Reverb 11: Day 9: Travel
How did you travel in 2011? How and/or where would you like to travel next year?
Oh, this is a fun one!
In 2011, I traveled – really traveled – for the first time in several years, since my trip to Bali in, I think, 2004. There is something so comforting about putting on the old backpack and moneybelt, stripping my possessions down to just a few things, and setting off for parts unknown. In a weird twist, it feels to me like coming home.
I was a bit lonely. I think this has changed – part of me would like to travel with someone else now. (H., are you listening? Oh, that’s right, this is anonymous!) But I felt really ripped away from Luang Prabang and from Laos in general – I did not feel like I was ready to leave, and landing in Hong Kong, busy and commercial as it is, was especially too much. It felt like a violence to myself. I know that sounds like an exaggeration.
So: my travel this year is to go back to Southeast Asia, to spend some time relaxing in a beach hut until I get bored with it, to do a meditation retreat in the forest, and to go back to Laos (and possibly Cambodia and Myanmar?) until I feel it’s time to come home. It sounds as if I could stay at this Nomad guesthouse on a small island off Cambodia for free in exchange for doing some art for them. I think that could be a really good place to start (though, actually, I’d like to start somewhere where I don’t have to work at all for a bit!)
Of course, if Brazil calls, that could completely change things. But though I would love to go to South America, right now it doesn’t feel like it’s calling me. And unless H. and I decided to really make a go of it (and really, I don’t see that happening within the next several months – I don’t want to be a rebound), I am hesitant to travel there just for her. Although: we will see how strong I am if asked. I think I will say no.
Then, there’s my (very different) travel to the Czech Republic, if I decide to go the egg donor route. If I do that, I really want to take a little time there, and write some lullabies for my child. I really like that idea. Perhaps I could do the WWOOF thing there!
At any rate, it feels good to be nourishing my need for travel again.
