People think I’m brave and independent and have lots of initiative etc to be able to do the solo travelling that I do. And they’re a little bit right some of the time. However, what I think a lot of people don’t understand is just how much of my travel is done without any agency from me at all. I very often have no say in what happens to me, and sometimes I don’t actually know what is happening to me, nor do I understand the consequences of what is going on.
This is both advantageous and disadvantageous. It’s a great way to travel.
I was in Dharbangar in India and I wanted to get to Birgunj in Nepal (long story, and there is at least one other blog post about this entire adventure). So I walked out of the train station up to a taxi rank and said “Birgunj??” to a few people, who then called some others over to help and within seconds there was a committee of about half a dozen people crowd-sourcing a solution for me. I suggested a taxi and got told that a taxi is not possible. Someone suggested a train and I demurred (I’d been on a lot of trains and the train wasn’t leaving until a very inconvenient time). So I tried for a bus. Yep, that was going to be possible. Arguments between the committee ensued about which tuk tuk I was getting into and how much I was paying for it. But this got resolved eventually. I got taken to a bus station and dumped on the side of the road just outside it. So I walked in and said “Birgunj??” a lot with a big smile on my very obviously foreign face. I got whisked over to one edge of the parking lot and told to get on a particular bus. I said “Birgunj??” to the driver who said “Birgunj!!” back to me. We repeated this several times because we were both pretty happy we had one shared word (even if it was a place name). I was happy. I was on a bus going where I wanted to go, the driver knew where I wanted to go, which is always a good thing! I asked the conductor for a ticket to Birgunj and he said “Birgunj” at me and gave me a ticket. So I felt even better about the whole affair.
Turns out, that bus didn’t go to Birgunj. It didn’t go anywhere near it. But it did get me a little closer. So when everyone got off the bus at what was obviously the end of the line and I said “Birgunj??” to the driver, I got pointed to another little bus stop across the road. Ah, ok. So that bus will get me to Birgunj. Fab. (Spoiler alert: that bus also didn’t go to Birgunj.)
Throughout all of this, I had very little idea what was happening or why, and when I did know what was going on, I was wrong. I certainly had no control over what was happening. But I did eventually get to where I needed to be. And this sort of travelling, which can be quite scary and a little disconcerting is actually quite a lot of fun and easier than you might think – as long as you can just let go and go with the flow – in the hopes that it will eventually get you to Birgunj!
Note: my desire, in this anecdote, to travel to Birgunj should not be taken as an actual desire to go to Birgunj, nor is it a recommendation to anyone reading this to go to Birgunj. I actually wanted to go to Sindhuli!
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