Tag Archives: water

Benaulim & Anjuna Beaches, Goa, India

by jose

— This is Friday Coffee?
— Yeah!
— By Mango?
— Yeah!
— Remixed by Paul Keeley?
— Are you a DJ too?

And then I realized. Yes, I really was in Anjuna Beach, this now worldwide-known trance scene (thanks to Above & Beyond and their label Anjunabeats) which used to be bustling with loads of illegal night-time trance parties. And yes, I was in Goa, this now worldwide-known province of India where the electronic genres of… goa and psytrance started, thanks to an incredible number of crazy Israeli tourists coming there to have a hell of a good time on those amazing beaches.

Obviously, they were not really the type of tourists you meet in resorts or five-star hotels. They were backpackers, with almost no money but an incredible energy and no need for comfort. I, too, thought I was one, but really, I think India still lowered my comfort standards. Good thing I went there, I guess.

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Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

by jose

The ultimately free man is the Wise man, but he’s lonely.
(Tristan Raoult)

Now that I think about it, India was my first real lone backpacking experience. Not that I was alone, no; I met a lot of people, friendly or unfriendly, travelers or locals, backpackers or foreign students, in hostels, restaurants, streets, buses or even train stations. But I was always traveling alone. My itinerary was only mine, and when I had to part from new friends, I did.

Maybe it was because of the short length of my stay (only three weeks; I will have to come back, and this time for a few months, eh) which forced me to rush to my destinations at all costs – missing my flight from Delhi was not an option, and staying for too long in one place neither – and made impossible for me to follow other travelers. I did my best to visit the most of India I physically and mentally could, having unfortunately to rest at some places because of my weak human condition.

And yes, I felt free. Not free like we, the Donkeys, were back on the highway in Jordan. I felt free because every morning, when I woke up, I could decide what I would do, where I would go, how to do it, without talking to anyone, without having to explain it to anybody, taking my own decisions based upon my own criteria. I could go to uncomfortable, dirty or even scary places without involving anyone else. I could try the risky Indian street food without being a burden to other people if I would get sick. I could bear a heavy travel schedule (sometimes only one or two nights per location, when I was not sleeping in a bus or train) without making people suffer from its fast pace. To put in a nutshell, when I had hard times, I faced them alone, without making anyone suffer around me.

But yes, sometimes, I also did feel lonely. Because no one was here to share the wonders, joys and beauties of the places I saw, no one was here to share my excitation about moving, traveling, discovering this incredible country. No one was there to watch my back, too; it is not a big news that lone travelers are easier preys for thieves, muggers, swindlers, con artists or even just touts.

If being lonely is the price of being free, I guess at least it also made me stronger.

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Luxor, Upper Egypt

by jose

There is a reason if I travel. Or, I should say, there is a reason if we travel. Once I arrived in Egypt, I found I was not the only one who wanted to see things before I would die.

— What do you want?
— I wanna see beautiful places in Egypt before leaving it… I mean, I’m on a round-the-world trip. I can’t stay for too long in Sharm. I need to move.
— Yeah… Me too.

And so it was decided. Yes, it is the curse of the traveler to part from people they love, to put an end to beautiful things they just built up, to leave when everything in the world tell them to stay. Maybe not everything, actually.

Our passion for discovering the world and its wonders, our passion to jump into the unknown so that we can live our life to the fullest. Perhaps our fear of getting trapped in constraining bonds too. But, most of all, our dream of expressing both our freedom and our joy of living in this so, so beautiful world.

These are the reasons why we kept moving. And why I keep moving. Moving forward, without ever forgetting, but moving forward still.

Always forward, and never stopping, Inshallah.

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Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt

by jose

By simply looking at this picture, an overwhelming flow of memories assaults my mind. From the battle to cross the border in Taba, bargain transportations to Sharm, rest in a sketchy hostel for one night, and finally find this place, the mighty Shark’s Bay, thanks to the Lonely Planet (I love this book), to the epic days and nights we spent here with Ragab, Haram, then Julia, Karim, David, and in the end Lars, everything comes back in my head, as if I was living these happy days once more.

And again, finding such a haven was unexpected. We only knew that we would go to Sharm-el-Sheikh, this touristic destination on the coast, to join Karim and maybe other friends from Cairo. So we headed South from Jerusalem, doing everything we could to get to that “city” – in fact only consisting in an immense network of resorts and hotels so dense it created a town; and after our road trip in Jordan and Israel, we all wanted to chill out, but had no idea of where to go in Sharm.

By some kind of miracle, our guidebook had the answer to all our difficulties. Thank you, Lonely Planet, for transforming a harsh trip into an unforgettable time of my life.

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Jerusalem, Israel

by jose

— Crap, they dropped us in the middle of nowhere – we’re on the highway!
— I love it. This is freedom, Ant!

Freedom. This is the intense feeling that grasped me a few seconds after I jumped out of the minibus with my backpack between my arms, following the Donkeys that had just woken me up. I took a look around us, and yes, we were in the middle of nowhere, on the side of a highway, with no clue about where to head. We only knew we were in Jordan, somewhere not that far from the Dead Sea – we only had to find it.

Getting lost in a country you had not even thought you were going to, getting lost with your backpack on your back, getting lost with friends you basically just met but already know you are going to keep for your whole lifetime. Getting lost and decide to walk in the general direction you want to go to, with all the equipment you need, which means you never have to look back or go back to wherever you came from – simply walking in this breathtaking landscape, in this unknown territory, just because you heard that a place you need to see is somewhere ahead of you.

Welcome, freedom, this feeling I had never experienced before. Take a seat somewhere in my heart; I will keep it for you forever, so that you can come back and chill out here whenever you wish.

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