Sometimes, it is not always the destination that you learn about, it is also from interacting with fellow travellers. Travellers can broadly be classified in to the budget travellers (backpackers), business visitors and then tourists (packaged and canned).
I met a German couple at Gokarna, motorcycling on their respective 250cc RZ bikes. They traveled on road from Germany through eastern Europe, former Soviet blocs and then Pan India. After their trip down south India, they are headed back to Germany by road. The best part was they cooked their own food.
On an other occasion, I met a non-resident Alien (read: Japanese with U.S. green card). He is an ex-investment banker who did all sorts of odd jobs in his native country to save money for his baccalaureate educational expenses in U.S. In the seven years that he worked after high school, he also learned to speak English. After completing his bachelors in U.S. and working in several jobs, he ended up working for Wachovia at North Carolina. By the spring of 2008, he quit his job and decided to embark on a world tour as a backpacker. He said that he might travel for another year or two and has savings to meet his budget travel.
In the last one year, he had traveled across continents, especially, parts of Latin America, middle east and then Southern Africa. We were both discussing the paradox of US dollar on how can it be valued so high in spite of the deep shit financial quagmire? He was pretty scathing on Obama’s financial stimulus package which was only meant to drag the Country further in to deep shit rather than pulling off the plug on real estate prices and offering tax cuts to small businesses.
To me the whole vacation thingy is just a temporary break from work (the one that i do for a living). With my time at Anjuna, in a homestay, i take it day by day. I don’t have plans for tomorrow. I know that I will be working from Anjuna during the following week before I decide to head back to my home. In the meantime, I have padded the solo driver seat with additional cushion material and changed the engine oil at Mapusa. I even had my hair cut after, say, six months. I have stopped wearing my wrist watch as time is immaterial in Goa (no, i’m not exaggerating).
The restaurants that I frequent are very laid back. They don’t rush in with the check after the meal. They wait and provide you with the check only after you signal them to do so. I like the ambiance as it is quite different from the pushy nature the middle class that I’m used to. On top of it, i have had a decent internet connection and can connect with Internet through my laptop. What else can i ask for?
I sign off here saying…so far so good!