China. Maybe One Day #1: The Best Laid Plans

The Best Laid Plans
Wednesday, August 28th

Myself and my brother at my leaving party

Four days till my flight leaves. How on earth did I find myself in this position? Well, the answer to that one is quite easy. I decided to go travelling again, so left my job, my flat, and everything else that goes with living a reasonably comfortable lifestyle in London. It seems like a lot, but actually the hardest thing is deciding to go in the first place. After that everything else falls into place out of necessity. However, how do I find myself about to board a plane for South America? Well, that one’s just a little bit more complicated.

Originally I hadn’t intended to go to South America at all. Oh no, China was my chosen destination. China was the place; I was going to go where very few had been before. Well, I knew of no one who had been at the time! After several days casting about the web for inspiration on places to visit I came across a company that ran expeditions into China. An excellent way to get off the beaten track for very little money, I thought. I also noticed that they ran a 19 week expedition all the way from London to Peking. After a couple of sleepless nights and a few more boring days at work, I took the plunge, rang them up and booked myself all the way from London to Peking.

No sooner had I accomplished this than the whole India, Pakistan thing went pear shaped. Before I knew it the British Government was advising against travel to Pakistan and my whole overland expedition had been called off. Not to worry, said the travel company; you can still go London to Cairo, then fly to Nepal and take a different route into China. This still seemed like a good idea. So, March 1^st or thereabouts I set off on a truck bound overland for Cairo. The journey was to take seven weeks. I think it was about two weeks into the trip that I decided that this was not really the way for me to travel. Having spent a good portion of my youth bumming around Europe and Oceania with a rucksack on my back I thought I had a fairly good idea how this backpacking lark was supposed to work. However, after two weeks in a tent, four 6am starts in a row, and then spending the rest of the day sitting in the back of a truck being buffeted by the wind and rain I started to have different ideas about how my year off work should be spent.

In the end I think it came down to choice. On a package tour you have no choice in how long you spend travelling, no chance to have a lie in if you happen to have consumed a few too many beers the night before and the certain knowledge that the evening’s meal is going to be Spam fritters for 14. After cancelling the second leg of my trip, I settled down to get the most out of this time that I could. I relished every opportunity to get away from the group and to mix with any local or traveller that we happened across. Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt are fascinating countries and I hope one day to spend more time in that part of the world.

Nevertheless I still had a plan. I was going to come home, spend the summer messing around in the English countryside and then go off to China in the autumn when it had cooled down a bit. As so often happens, plans change. This one changed after a few drinks in a pub with some good friends.

“I’m going to South America in September,” said my friend Tim as he handed me my fourth or fifth pint of the evening.
“I don’t know,” I replied, “I’ve been telling everyone I’m going to China.”
“Come on, it will be fun!”

So that was that. Two weeks later I had my plane tickets booked. A few weeks after that I had signed myself up for some language lessons in Buenos Aires, and we had worked out a rough idea of where to go. My plan was to fly into Rio and then fly out of Santiago. Tim’s plan is to fly into Buenos Aires and fly out of Rio. A good start I think.