Discussion about this post

User's avatar
John Horniblow's avatar

Hi Matthew, this article brings up so so many thoughts and memories for me that I have hold myself back in commenting or revisiting a memory on just about every point. So where do I start? I remember those Emirates advertisements so clearly as they, without wanting to sound corny ( congratulations by the way, they are superb), spoke to me and my experiences, my curiosity, my inherent "wanderlust". All encompassing ; adventure, exploration, food, language, culture, history and geographies. And, if I delve deep into my memories in trying to understand my wanderlust I am drawn to pre-school memories, particularly the tan-bark playground where, with boundless imagination, lacking any inhibitions, on a imaginary raft or boat , I was navigating some treacherous river through a deep jungle with my small group of intrepid friends that I had rallied for the adventure. Of course, we'd encounter everything. Dangerous rapids, crocodiles, boa constrictors, get stuck in quicksand and dare I say come into contact with the "natives" or rescuing captured friends. Escaping calamity in every moment. It was a game that I acted and reenacted almost day when I could. No doubt there was some influence from the television of the time and publications like "Boys Own Adventure" and those rope bridges and mock boats embedded in the playground. As I grew up trips to the dentist provided another window into the world beyond my suburban surrounds with the omnipresent stack of National Geographic magazines in the waiting room. I dreamed of being an explorer, in the noblest of terms , and readily picked up the Encyclopedias that were on our book shelves at home and read them for fun. Fast forward to my late teens and I pined for travel or rather sub consciously needed to "de-school" myself . At the first opportunity I could , I took off on what now feels like a life of episodic adventures, first arriving in Indonesia wanting to make a overland trip to London to dive into it's burgeoning independent music scene in the early 80's. But I never made it to London. Sth East Asia, Nepal and India were more enthralling. A year of carrying my possessions on my back , encountering strangers, learning languages, discovering and eating new cuisines, getting sick in remote places, and exploring unbeaten rarely trodden tracks. From Nusa Tenggara, the Aceh Highlands and the jungles of Sumatra, trekking in the Himalayas, illegally crossing briefly into Tibet, being held up at gunpoint in the Golden Triangle, racing through Burma trying to take it all in in one week, walking in the Thar desert, living in villages in the Rann of Kaatch. And all through these expansive experiences meeting and talking to strangers , as you point out, was "de rigueur " . The one main stranger , now dear friend, was a young German chap , named Eibes whom I met at a "crash pad" on Singapore's Bencoolen St. This one liaison would have a dramatic impact on my future adventures. We traveled back into central Sumatra together on smugglers ferries running from Bataam to Pelambang through the Riu Archipelago, out to the Mentawi Islands on the deck of a trading ship and up past Lake Toba and Medan into the Gayo Highlands of Aceh. Intrepid, tough traveling and adventurous to say the least. Eibes and I remained close friends where ever we were and a few years later he asked me to join an Expedition, akin to one from the age of explorers. I crossed the planet again and I joined a young mixed international crew. Circumnavigated Sth America and sailed to Antarctica from Puerto Rico and back on the most unlikely of ships, a ferro cement junk, and took a side trip up the Amazon River on the river boats to Manaus. Through it all, somehow, I had acted out two childhood dreams, Antarctica and The Amazon, in one out of a two year journey.

What is clear to me is that while travel is often defined by going from point A to B , or more recently as you point out a bucket list , for me it's was really the journey in between. A journey with all the sensory experiences, ups, downs, spills and thrills, exotic cultures, connections with people and being invited into those communal celebrations that continually changed my view. Another key has been purpose and as I matured with a career and parent responsibilities my wife and I continued to travel with our small family, working and living in the US, Europe, Nth Africa and China. The experience of adapting and living in a new country, learning its cultural norms and immersing oneself and family within it, as part of the social fabric and landscape for years at a time, profoundly changed more than my view but a created completely new perspectives to take a view from. Today my grown children are bi lingual , real Third Culture Kids as a result. The other and possibly the most magical key on view has always been language. Language is the great leveler in human commonality, the great door opener, and I realise that while I love the challenge of learning them, I also like to play with them too. I can recall telling a room of company executives in China, whom I was teaching and coaching English, in Mandarin, how much I love language and its constructions, deftly flexing between both languages humorously. The room was beaming with relaxed smiles. It was like I had flicked a switch on in me and my students over time. It was a wonderful feeling and from then on I made that effort of trying to always push for the element fun and commonality in bringing life experiences into my classes well beyond the text book.

My wife and I continue on in our life of adventure. I coin it in a phrase "Our Endless Road Trip". It's like we are bouncing along an irregular road, navigating bends, climbing winding mountain roads, slowing in snow and fog, crossing the high mountains passes, trans versing long lush valleys, cruising desert roads, and sometimes speeding along expressways . What is precious for us, is that the view is forever changing.

Expand full comment
Karen FitzGerald's avatar

Wonderful, Matthew! Thank you for this. I will pay tribute to Jeanneke in an upcoming essay re Travel, in forthcoming anthology on Travel being produced by the The Sitting Room, https://sittingroomlibrary.org AND, if I'm really clever, I'll squeeze in a word on Jean Curlewis.

As ever, will wishes to you.

Expand full comment
2 more comments...

No posts