Cleaning up my desktop - found this unpublished masterpiece and thought I'd share cause, you know, I'm such a considerate motherfucker.
Ready to go home
The time has come. I’m just waiting now and killing time.
Two more hours til my deluxe bus
departs for Delhi. Two more long
hours. 3:30pm is the time of departure and I’m looking forward to it. Something
to do, somewhere to put my bags, someone to potentially talk with to kill some
time on the road. This morning, I rose relatively early and tried to meditate,
half-packed my bags and then walked into town down past the temple, past the
cows & yaks and down the hill to the English
Bakery. I resisted the freshly baked goods – very unusual for me – and sat
down to a large bowl of porridge topped with fresh papaya and washed down with
some masala tea.
I tried to take it slow because unfortunately, after I
finished, I had nothing else to do. I
tried to review some of the teachings from my Buddhism course and to study some
Khmer, but it’s just plain hard when you’re not in a position to put it into
practice. I need to hear the words
not read them. My thoughts and eyes
wandered and wondered what to do next. I went to the internet cafe and spent an
hour scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed for lack of anything better to do. Not this again. After an hour, it was
fortunately time to check out of my guesthouse.
I walked back up the hill, past the guys selling cherries,
past the cows & yaks and past the temple – happy this was the last time I
was to go in this direction. I quickly finished packing, paid my bill and it
was still shy of 12 o’clock. Now where to
go? I went back to the English Bakery.
Got a cinnamon roll, some mint tea and a chocolate ball. I could have eaten
more as my sweet tooth rarely gets tired, but I thought it’d be best to mix it
up and kill time elsewhere. I went a few doors down to The Bee’s Knees and ordered some more food. I’m not hungry!
I should have, at some point in my life, entered an eating
contest. I can put it down. That, however, is not a challenge. I ended up
ordering a mango shake and a garlic cheese omelet. I don’t know how it is
possible to make a shake that is not cold. It was significantly thick and
looked delicious, but it was room temperature. How is that possible? Some ice
blended with warm mango? A shake has got to cold in my opinion or it’s not a
shake even if it resembles one. Finishing that in a minute, I awaited the
omelet. I hoped they knew I was in no hurry.
And here I am with a full belly, waiting out the last 30
minutes before I take my final walk through Old Manali and hail a rickshaw to
take me to the bus stand in New Manali. I am ready. I am ready to pass out on
the bus and wake up in Bangkok – that would be ideal. Seeing as that isn’t
going to happen, I have to take it slow. First, get me to the bus stand.
Hopefully the bus truly is deluxe. I
don’t have high expectations. Hopefully I have sufficient leg room. Hopefully
the bus doesn’t crash and we arrive in Delhi in one piece. Then take the metro
to the airport and hope that Air India,
whose pilots have been striking for the past few weeks, is indeed flying its
international routes. Pleeeeeeeeease.
Because I’m tired and I want to go home. Thailand is close
enough to home for the time being. Comfortable surroundings, great food, pretty
women, fresh fruit and one step closer to the end. A few days of seeing old and
new places, meeting old and hopefully new friends and it will be time to get on
another plane. Just five more days.
This time it will be to America, the place formerly known as home. It’s been a
long time since I’ve seen the family and I’m overdue for a visit, but who wants
to visit during the winter? That is precisely why I waited til now.
I have to be honest with myself, I’m tired of traveling.
Tired of otherwise doing nothing. In retrospect of recent adventures, trekking
in Nepal and the introduction to Buddhism course were perfect. I was doing something. I was active and or learning
something. Sleeping, eating, interneting...this is not what I want to be doing,
but this is mostly what I have been
doing. I did have the ability to close out this adventure by trekking some more
in the Indian Himalayas or rafting down the Ganges, but I was just too lazy to
pull it off. Instead, I came to a beautiful place and let my antisocial ways
get the best of me. I feel like I took a vow of noble silence I’ve been talking
so little.
And instead of truly enjoying this place – the snow-capped
mountains in the distance, the fresh mountain air, the cool evening breeze –
and living every moment how it ought to be lived, I have had my head focused on
future affairs and have therefore found difficulty in fully appreciating the
beauty that is right in front of my nose. I mean, I know it’s beautiful, I’m
not blind, but my appreciation for it wore off way too prematurely. At least
now, I can reflect, a little, on what I should have embraced more, but didn’t.
And as the time approaches to depart, I have been noticing more, the smell of
flowers and the sound of birds chirping nearby. I’m still ready to go though.
………………update from the Delhi airport………………………
I made it to the Delhi airport. After some confusion in New
Manali as to what bus I was to take to Delhi – the fool wrote down the wrong
bus number on my ticket – I boarded the deluxe
bus, breathed a deep sigh of relief and tried to settle in for the long journey
ahead. The bus was not new as described, but this was no surprise. It was
probably older than me, but still perhaps new by Indian standards. They’re all liars. The windows rattled
from 3:30pm, the time of departure, until 6:00am, when we arrived in Delhi. I
listened to my music a lot, adjusted my sitting position what seemed like every few minutes and slept very
little.
Upon arrival in Delhi, I managed to fend off the various
rickshaw drivers looking for a quick buck and walked to the nearest metro
station. In less than thirty minutes, I found myself at the airport and it was
just after 7 in the morning. Only seven
hours til my flight. I found a restroom, changed my clothes and freshened up,
and headed to the nearest coffee shop. I hadn’t eaten since 3pm the previous
day after overstuffing my face for lack of anything else to do. I indulged in a
chocolate muffin and a medium Americano, which I might say was the perfect
combination. Of course, the airport’s free wifi was not actually free – nothing ever is – and I would have to find an
alternative way to kill the ensuing hours I had hoped would have been spent
surfing the net.
I chatted with a Canadian girl for a while, I wandered the
departure terminal and eventually checked in five hours early before my flight
– at least the bulk of my baggage was not in my hands anymore.
Then I went
through immigration – waited behind the yellow line, handed over my passport
and smiled, waited some more, finally got my exit stamp and proceeded to the
security check. After an overly thorough check of my person and personal
belongings, I was through to the departure area. What to do now? I won’t go into detail for your sake. At present, I
am only one hour away from boarding – thank Christ, Buddha and Allah – wiling
away the time at The Coffee Bean and Tea
Leaf. I feel sick, my body’s insides have been bathing in way too much
sugar lately.
A plate of Thai fried rice is in my very immediate future. Bangkok,
I will see you soon!
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