the inherent chaos of the world. In an age where the worlds most powerful people are pieces of paper, who, being pieces of paper, are necessarily ambivalent to humanity, and where some other pieces of paper are worth just about anything, perhaps stress-testing myself in chaotic India is a good idea.

If only I had pieces of paper that entitled me to officially explain things to people – preferably precious adolescent Indians, and preferably not poker, which is the only thing I’m actually good at, but which no institution certifies the goodness of with pieces of paper. It’s times like these where I wish I had graduated from college.

However, poker has provided me with certain pieces of paper that I’ve exchanged for just about anything over the past seven years – the most valuable of which has been several trips around the world, but there’s no institution to certify their value either, which is a shame because I feel like travel has taught me more than anything in life.

And that’s that…

Although I’m fairly certain that only my mom reads this blog, I’ll ask anyway: Thoughts on 10 months in India?

*Edit: I have set 'Reader comments' to 'Allow', yet they seem only to be enabled on prior posts. Technology != Reliability. If you'd like to comment, check out my post entitled SEX! Comments seem to be enabled there.