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| (Picture by Richard Huckvale) |
For 6 weeks we called India home, for 1 week we called Japan home & now we call China home. From north to south and back again. Trains, buses, Taxi's and our feet have taken us mile upon mile, through some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. This blog will be about the experience and the people we met who have made the whole trip so far that extra bit special.
I have wrote a few blogs about India already, but this one will mainly be about the people we met and what we got up to. Now with the first part of the trip being done by car on the tour of the North we didn't really meet anyone until we got to Mumbai. Here we met people who would become a major part of our time in India.
When we got to Mumbai we stayed in our first hostel, the first couple of nights were pretty quiet we met a few people who were leaving the next day so didn't really socialise, we met Lisa from Austria who was sticking around waiting for Zac from Canada to come and meet her. Then all hell broke loose when the Brits turned up ha ha. 6 lads and lasses from the big smoke arrived Paige, Lottie, George, George, Amar and Alex as Brits do we decided the best way to get to know everyone was to go and get pissed. With that we advised whoever was listening we were going for a beer and if anyone wanted to come they were more than welcome. Lisa and Zac were game, as was Mandip from Leeds and a lad from Belgium who's name escapes me sorry dude.
We literally drank the place dry and headed back to the hostel around 1am and carried on the festivities until the early hours. It was this night when we decided seen as though we all had plans to go to Goa we might as well get the night bus together.
We booked the bus but still has time to see a few places in Mumbai, we all booked the Slum Tour together it was a great experience to see just how the poor live in India and although they don't have much they are some of the friendliest happiest people you could meet. They have WiFi though which yes Lottie sadly they have to pay for :) (Sorry Lottie) The sleeper bus was an experience but we all managed to get to Goa in one piece.
After about 4 days in Goa we had done the usual chilling and getting drunk on the beach and hitting the bars and clubs then I got a message of Mandip he was heading to Goa so it made sense for him to stay in our apartment. Again the nights out flowed as did the beach days I mean there is not much site seeing to be done in Goa it was all about relaxing during the day and hitting it hard at night. After a week or so we met up with Becky and Kellie who I had been talking with on the Backpackr app. Again this involved drinking and having a laugh, we all spent The Holi Festival Of Colours together and had a great time.
Sadly there came the day where we all had to go our separate ways as our journeys were continuing but in separate directions. Becky Mandip and Kellie headed further south, My self and Lauren to Japan and Lottie, Paige, George, Amar, George and Alex were off to Thailand. You never know we may all meet up again we may not but the moments we have had will last a life time.
Our last 2 or 3 days in India were spent just chatting and having dinner with Mariam from Germany, she'd had a nightmare on a sleeper bus so we went out for dinner. Travellers just seem to come together and help out when someone is in the shit.
In Japan we only had a week but again the people we met made it so much more special, again through the Backpackr app we met Christina, now this lady I will forever be thankful for as she was kind enough to bring us our rail passes we had forgot to order in the UK. We paid online and had them delivered to her house as she was arriving into Japan a few days after us. We have explored, had a laugh, ate some of the best food imaginable and through Christina we met up with Evan from the USA and Jamie from the UK. We have seen some pretty weird shit in Japan but again its been the company we have kept that has made it that extra bit special.
From Mount Fuji to the strange Maid Cafe to sitting in a prison cell and ordering drinks you drink with a tampon we have literally had a ball, it was a laugh a minute we have got to know 3 people very very well and experienced new things in a new part of the world together.
Now I'm sat in our hostel bar in Beijing China, today I had no plans and after finding out last night my dog I've had since I was 16 had passed away I wasn't really in the mood for anything but sat writing my blog about Tia 2 girls approached and asked if they could charge their phones next to me as I was sat near the plug socket. From there we started talking and have spent the last 6 hours exploring Beijing and its forbidden city and gardens.
All from 2 strangers asking me a question we have just booked the Great Wall of China tour and all leave at 7am tomorrow morning.
I guess what this post is about is the people you meet, no matter where you are in the world or what you are doing it the people around us that make what we do that extra bit special or bearable in a work sense.
Yes, we might all be travelling but you don't have to travel to meet new people, they are all around us at work, in the bar you're next in even on the street you live on. It's all about making that first step to actually speak with these people, Travelling doesn't give you a choice especially if you are in hostels it forces you out of your comfort zone to speak with people you've only just met unless you want to be the stranger in the corner that doesn't talk to anyone ha ha and I guess that is the beauty of it. We may never meet these people again face to face but when we tell our travel stories they will be apart of it and its moments like this that we live for.
Travelling or not I promise you life is so much better when you go out of your comfort zone, speak with people you might not normally speak with and do stuff you might not normally do and if people think you're strange for doing it then FUCK EM, it's your life you only have one so live it any which way you want to.
Peace.
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