Packing...or Procrastinating......
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Middlesbrough,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Hi, welcome to Diaries of a World Wanderer.
This journal will describe what I hope will be the first of many trips covering the globe. The trip is pretty much a standard backpacker tour, I'm looking forward to it immensely, and I hope that you enjoy following my journey, though I think the real excitement will only kick in when I get to the airport, as at the moment I have all the final, niggly little jobs to do, the worst of which is packing.
So, I leave in a few days, and as yet have done precisely no packing... at all.
The problem I am finding is that, contrary to a lot of women (who complain about having no clothes), I seem to have many things to wear, and in like manner to all women, want to take an outfit to cover virtually every possible occasion (apart from some kind of ball outfit because I am pretty sure that hostels, as a rule, do not operate black tie events). I have even tried to use compression bags in order to fit everything into my already large rucksack - but even these wonderful inventions are failing to give me the extra desired space.
So I am down to splitting clothing into items which I need and items that I just want. This is proving to be most difficult and as such I have decided to write my first entry in the hope that I can gain some inspiration.
Or, actually, is it just a way of hoping that my bag will magically grow while I am out of the room and as such solve the problem of capsule packing?
Though I actually know that this will not happen and that I will at some point have to put some things back in my drawers and find out on the other side of the world that actually, that top would have been infinitely more useful that the one that I selected, and that bringing shorts may have been quite a good idea.
Nevermind - beyond the mundane and annoying aspect of packing, I am actually starting to get quite giddy. The tickets have arrived, the number of days is dwindling and Hong Kong promises to be very exciting.
Many people have asked me if I am frightened of travelling on my own, or have expressed opinions relating to bravery in going solo, but in all honesty, I feel that neither of these options apply to me. I have never really considered going with a friend, primarily because I want to be able to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, and secondly because I will be hosteling, and in my experience, hostelers tend to be a friendly bunch who look out for one another, so in that respect it should be fine.
My workmates also very kindly purchased a compass for me in order to stop me from getting lost, and found it hilarious when I managed to aim south instead of north (though in my defence it is a compact compass and it was difficult to make out the north pointer against the round snub of the counterend), so aside from being aware that it is possible to head in the completely wrong direction, I am also covered against getting lost in the urban jungle.
In fact, my main worry is, weirdly, one that was proposed by my mother. Apparently it is very noticeable when I have been in the house all day on my own - as soon as someone walks in from work, they are bombarded with a massive monologue of anything that I have been up to that day, just to relieve the tension of having to be quiet for an extended period of time! So the question is this, how on earth am I going to find this release when I am away.............
Its going to be right here, so as I said on the welcome page, sit back, relax, read, and enjoy - I'm going to enjoy writing it.
See you in Hong Kong!
