Travel with…..Baseball cards?

It’s Monday and time for another Rock Fever Column. Let me know what you think. Any of your own observations on fellow travelers?

With fellow travel buddies Oliver and Alexis in Singapore...a couple of friends who kept me sane.

“Not all those who wander are lost.” – JRR Tolkien

When the rooster begins crowing at 4 a.m., and the dogs outside your window start picking on each other and you haven’t gone to sleep until 2 a.m. because the electricity went out and you couldn’t breathe … you start to wonder … why am I here?

At least I did, multiple times, while travelling through 24 countries in 12 months. Did I regret my decision to do it? Never. But did I get tired? Yes. What did I do on nights like the one above? My iPod became my best friend. In Thailand/Laos/Cambodia or Vietnam – Enya was the only thing that kept my sanity. In the morning I would find myself alive and twisted in my headphone cords with no recollection of actually falling asleep. Ahhh Southeast Asia.

The other way I would keep my sanity? Travel buddies. These came in all varieties and for various lengths of the trip. Some were better friends than others and more often than not, encounters were brief. What I noticed after a while was that fellow backpackers became like baseball cards (sorry for the American reference, but until cricket and dare I say football get these cards … baseball it is).

First you get the stats. “So where are you from?”

“Bermuda.”

“No way. Like the Triangle. Is that real?”

“No. And the shorts. Yes we are little and no we are not in the Caribbean. We are closer to New York.”

“No way.”

“Yes, way.”

Finally it’s time to move on: “How long have you been in: Vietnam/ Cambodia/ Thailand, Laos?

Obviously the answer varied on the country asked about.

“Where are you going next? What do you do? How long are you travelling for?”

Funnily, unlike baseball cards, the least important thing was their names. I have been on a slow boat between Thailand and Laos for two days chatting with people whose names I only found out after sharing a hotel room with them.

If these stats worked and the answers were right the travellers joined my card collection.

Other travellers never made it into my hand. Why? Sometimes they were just not on the same page. Like the backpackers in Europe. These guys are newbies. They are Americans taking time after/during college to break away from home. Dressed in collared shirts and jeans, roughing it requires making your own dinner in the communal kitchen.

These disappear by the Middle East. No great surprise there. Backpackers here are lost souls trying to ensure the countries of media-created nightmares are not so. Their clothes start becoming more tattered. The caravan tourists? You know what I mean? The middle-aged-escaping-from-their-cubicles-to-tell-everyone-they-made-it-to-Jordan tourists. These have covered themselves in khaki and their heads enshrined in Indiana Jones’ hats. They have yet to find the Lost Ark. On the flight East, hair grows, it gets matted or completely shaved off and suddenly clothes don’t fit. In India backpackers swim in their pants or wear barely any at all. Their attempts to understand poverty this way is lost on those who actually do not have the money for clothes. As you get to Thailand the tank-tops fall off tattooed shoulders, or the dresses barely cover the pale British bum. The dreadlocks sit in the corner chatting to the locals and giving the evil eye to the drunk, barely clothed gap year students. Neither can be bothered to just enjoy the experience of each other and the new culture they find themselves in.

Travel they might be doing, but sometimes it’s middle school again with cliques in their corners. By South America it’s filled with the adventurous side of Americans who have raided their local Patagonia store before actually heading to Patagonia. The other travellers – from South American countries. What a change from Asia. Here the economies are strong enough for internal travel. Brazilians seem to do the most and will enjoy taunting you over coffee in the morning as to why you chose Chile rather than their country. Hint: There is no good answer just say you’re on your way!

Finally … Africa … I haven’t been. Well besides Egypt, but even Egyptians would argue they’re not “Africa”. That’s the next stop … maybe. I will let you know when I go. Have you been? Tell me about it in 500 words and photos! I’m looking for the next Bermuda Abroad story. Do you have to be Bermudian? NO! Do you have to travel? Yes! I want to hear your take on a country – it will inevitably have some Bermudian reference just by virtue of you having spent time in Bermuda.

So check out my website: www.robynswanderings.com for more travel tips and tales.

E-mail me at robynswanderings@gmail.com with your own.

Until next week when we: Battle Boston: 24 hours in this gritty town that manages to throw punches and peace for a weekend.