Traveler

So here I am, or there I was; nearly 40,000 feet in the air, playing solitaire on my personal TV screen, drinking cup fulls of airplane red wine in hopes that I will slip into a wine coma and miraculously awake in Chiang Mai without even the slightest hint of a sore neck. Far bellow we pass over Iran, Kabul (Afghanistan), a sliver of Packistan, and now we are just East of Dehli, India. Despite the feeling that it is nightime inside the plane, there is daylight outside. I raise my window cover and press my forehead to the glass. The landscape bellow is brown, grey, and desolate. I marvel at how people have managed to survive on this land for so many years. Even from thousands of feet above, I can tell that life is not easy down there. It feels sureal watching it all pass by from the comfort of the Boeing 777. The modern technology of the plane seems very out of place in contrast to the rustic dwellings and rural villages bellow.

While the other passengers sleep, my imagination keeps me awake wondering what daily life is like for those people. As we cross deeper into Northern India, the electronic map shows Kathamandu and Mt. Everest in the distance. My legs begin to twitch. Just being near Kathamandu is exciting for me. I have wanted to go there since I first saw a photograph about ten years ago showing hundreds of spinning prayr wheels. I immediately start fanticising about my next trip……Nepal, Tibet, India…..I am eternally lured by the adventure of travel.

I have now been travelling for 25 hours, changed planes 4 times, and logged 17 hours of airtime. It sounds exhausting and like a bit of a hassle. There is an “oversized” man to my right whose body is neglecting to stay within the confinements of his seat. With every five minutes that pass, his snoring rises a notch in volume while his head drops a notch in height, directly towards my right shoulder. Yet, I couldn’t be happier. No mater what challenges and discomforts we face while traveling, they all contribute to the complexity and greatness of the adventure as a whole. Each moment stacks up, one ontop of the next, adding another layer of emotions and experience. When you finally make it somewhere, see something you never thought you’d see, do something you never thought you’d do, you are so happy to be there you could kiss the ground (and should, its quite fun). Then you realize it was worth everything it took to get there.

Slowly the wine coma comes on. I drift off to dreams of a thousand adventures. Suddenly, I realize I am awake. My dreams have come true, I am just about to begin yet another adventure………”Welcome to Thailand” the womans voice says over the loudspeaker, “Sawadee Ka.”