Indignities of travel

There’s many indignities to endure when one is traveling far from home across the seven seas and such. You have to be comfortable being the tourist, foreign bumbling idiot asking for directions, dancing a jig in front of the tap in the washroom because you cannot figure out how to turn it on, finally heeding your kids advise to stand in the taxi line where you promptly get picked up in 2 minutes after 15 minutes of waiting for the taxi that told the locals who translated for you and you were quite positive told you to wait right outside the bar away from the taxi stand. I’m not saying any of this happened – they’re just examples, rumors.

You have to make peace with dropping the Benjamins like no tomorrow to buy things you own for twice the amount – toothbrushes, toothpaste, chargers, converters, moisturizers, warm jackets, gloves, travel pillow, chewing gum, comfortable shoes – examples of things you may have forgotten to pack or were too dismissive of when packing. You have to be okay getting taken for a ride because you are desperate for a taxi and will pay the insane amounts being quoted because, well it’s what desperation begets. You will curse yourself for not flying direct, for forgetting your headphones and longingly wish you’d settled for wanderlust through the tele from the comfort of your couch. 

And despite or inspite of it all you will do it again. Because after the trouble you take, the nauseated feeling and stomach flips, your sleep off kilter not solely because you insisted on watching all the stupid flicks on the plane, your skin dehydrated and body full of disgusting plane food you wish you did not succumb to from boredom, your feet sore and your spirit exhausted you will find after all it’s not broken. You will awaken and feel transported in every sense. You will remember why you set out in the first place when you get up to exotic tongues and dare to experiment with food, when you immerse yourself in the wholly foreign experience, puns always intended, you will be delighted, your aching body will be forgotten and forgiven by your refreshed soul. 

Because travel, with all of the aforementioned indignities strips you to your bare, most vulnerable, human self which is a prerequisite to truly embrace the unknown and unfamiliar. It knocks out to the surface the forgotten innocence and eagerness you once possessed and forces you into being a child again. It’s all a part of the process, one designed to reap true benefits if you are seeking the real essence of the transformative power of being a stranger, however hobbled, humbled & helpless, in a strange land.