Travelling Sentiments

I remembered I had wanted to write an article on moi travelling sentiments. I can’t remember what I was discussing with CL on it though. But it had to do with travelling.. maybe it was because I was seeing someone’s CV where the person had gone for study trips during school days. And I was asking her are such trips useful?

Because the truth is, I never been on one at all. Since young, all my travelling trips were with my family. No Malaysia trips for me as dad find it unsafe. I remember after finishing JC, during that 3 months break, my friends had suggested to go JB for seafood but I had to reject too. Thus the first time I went Malaysia on my own, it was to Berkelah Waterfalls in 2007. I remember that was during the ghost festival but I had been insistent on going for I don’t know what reasons haha. In fact I think year 2007 was the year I made a lot of major changes to my life because I decided it was a mid-point for me and I decided to do a major cleansing operation from inside out. Haha.

Thus I also remembered 2007 was the year I chose to fly to Japan on my own too. Actually I did have a chance to go on a school trip in my uni days as I remembered I had applied (written an essay) for some exchange program and had successfully gotten a placement. Just that I need to pay certain subsidised amount still. I think it was to Sydney perhaps. In the end, I rejected though because I was just a school girl then and did not have much money (ok not true, it was due to other reasons perhaps).

So yupz I never did had a school trip and thus had to ask CL her opinion on it. And I remembered she said because we were all schooling then, there really isn’t much sufficient money you can splurge to go so many places on such trip. Plus we might have been too young then to really appreciate the place we been.

I do agree that age do play a part. Since young, all the places I have been with my family, it was more of just following. Thus nothing much really registers deeply into my memories. But since I came back from Sydney, I did think about those younger days and how it felt now that I’m back Sydney on my own. Like how did I felt when I was back in London and in Melbourne. There were snippets of the past flashing past me. Like in Circular Quay, Sydney. I suddenly had this feeling that I was with my family on the way to take a ferry to the zoo which I suspect is the Tarangoo zoo. QVM, Melbourne was another scene where I can remember shopping with my mum across the stalls. Or that Mum and I had chosen a Cellini bag as my "school bag" in Myer, Bourke Street, Melbourne. Or that it was freezing cold when my parents were trying to take a photo of the Big Ben, London and that we had been xmas shopping in Harrods with tons of people. Times like this, I start to wonder what does travelling means to me now?

In Nuyou Nov 2010, Section City Beat, the author has written that travelling means a checklist where you have to go a certain place and visit a few landmarks and you can then say you have placed your foot on that place. So if you are in Sydney, you must visit Sydney Opera house. If you are in London, you must see the Big Ben. And if you are in Rome, Colosseum is a must visit place. But is travelling just a checklist for you to checked?

In my younger days, it was just a trip to accompany my parents (can't possible leave me at home haha). Then when I started to fly on my own, mum was pleasantly surprised as she thought I never really like travelling. Hmm actually it was never a matter of liking or not perhaps. My first trip to Japan, I was finding my friend. My second solo trip, I was with my colleagues. Then I went to Thai to find friend again before going Europe with CL. And even in Europe, I had chosen to drop by London to visit a friend (same friend though just that she shifted from Japan to London haha) too. Haha in other words, I never really travelled alone. I tend to choose places that have friends. And I can say other than Manila and Melbourne, as of now, all the places I travelled to, it was always to visit a friend.

In other words, travelling is not a checklist of tourist attractions which I must accomplish. Travelling has becomes a means for me to find my friends (and thus can provide me free accommodation while I explore the everyday life of the local people haha).

But that does not mean I like travelling. I don’t like to keep flying constantly actually because it is tiring to keep travelling to airports and waiting in the airport. And thus I’m complaining now that due to my poor planning, I have caused myself to travel too much for this few weeks. This was what I had typed to my friend:

Just last last fri (26th nov) I flew to Sydney.
And came back to Melbourne last tues (30th nov).
then tonight (7th dec) again to Sydney
coming back Melbourne on Saturday (11th dec)
then next thurs/fri morning (17th dec 1 a.m.) im flying back home
and the next day (18th dec) to HK
before coming back next next thurs (23rd dec)
Lastly 3 weeks from today (28th dec) i'm flying to Melbourne again.

So I counted, 8 trips up and down. Crazy. All because of my bad planning. Hmm.. just have to tolerate the flying trips for the sake of seeing my friends/family and for learning sake.

p/s: I'm writing the footnote in the airport. And I think Sydney don't really like me that much. Because this time my flight got cancelled and I was pushed to a later flight (half an hour later). Then I dare not request for an earlier flight (probably blog about it in another post) and went to read my magazine at the gate. Only to realise it changed gate halfway. Geez that's why I said I don't like flying, I just like arriving at that new place hahaha. Maybe someone should invent a teleport machine for me. You know like Harry Potter's Apparation! My friend was telling me to please not board the wrong flight. I don't wish to either haha.. that would be so Home Alone Series...