Life's a Trip: Chapter One - Departure
December 21, 2006 5:00 am.
Three alarm clocks go off at the same time. I make my way around my bedroom, sleepily fidgeting with each one until the room falls silent again. After letting my eyes adjust to the pre-dawn morning I sit on the floor and methodically root through two bags that lay on the floor beside my bed. Camera...check, video camera...check, shirts and pants....check...I really hope that I didn't forget anything. I've been through this list a thousand times, but this time it's for real.
I lug everything out the door and lock my apartment. As I lock the door I muse over the fact that no one will enter the place for almost a month. A series of “if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest” scenarios briefly flash into consciousness and fade into absurdity.
I turn towards the street and take a deep breath. As I exhale, the warm air forms a veil of smoke that surrounds me momentarily. This is it. At this moment 27 days of vacation begin. Excitement and anxiety force my body into motion.
It took about two hours by train and 45 minutes by boat to reach my point of departure, Nagoya airport.
(Calm morning waters on the way to Nagoya Airport)
At the airport I found a Starbucks, ordered a coffee and a sandwich and stared into oblivion as I pondered what lay ahead. As my surroundings faded back into awareness. I realized that someone was watching me. Meet Sean Farmer.
Sean is a young woman who has far too much energy, especially after drinking a coffee. We smile at each other, I ask if she'd like some company for lunch and she agrees. As we chit chat, we discover that we're both teachers in Japan, which is not surprising. Over coffee we muse over Japanese culture and the quirks of teaching children. At one point she bursts into the “Hello song” for a Japanese kids who was sitting behind me. The kid was freaked out...so was I. When the cups ran dry we exchanged pleasantries, wished each other a pleasant life and headed in our separate directions.
I checked-in to my flight and proceeded to a different waiting area. These waiting areas would soon become all too familiar. I sat in the same row as a young woman named Natalie, whom I recognized as a JET. I had never spoken to her, so I opted to pass the time by studying Japanese instead of seeing if she remembered me. However, when I pulled out my Japanese textbook, I gave away the fact that I was with JET and she gave away the fact that she didn't remember me, asking if we had met before. This lead to introductions and talk about our experiences in Japan and the world at large. After a few hours of talking it was time to board the plane and make our way to Beijing for a five hour layover before proceeding to Bangkok.
(Flying over the port in Nagoya)
When we landed in Beijing there was a haze over the city. This haze captured the orange glow of the setting sun, causing the world to look like some sort of post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. It made Beijing seem barren and harsh.
(The Beijing Haze)
This initial impression was compounded when I entered the airport to take care of the administrative details for my connection. Not a single person smiled. Everyone seemed quite depressed or generally unhappy. The immigration agent actually threw my passport at me after checking it and the customs agents were equally rude. Despite the fact that I didn't even officially enter China, it secured a position as my least favourite place on the planet.
(The only glimpse of redemption for Beijing)
After a long day of travelling, I arrived in Bangkok at 12:20 am local time, which is 2:20 am Japan time. I was exhausted. By this point I had already spent 21 hours in a boat, train, airplane or airport terminal. It certainly made me think hard about the saying, “it's not the destination, it's the journey that counts.” Not true for the modern traveller.
After an extensive search I found a taxi driver who was willing to give me a metered rate to my hotel in Chinatown. When we got onto the open road he showed me what Thai driving is all about, high speeds, no signals and no regard for lane markers or traffic signals. It's actually quite incredible to watch during rush hour.
arrived at my hotel at about 3:00 am and proceeded to go directly to bed. I laid down and let my imagination relish at the excitement and mystery of the future while my body slipped into sleep.
Three alarm clocks go off at the same time. I make my way around my bedroom, sleepily fidgeting with each one until the room falls silent again. After letting my eyes adjust to the pre-dawn morning I sit on the floor and methodically root through two bags that lay on the floor beside my bed. Camera...check, video camera...check, shirts and pants....check...I really hope that I didn't forget anything. I've been through this list a thousand times, but this time it's for real.
I lug everything out the door and lock my apartment. As I lock the door I muse over the fact that no one will enter the place for almost a month. A series of “if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest” scenarios briefly flash into consciousness and fade into absurdity.
I turn towards the street and take a deep breath. As I exhale, the warm air forms a veil of smoke that surrounds me momentarily. This is it. At this moment 27 days of vacation begin. Excitement and anxiety force my body into motion.
It took about two hours by train and 45 minutes by boat to reach my point of departure, Nagoya airport.
(Calm morning waters on the way to Nagoya Airport)
At the airport I found a Starbucks, ordered a coffee and a sandwich and stared into oblivion as I pondered what lay ahead. As my surroundings faded back into awareness. I realized that someone was watching me. Meet Sean Farmer.
Sean is a young woman who has far too much energy, especially after drinking a coffee. We smile at each other, I ask if she'd like some company for lunch and she agrees. As we chit chat, we discover that we're both teachers in Japan, which is not surprising. Over coffee we muse over Japanese culture and the quirks of teaching children. At one point she bursts into the “Hello song” for a Japanese kids who was sitting behind me. The kid was freaked out...so was I. When the cups ran dry we exchanged pleasantries, wished each other a pleasant life and headed in our separate directions.
I checked-in to my flight and proceeded to a different waiting area. These waiting areas would soon become all too familiar. I sat in the same row as a young woman named Natalie, whom I recognized as a JET. I had never spoken to her, so I opted to pass the time by studying Japanese instead of seeing if she remembered me. However, when I pulled out my Japanese textbook, I gave away the fact that I was with JET and she gave away the fact that she didn't remember me, asking if we had met before. This lead to introductions and talk about our experiences in Japan and the world at large. After a few hours of talking it was time to board the plane and make our way to Beijing for a five hour layover before proceeding to Bangkok.
(Flying over the port in Nagoya)
When we landed in Beijing there was a haze over the city. This haze captured the orange glow of the setting sun, causing the world to look like some sort of post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. It made Beijing seem barren and harsh.
(The Beijing Haze)
This initial impression was compounded when I entered the airport to take care of the administrative details for my connection. Not a single person smiled. Everyone seemed quite depressed or generally unhappy. The immigration agent actually threw my passport at me after checking it and the customs agents were equally rude. Despite the fact that I didn't even officially enter China, it secured a position as my least favourite place on the planet.
(The only glimpse of redemption for Beijing)
After a long day of travelling, I arrived in Bangkok at 12:20 am local time, which is 2:20 am Japan time. I was exhausted. By this point I had already spent 21 hours in a boat, train, airplane or airport terminal. It certainly made me think hard about the saying, “it's not the destination, it's the journey that counts.” Not true for the modern traveller.
After an extensive search I found a taxi driver who was willing to give me a metered rate to my hotel in Chinatown. When we got onto the open road he showed me what Thai driving is all about, high speeds, no signals and no regard for lane markers or traffic signals. It's actually quite incredible to watch during rush hour.
arrived at my hotel at about 3:00 am and proceeded to go directly to bed. I laid down and let my imagination relish at the excitement and mystery of the future while my body slipped into sleep.
posted by Christopher Janca at 8:40 p.m.
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