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Up’s & Down’s

Life on the road is like riding a rollercoaster, it has it’s up’s and down’s. You will go from having the best time of your life to 12 hours later as lonely as an old man in a retirement home waiting for his impending doom. For me traveling is about the people. When I look back on places I have been I mostly remember the faces and the friendships that were formed, rather then what the Great Wall of China looked like. I find that the friendships I form on the road are pure and genuine. When at home we tend to make friends based on a certain criteria. We meet people through work, or friends, and in a way I find that these people are sometimes just friends out of convenience with no real connection. But when traveling people are people, we leave all that built up baggage at home, we let are guards down. I have found that most people including myself are very honest and up front. We don’t have years to let someone chip away at the wall we put up, at most we have a few days or a week if were lucky. So you tend to lay it all on the line.

We have nothing to hide or to lose for that matter, because we know that we will probably never see each other again. So as quickly as the friendships are formed it comes time for us to go our separate ways. It’s sometimes overwhelming to go from such happy times surrounded by great friends to being all alone. But I guess that’s part of it all. The best thing about it is you never know what tomorrow will bring. Traveling is all about the unknown, and for me the unknown is not about if my bus will break down in the middle of Africa and leave me stranded for days, it’s about what new people lye around the next turn and the stories and knowledge I will gain from them. So I go to bed tonight alone and somewhat bored, but in 24 hours from now you never know I could be having the best chat of my life with some new friends over a few beers. And for me… that’s what traveling is all about!

Posted by Jimmy under Philippines, Thoughts, Updates |