Over the past 3 years, I've been on 3 big trips, with a few small ones scattered in the middle.
I've been to Western Europe for 6 weeks,
Taiwan for roughly 10 days
and most recently, Israel for almost one month.
I've always been a slow traveller; I like to take my time and soak up the place without knowing anything except what I can eat and where I can sleep.
The "objective" of each trip, or travelling in general has evolved and become more nuanced, complicated over the years.
People
A big part of travelling for me is always to live the lives of the "natives". Because I value different opinions, I like to understand the social and cultural make-up of different groups of people and figure out where they come from. It's fun to be Sherlock and "solve" the big mystery of why the Netherlands is so bicycle-friendly (because their land is extremely flat and there was once a oil shortage so severe they resorted to improving infrastructure instead), but the real fun begins when they take you completely by surprise (like the fact that Israel is actually extremely gay-friendly, even in super-conservative Jerusalem).
A consequence of this desire is a natural avoidance of "hostel patrons", the people who sit around in the hostel dining room or lounge all day and chat up whomever is around. I find it naturally weird to speak to a Japanese in Thailand because the conversation usually moves in 2 directions,
either
"Have you seen XYZ monument?"
"Oh yes, I have!"
"Then have you seen ABC park?"
and so on and so forth. Tourists speaking to other tourists is like kids comparing answers after they leave the exam hall.
Or they will compare adventures, which just becomes a dick measuring contest. I'm interested in the country I'm going, not the visitors of said country.
Place
Some places don't really need people. We don't need to know the individuals of a place to know that place. Sometimes a place is either so full of people with similar stories or so devoid of people in the first place that you can just sit somewhere and admire.
Taiwan is one of those places. Taipei, the city itself, doesn't need individuals to explain itself. The signages, traffic, buildings, roads, crowds, kids, parks all paint a picture that doesn't need a narrator. It's very much a system in and of itself. One that I find myself calling Singapore+20, as in how cities develop without any particular direction; perhaps one that Singapore might look like in 20 years time if there was no concerted effort to push it in one direction or the other (e.g. transport hub, or bio-research hub or whatever).
The rest of Taiwan, on the other hand, is what we wished we had, sprawling mountains and rivers and seas. Again, one that doesn't need much narration. Although I have to admit, it'd be nice to have a human voice to guide this side of Taiwan.
~
On the other hand, we have Israel. The ironic thing here is that although I've spent considerably more time in Israel than Taiwan, I feel like I understand Taiwan a lot more, at least Taipei.
There could be a lot of reasons for this. We have a very serious agenda in Israel, with Mada and whatnot. I've also had to travel with a much bigger group of people (15), which could make travelling a bit cumbersome. Most of the itinerary has also been planned for the Israel trip, compared to Taiwan, which only really had 3 or 4 major points we planned for and nothing much else.
I've met a considerable number of Israelis, but the more I meet, the more I'm convinced that I know too little about this place. I think it speaks a lot more about the complexity of Israel than anything else.
In fact, given another opportunity, I would probably go back to that region to make better sense of it. Like, it feels like I'm not satisfied with that place the way I am with Taiwan and Europe (well, most of europe anyway, I'll probably head back to Holland to visit friends and maybe Germany to satisfy my curiosity) Probably not on my own coin though.
Actually I brought up Israel because I wanted to talk more about the hit-and-hit nature of the trip more than anything else.The way I described to a friend was hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-hit-airport style of travelling. I find this way to be most unappealing, because it reduces the spirit of a country down to its biggest and sometimes more tourist-trappy locations. I find that time is a necessary component of understanding because we don't always know the right questions to ask. Time is that element that brings about coincidences and mistakes and spontaneous situations; things that do not translate well into a guidebook or a internet review website.
~
A friend once recalled that through our travels we don't necessarily know more the places we are in, but we do know more about ourselves.
There is a lot of truth from that. And experience taught me that more than anything. Perhaps over the next few weeks or months or whatever I'll jot down my thoughts on personal growth.
Some things stewing around in my brain soup::
Asking the right questions (not really travel-related)
Being lonely in a group; why some days feel lonelier than others
Observing MADA
Singaporean girls and why i can't even
Expectations in relationships from a relationship-less guy (al's story)
Labels in conversations
The last 3 were things from the most recent trip, SO DON'T BLAME ME, I DON'T USUALLY TALK ABOUT GIRLY FEELY GLSKDJLSKDJOWIJE
Not today though.
