For the last few days, I've been obsessed with this blog: Jangano 2009! Because those people? They are living my fantasy vacation. I seriously cannot imagine anything better than someone giving me six months, some people I like, a Land Cruiser, the appropriate visas, and enough cash to get by, and turning me loose on the continent of Africa.
Unless the better thing was all of the above things and a whole YEAR to drive around Africa.
Driving around to new places is my favorite way to travel. I do not like backpacking.* I know that there is this lovely fantasy of backpacking around Europe and Southeast Asia and all, but I despise the whole concept, for the following reasons:
Unless the better thing was all of the above things and a whole YEAR to drive around Africa.
Driving around to new places is my favorite way to travel. I do not like backpacking.* I know that there is this lovely fantasy of backpacking around Europe and Southeast Asia and all, but I despise the whole concept, for the following reasons:
- I am not a turtle. I was not intended to carry all of my belongings on my back. People, I like to be able to bring my contact solution. Do you know how heavy contact solution gets when you are carrying a big bottle of it on your back? (And no, if I'm traveling for any length of time, I cannot bring the small bottle.)
- Public transportation, while lovely and valuable and delightful and the best way to be of the people, man, does not go to all the places I want to go. If I had not had a car in Rwanda, I literally would not have been able to get to the majority of the places I went. I usually ended up giving rides, so I felt like I had something to give, but I got to far more remote places than most people ever could. And in Ethiopia, I skipped some things that I wanted to see because public transportation wasn't reliable enough to get me to the next town if I got off the direct bus in the middle of the route.
- I hate packing and unpacking everything. The thing you need is INEVITABLY in the very bottom of the stupid backpack.
- Backpacks get too heavy if you bring books, so what are you supposed to do in the downtime?
This all makes me sound hopelessly snobby and also hopelessly rigid. All the cool people backpack. But the truth is that backpacking is overrated. It only sounds romantic. It is 60% exhaustion and wanting to whine but not wanting to piss off the people around you and waiting for buses and not knowing where you are going to be able to put down the STUPID BACKPACK and only about 7% actually seeing the things you want to see.** Totally overrated. If you can at all afford it, renting a car is the best way to travel. (This is always the sticking point, though. If I only have the money to choose between backpacking somewhere new and staying home, I always choose the backpacking. I just do it while stifling my swearing. At least you see that 7%.)
* Note: the traveling-around-a-country kind of backpacking, with buses and trains and all, is a very different thing than hiking with a backpack. That, I love, provided I have a good backpack. I think it has to do with 1. not needing to be clean and presentable, 2. not sleeping in a different city every night, 3. less time to read anyway, so the books are a moot point, and 4. nature is pretty, so I'm generally in a good mood.
** The other 33% is sleeping, obviously.
* Note: the traveling-around-a-country kind of backpacking, with buses and trains and all, is a very different thing than hiking with a backpack. That, I love, provided I have a good backpack. I think it has to do with 1. not needing to be clean and presentable, 2. not sleeping in a different city every night, 3. less time to read anyway, so the books are a moot point, and 4. nature is pretty, so I'm generally in a good mood.
** The other 33% is sleeping, obviously.
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