The dark side of backpacking.
Door: Gaelle Courau
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Ailene
31 Maart 2014 | Vietnam, Ho Chi Minhstad
[ Attention to readers: I should rename this article "Moaning of a backpacker who'se traveling with a suitcase". I'm not talking about third world problem here, please, don't forget your humor in the dephts of your backpack, traveling was the best experience of my life :) ]
Yeah, travelling is great, even amazing, for thousands of reasons. When you travel, everybody tells you how “lucky” you are. Luck doesn’t have anything to do with it, but that’s another debate. The point here is that, even though we are clearly not going to complain about it, travelling is like a relationship: not always like in the movies. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what sometimes makes it a complete pain in the arse.
1) Travel is exhausting. This might sound like bullshit for someone who thinks that backpacking is just about spending your day (and sometimes night) at the beach, and partying in crazy places, but anyone who’s covered a bit of the globe knows. Moving all the time, spending half of your trip in buses, trains, planes, boats, always having to optimize your time during the day and still socialise at night,… yeah, it’s physically exhausting. The good point is that you learn how to sleep in the most hectic places- even an electronic music festival under your window (or, my most recent experience, a lady boy cabaret) couldn’t wake you up.
2) You have no idea what lurks in the depths of your backpack: you’ve never unpacked. Your life is contained in 30cm squared, and it’s been so long that you’re now terrified about what you’ll find in there. Especially because of all those mornings that you woke up three minutes before check-out and threw everything inside as you found it.
3) You call a place home when you spend more than 3 nights there: basically, you don’t really have a home anymore. You never settle in one place, and sometimes, the idea of being in your own boring living room eating your mum’s lasagna (or roast dinner) seems like heaven.
4) Small talk becomes your worst nightmare. The first few weeks after you left home, you thought it was amazing how many people you could meet in a day. Well, not anymore. At points, you even become bitter and unsociable. New people? Fuck. You’re sick of having the same conversation over and over: “What’s your name? Where are you from? How long have you been travelling? Where are you heading next?” Actually, now you only remember peoples’ nationalities. Not even their first names. And you describe them accordingly; “the Swedish guy”, “Chile”, or even just “Baguette” for Frenchies.
5) Saying goodbye. By far the worst of this list, I thought I might get used to it at some point, but I still haven’t. When you meet people on the road who immediately become part of your close circle, you get attached much faster than at home. But after a few days, weeks, or months, it’s time to say goodbye, and each continue on your own way. Even if you might see them again at home, visit them or meet them again on another trip, it won’t be the same. You know this, and you not only say goodbye to your friend, but also to the moments you shared.
6) There is the easy way, and there is the complicated way- not everything happens as you planned it. In fact, usually nothing does. Missing your bus, getting your wallet or passport stolen, having a problem with your visa, running out of money… this list alone could go on for a while and simply be called “I’m sick of travelling”. More than once, I have been left alone in an airport, stuck for one of these reasons (or once just because I selected the wrong month when I booked my ticket) and decided that I just wanted to go home. Fortunately, there is always a solution and you get over it fast, but these moments are an unpleasant yet necessary part of travel.
7) Your stomach will struggle: between the food in some countries, the ever-changing lifestyle, the almost-daily alcohol (overdoing it on the local booze, such as Thai whisky or Australian goon, is absolutely the worst thing you can do to your body), the sea/car sickness… I think you get the idea.
8) In fact, your whole body will be up against the odds. Between the cheap cosmetics, the lack of sleep, Point 7 of this list, a lack of bathroom facilities, and full days spent cramped in a bus or shitty night-train, sometimes even your wonderful tan can’t hide the fact that you have pizza-face, your hair is greasy and you’re out of breath after two flights of stairs.
9) You forget what it is to simply do nothing. I can hear objections to this already. But sometimes you DO just need to slob out in front of your TV all day.
10) Living in a backpacker. I love hostels for a lot of reasons, but in the end, you’re paying a shit amount of money to share your room with 32 people, each snoring and setting their alarm clock for a different time starting from 4AM (with a few snoozes each), and to enjoy a kitchen full of dirty dishes but inexplicably, no frying pan. Just accept the fact that you don’t have a private life anymore.
11) You miss home. Probably the most obvious one, and as much as you enjoy every day of your travelling life, sometimes you wish you could jump in a plane to see your nearest and dearest just for an hour. Christmas on a beach is a fun experience, but thinking about your family all together without you, well, sometimes it sucks.
This sounds really cynical but obviously, if we were compiling a list about the good sides of travelling, 11 points would only be an introduction. Actually the worst part of backpacking is probably that one day, you have to go back!
Yeah, travelling is great, even amazing, for thousands of reasons. When you travel, everybody tells you how “lucky” you are. Luck doesn’t have anything to do with it, but that’s another debate. The point here is that, even though we are clearly not going to complain about it, travelling is like a relationship: not always like in the movies. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what sometimes makes it a complete pain in the arse.
1) Travel is exhausting. This might sound like bullshit for someone who thinks that backpacking is just about spending your day (and sometimes night) at the beach, and partying in crazy places, but anyone who’s covered a bit of the globe knows. Moving all the time, spending half of your trip in buses, trains, planes, boats, always having to optimize your time during the day and still socialise at night,… yeah, it’s physically exhausting. The good point is that you learn how to sleep in the most hectic places- even an electronic music festival under your window (or, my most recent experience, a lady boy cabaret) couldn’t wake you up.
2) You have no idea what lurks in the depths of your backpack: you’ve never unpacked. Your life is contained in 30cm squared, and it’s been so long that you’re now terrified about what you’ll find in there. Especially because of all those mornings that you woke up three minutes before check-out and threw everything inside as you found it.
3) You call a place home when you spend more than 3 nights there: basically, you don’t really have a home anymore. You never settle in one place, and sometimes, the idea of being in your own boring living room eating your mum’s lasagna (or roast dinner) seems like heaven.
4) Small talk becomes your worst nightmare. The first few weeks after you left home, you thought it was amazing how many people you could meet in a day. Well, not anymore. At points, you even become bitter and unsociable. New people? Fuck. You’re sick of having the same conversation over and over: “What’s your name? Where are you from? How long have you been travelling? Where are you heading next?” Actually, now you only remember peoples’ nationalities. Not even their first names. And you describe them accordingly; “the Swedish guy”, “Chile”, or even just “Baguette” for Frenchies.
5) Saying goodbye. By far the worst of this list, I thought I might get used to it at some point, but I still haven’t. When you meet people on the road who immediately become part of your close circle, you get attached much faster than at home. But after a few days, weeks, or months, it’s time to say goodbye, and each continue on your own way. Even if you might see them again at home, visit them or meet them again on another trip, it won’t be the same. You know this, and you not only say goodbye to your friend, but also to the moments you shared.
6) There is the easy way, and there is the complicated way- not everything happens as you planned it. In fact, usually nothing does. Missing your bus, getting your wallet or passport stolen, having a problem with your visa, running out of money… this list alone could go on for a while and simply be called “I’m sick of travelling”. More than once, I have been left alone in an airport, stuck for one of these reasons (or once just because I selected the wrong month when I booked my ticket) and decided that I just wanted to go home. Fortunately, there is always a solution and you get over it fast, but these moments are an unpleasant yet necessary part of travel.
7) Your stomach will struggle: between the food in some countries, the ever-changing lifestyle, the almost-daily alcohol (overdoing it on the local booze, such as Thai whisky or Australian goon, is absolutely the worst thing you can do to your body), the sea/car sickness… I think you get the idea.
8) In fact, your whole body will be up against the odds. Between the cheap cosmetics, the lack of sleep, Point 7 of this list, a lack of bathroom facilities, and full days spent cramped in a bus or shitty night-train, sometimes even your wonderful tan can’t hide the fact that you have pizza-face, your hair is greasy and you’re out of breath after two flights of stairs.
9) You forget what it is to simply do nothing. I can hear objections to this already. But sometimes you DO just need to slob out in front of your TV all day.
10) Living in a backpacker. I love hostels for a lot of reasons, but in the end, you’re paying a shit amount of money to share your room with 32 people, each snoring and setting their alarm clock for a different time starting from 4AM (with a few snoozes each), and to enjoy a kitchen full of dirty dishes but inexplicably, no frying pan. Just accept the fact that you don’t have a private life anymore.
11) You miss home. Probably the most obvious one, and as much as you enjoy every day of your travelling life, sometimes you wish you could jump in a plane to see your nearest and dearest just for an hour. Christmas on a beach is a fun experience, but thinking about your family all together without you, well, sometimes it sucks.
This sounds really cynical but obviously, if we were compiling a list about the good sides of travelling, 11 points would only be an introduction. Actually the worst part of backpacking is probably that one day, you have to go back!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
