Troy Archie – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

So here I am beginning a trip that seems a long time in the making; I’ve talked about going to Sri Lanka for a long time and it’s finally happening.  It’s actually been a long time since I’ve taken, what I consider, a trip.  Europe didn’t fit the definition for me and neither did going to places like Portland, Montreal or Toronto.  They were fun and all, just not the same.  It’s been nearly 6 years since I returned home from my last “trip”; that one lasted a year and upon my return I figured I’d be back out on the road in no time.  6 years later…

When you travel alone you don’t have anyone to bank weird ideas, observations, rants and commentaries off of, so I thought it would be fun to write again.  These writings are going to be that and probably more.

One of the first funny things I noticed at the Vancouver airport was the number of Chinese tourists going crazy buying things in the duty free section of the airport.  When I first walked through the duty-free area I was approached by an attendant working there who spoke horrible English.  At first I thought it was odd they’d higher someone with such poor English there but soon realized she was higher’d because most people going through there were Chinese tourists that were buying anything that wasn’t nailed down.  Clothes, booze, cigarettes, maple syrup, and specifically designer clothing.  This amused me; we go to China and go on crazy spending sprees for cheap stuff and they come here and go on crazy spending sprees for the real thing.

So I was in Hong Kong for a full day and about the only thing I did was wander around and go to coffee shops.   Typical.  Even when I was travelling 6 years ago that`s about all my travels turned into; me going around looking for places with good coffee and this was before “specialty coffee” had a name.  Regardless, I had some good cups from a couple of cafes; a cup from Finca Kilimanjaro in El Salvador from Knockbox, which was one of the more memorable coffees I’ve had in a while, and a pretty Ethiopian from Rabbit Roasters.  Happy to find great coffee in Hong Kong and really beautiful cafes at that, especially Rabbit which was on a second floor balcony and had a cool little open air private back porch area.  These places had the weirdest hours though; Knockbox didn’t open until 1300 on weekdays and Rabbit didn’t open until 1100.  Different coffee cultures I suppose.  I don’t imagine I’ll find any good coffee in Sri Lanka but I’ll try.  Excited to see what Singapore has to offer.

I think my searching for good coffee and frequenting cafes in general is a yearning for some form of familiarity.  I definitely feel like I’ve had some wet feet starting out this trip and was asking myself on a number of occasions, “WTF am I doing here?”   I also felt a bit lonely right off the bat and yearning for some form of familiarity.  Things were very different in Hong Kong and I suppose hitting up a couple cafes allowed me to temper those feelings; In fact I’m kind of surprised just how quickly those feelings have dissipated.  It’s only been 3 days since I’ve left home but I feel I’ve been on the road a lot longer than that and I mean that in a good way, not in a fatigued sort of way.

Hong Kong was a busy ass place and I got out pretty fast.  I was thinking about spending a couple days there but decided one day was good enough (it was either one or four because of flights).  A couple friends didn’t speak too highly of the place and the guy sitting next to me didn’t give it the greatest review either.  In retrospect I realize that I don’t like large cities like that; it’s just too much.  Too congested, too busy, too polluted…  I realize I wanted hill countries with tea plantations and beautiful beaches, not high-rises and the world’s largest commercial hub.  Hong Kong would be a great place to go if I wanted to go on a shopping spree, especially jewelry and watches.  I don’t know what gives but there was this one jewelry shop on practically every corner.  It was like Starbucks in downtown Vancouver.  There were even a few across the street from each other.  It was fucking weird, especially from someone who doesn’t wear any watches of jewelry.  A lot of the stuff was pretty gaudy too and really not that expensive.  Status symbols I suppose.  It got me thinking though; there were a lot of pieces going for less than what I put into my right sleeve.  Status symbol perhaps, but just in a different context?  One could easily argue both are forms of art, vanity and are a status symbol of sorts…Anyway; Hong Kong.

Hong Kong had its interests but not enough to keep me around.  I more or less appreciated the diversity/disparity, depending on how you look at it.  You’d have a kitschy urban store catering to the ex-pats and upper class of the city and around the corner you’d have an alleyway full of vegetable mongers and hawkers selling anything from batteries to bras.  The food wasn’t that great either.  I know there are places out in the city that are amazing but I didn’t have the time or energy to seek them out and there’s only so many rice and meat and noddle dishes you can eat.  In my case one of each.  After that I’m ashamed to admit that I hit up a McDonald’s and had a chicken salad.  It’s all I frickin wanted.

I find myself not trying to find the cheapest place to stay, haggling over the small stuff and being stupidly anxious about the little things.   I was thinking that I was getting older or lazier when it came to my travels but I think I`m getting wiser; instead of worrying about the little shit and trying to cut all the dumb little corners I find myself just letting go and saying, “fuck it, it’s not worth the energy or effort.”  And it isn’t.

So now I sit in the Singapore airport in the middle of a heavy travel day consisting of multiple flights on my way to Colombo listening to a pair of live entertainers sing your favorite songs of old that the airport has put on; enthralling.  Next up Sri Lanka.

Tags: Australia

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2013 at 5:38 am and is filed under Australia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.