Sad Times
The afternoon sun was too much for my dreams.
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, climbed out of bed, and before my groggy brain could formulate the first constructive thought, it hit me like a bullet.
“This isn’t Singapore”
Today would have been my first day in Malaysia, had I made my flight yesterday. For very personal reasons, I had to let my $700 ticket go to waste, and so my seat on United flight 895 from Chicago to Singapore remained empty. I guess whoever had the window seat beside of mine was pretty happy.
I knew that it would be painful not getting back to Asia as planned, but I never expected this. Someone might as well have drooped a bag of concrete across my shoulders. When I opened my front door, and looked out into the quiet street in the middle of suburbia Kentucky, I let out a slight whimper.
There wasn’t the sweet smell of hot oil in a wok cooking up something wonderful. There were no sputtering tuk-tuks with obnoxious drivers calling me over for a ride. No random chickens on the street, kids shouting hello, or the steady hum of motorcycles which clog the streets in Asia…..there was nothing. I was staring down the barrel of a simple, disgustingly predictable, lack of adventure. Not only that, but I have officially inched closer over the line that differentiates people between “vagabonding” and “looser without a job”.
I came back inside and went back to bed.
On the only positive note of the day, I did meet up with a local traveler and her friend at my Irish pub. We met via CouchSurfing.com which I am finding out holds a wealth of potential friendships with local travelers, whether you plan to crash their couches or not. We had a fun night, but at closing time when we went our separate ways, I knew what was going to happen. Tomorrow when I wake up, I will find myself still standing in Lexington, KY waiting for something to happen.
I’ll take the pirates, Al qaeda bombings, land mines, and jungle of Indonesia over this any day.
Tags: backpacking, blog, Greg Rodgers, Travel, Vagabonding
