Around 1993 or so. On a street corner in Sydney, Australia.
My memory of this encounter is vague. But I think I'm right in recalling he was with his family and we were waiting for a bus when he spoke to me.
He had a broad Australian accent, was missing quite a few teeth and my impression was they were visiting from the Outback.
I'm sure he asked me where I was from and I know he asked me the next question. One I get all the time when I travel :
"Are you alone?"
I know this because I clearly remember the next thing he said was --
"Couldn't get anyone to come with you eh?"
Well he was being friendly and joking, but in the midst of acclimatizing myself, having recently landed from a 15 hour trans-Pacific flight and suffering the disorienting dizziness of sleep deprivation and jet lag I found his comment a bit disturbing.
And also, if truth be known, I was a little uncertain about traveling alone at that point in my life.
That uncertainty is now, however, long gone. I love traveling by myself. Why? Well because I can do whatever I want to do whenever I want to. Or not. No compromising with another human being.
And my focus is on my surroundings. And I meet people I would not otherwise meet, having no one else to engage with.
Will this change with age and growing fragility? Perhaps. But on the other hand the need to sleep-in or rest-up increases too and having the flexibility to deal with whatever happens more than compensates. Or so I've found to be true. At least so far.
I much prefer the spontaneity of having the day's events determined without a plan. Often on the spur of the moment. Some of my best experiences were totally unplanned and unexpected.
Like wandering down a narrow street in Lviv, Ukraine, hearing music from a building, entering and discovering musicians practicing in the hallways of the school which teaches the great classical performers I was hearing in this city, the cultural capital of Ukraine.Traveling with a group on a guided tour does not appeal to me. Except were I to travel into the remote mountains of Pakistan like the woman whom I met on a flight to Istanbull.
She told me about the members of the group with whom she was traveling. Amazingly diverse in age and homelands. I imagine that could be as interesting and perhaps on par with the experience of meeting locals which is far more likely when you travel alone.
Speaking of Pakistan, last night my Uber taxi driver was from that part of the world Nepal as was the Pakastani Restaurant manager where I had lunch today. Both very nice guys who got into this country, I guess, before Trump is in position to drop the iron curtain.
I had interesting conversations with both of them. I learned from the Driver that Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, is very crowded something I probably wouldn't enjoy in spite of its alluring name. And from the Restaurateur that their language Urdu is easy to learn once you learn the far different alphabet. I doubt that's true tho I'm certainly going to check it out.The restaurant guy told me that his son whom you see in this picture doesn't speak Urdu at home even tho his father and mother do. No doubt the greater influence of TV. But when they visit Pakistan for a couple of months the boy does speak Urdu.
The Restaurateur tells me that one of the great things about learning Urdu is that, with it, you can
communicate, verbally at least, with Pakistanis, Indians, Arabs and Iranians. A part of the world that I have yet to explore. A really huge part of the World!
I love learning Ukrainian in large part because it uses the Cyrillic alphabet which to me is visually beautiful and intriguing. This is, I think, good for aging brains. Learning a foreign language is supposed to guard against or postpone the onset of Alzheimer's.
Like a door opening into a hidden world.
It's a bit tricky. You have to rewire your brain (through practive) to have it sound "N" when you see "H", "V" when you see "B" and "R" when you see "P".
Some of the letters are really cool. At least to me. A backwards "R" ("Я") (pronounced "ya") is the letter for "I" as in "I go to the store".
And one of my favorites the elegant "Д", an "A" on stilts is pronounced like a "D".
And there's "Ч". "У". "Ш". "Щ" which look like English "Y" and "W" but are not at all the same, while the Cyrillic "K" and "M" look like English "K" and "M" and indeed are the same.
And there are a bunch more interesting letters as you can see from this colorful chart. A total of 33 vs the English language of just 26.
One of the (many) reasons I continue to go to Ukraine is to get a return on my effort to learn the language. It feels like I've come a long way and at the same time like I have'nt gotten very far. I think both of these statements may be true. The alphabet and several hundred words and a bunch of phrases. Were I to spend a year in Ukraine I think I could become quite fluent as the Pakistani Restaurateur says people become in Urdu who spend a year in Pakistan.
And although I don't expect to spend a whole year there, each time I do go, I learn more and see I've grown in capability from learning there as well as from studying at home.
As we get older, make an effort to hold back the clock, stay young or even possibly reverse aging it seems to me learning is a fine way to achieve growth the very opposite of decline.
And I believe that learning in itself has great valuein terms of health and well being whatever the subject and whether or not there is an economic or environmental need . Most important it can and should be fun.
While I travel solo, I am never alone. Or at least not for long because I write this Blog.
Without the Blog I would not enjoy traveling alone, away from home. At least not for long periods of time as I do. Typically 6 weeks or so.
As I travel I am commenting to you in my mind and later when I write. About what I see and experience, So this sharpens my attention and gives a purpose to my journey, that it would otherwise lack.
And these ongoing conversations with you make me feel I am not alone. Not at all. Except when I haven't blogged for a few days.
So I really appreciate the comments I got to my last Blog post. The emails and especially the comments made in the comment section of the Blog which are there for all to read.
And to those who urged me to continue writing I say Thanks! You too!
Keep writing those comments!
And to those who haven't yet. Give it a try. Just think. Your thoughts can and will be read by readers all over the world. Say whatever is on your mind. Just click on the link at the bottom of this post and write whatever you're thinking.
Thanks for reading. And thanks for commenting!
