SAM #6
This is an update, a reflection and some other things from Sam. Thank you for taking us along on this and for returning safely home.
SAM JOHNSON
For more than a few years me and Kat have held an ambition to travel around the world. Many things prevented us from doing it - cost, quitting jobs and leaving homes were all good reasons. But mainly because the idea of navigating the globe is really intimidating!
But eventually we bit the bullet: I quit my job, we packed up our things and moved out of our home. The first weeks of travel were pretty daunting. I held the belief that Russians are four seconds away from trying to kill you at any one moment, until we came across one that was so happy (and drunk) to see people visiting his country that he sang to an entire carriage of strangers. Through experiences like this we eventually realised two things.
You can navigate a country on two words (hello & thank you), and
It’s not as hard or a daunting as it’s made out.
My assumption that I needed artic training was unfounded and not being being fluent in Mandarin was far less of a barrier than assumed - having said that it would have been helpful when our bikes got impounded in Southern China.
Fast forward several months and 36,000km later to around nine weeks ago. We had made it as far a small desert island off the coast off Malaysian Borneo which was meant to represent roughly half way on our journey - I’d even done an elaborate stats list to celebrate. Unfortunately the Malaysian Prime Minister had a different idea when he appeared on the TV (in the bar) and very politely asked me and Kat to get out of his country (in 24hrs).
It was in this moment that we started to realise that we weren’t going to make it around the world. Gutting as it was, in many ways this doesn’t matter. We’ve travelled to more countries in five months then many people do in a lifetime and travelled some of the world’s great routes - we even did part of the same route at Katy and Peter, just not on the posh train.
Now back, we’ve been able to digest all the positives from travel. Most importantly, regularly getting lost, often turning up in a country without knowing what the local currency was, not knowing how to get to our hostel or possessing any basic language skills.
It was an adventure that was “just” to the end of the world and back again. Which was still pretty good. Now if only someone could reopen the world and fund the second half of the trip...
The last bar in Malaysia
