I recently came across descriptions of Patrick Leigh Fermor like this, and also The Longest Way. And I was reading a short story about a guy crossing India by bike. Something very appealing about these fellows. Their trips were just "I am going to walk from point A to point B." A couple ideas stood out to me about a a trip like that:
- you don't worry about the small stuff. You worry about "can I find something to eat tonight?", "can I sleep somewhere tonight?", and "can I make it to tonight without dying or getting lost in the desert?"
- you meet a million of the places you wouldn't have otherwise seen, and that nobody else you'll ever talk to has seen
- you sort of "earn" your way to each place. People they meet had respect for them, like instant-friends respect, because they're walking/biking! That is crazy! White people travel in airplanes, they don't walk or bike!
I don't think I'll change my trip to a "walk across India" trip. But I will keep their ideas fermenting in the back of my mind and see what happens.
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