So how do you get ready for a trip with these characteristics: 24 time zones, 6 countries, 8 flights, one bus, three trains, three ferries, 24, 902 miles, 11 hotels and a ger (yurt to you). I got myself together with 65 pages of notes, copies of hotel vouchers, walking maps, ferry and train schedules, a Japanese rail pass, train tickets, and the rest. All of those pages can be discarded as I live the experiences they provide and move on. My goal is for things to get lighter as I go along not heavier. So sorry for bookies but that means that I actually tear out pages of the books I read along the way. (They can be recycled at least).
As a Third Ager I don´t want to be burdened with huge suitcases so that means one back pack and a small bag for holding the creams and emollients and all of the cables and chargers that go with cellphones and keyboards and headsets. I might even have been lighter if I were younger but nature demands more attention as the years go by.
All of the prep work is because of my age really. When I was younger I would just go and let the drama begin. Now I wonder. It´s really a test. Can I still land in a country like Japan where the maps I have printed out for walking directions say “walk on unnamed street?” Or has the world changed and will my smartphone GPS which I am not even sure I know how to use, actually kick in and Nancy the Navigator (my pet name for the GPS voice) seamlessly guide me along those unnamed streets. Or, horror of horror, will she be pronouncing them in Japanese?
When I was last in Japan there were no ATMs, no cellphones, no English anywhere to be seen or heard. I am expecting it to be different so that will be the challenge.
So I have over-prepared. I have vouchers for all hotels and and directions and maps as to how to get to each. I have layouts of the airports. I have all of the station stops on the trains I am taking. I have maps of the Moscow and Tokyo subways. I can´t read the vouchers because they are in Japanese or Russian or Estonian, but I have them anyway. And just in case I drop all of these pages into the water I have most of the information on my cellphone and in a flash drive, along with copies of my passport and credit cards. Have I forgotten anything? Probably. It´s a bit sad to feel like I have to be so prepared but if I pass this test and can still leap into the unknown than next time I will prepare less.
You know though, the beauty of the preparation is that knowledge builds excitement. Researching the Tokyo subway means I get to find out that Shinjuku station has nearly 4,000,000 riders a day. I just want to stand there and let all of those hurrying people skuttle around me.
The internet research takes me on preliminary journeys to the places I will see. I find the yellow suitcase free tours in Tallinn Estonia run by young kids interested in sharing the joys of their city. I get to see that there is an ultra-hokey Robot show in Tokyo, how could I miss that? And the research gives me warnings. Even with the first class carriage on the Trans-Siberian railroad I must share the room with someone in the upper or lower bunk and it could be anyone. Not likely prince charming. More likely a snoring, over-fed companion I could do better without. So I must pay for an empty bed, but worth the money for the peace of mind.
You wonder what goes into such small bags? There are rules, my friends. Everything must serve double duty. Leggins are for a second layer under the jeans and for night time modesty for the outside toilet visits in the goat farm in Mongolia, and for walking down the aisle to the showers on the train. Plastic rain coats are for rain but also to wrap the backpack that still must be shipped in the cargo plane at JetStar airways. The t-shirts are an extra layer for the cold train. The long cotton shirt is another layer as well as a night time cover over the leggins. Nothing gets to serve on its own.
Special supplies are needed too. Who says that yurts aren´t full of creepy crawlers at night, hence the sleeping bag and this Australian fashion accessory, a beautiful cotton scarf with a mosquito (read bug) net over the face. Maybe there´s no light so the little credit card has a light that folds out of it to illuminate for reading and managing around the goats. The towelettes are just in case there is no running water in the yurts and they will become the missing shower just like they did in the Serengeti many years ago and they really work!! The great beauty of those things is, as I use them, my backpack gets lighter and lighter.
Of course there is a small rope to attach the sleeping bag to the back pack and of course it does double duty as a clothes line. The tiny doll clothes pins work for hanging clothes but also covering entrances to my being for those aforementioned creep critters. May I add that those same clothes pins work to close curtains and anything else that needs closing.
And the duct tape? No trip would be complete without it. For those tears. For the broken straps. For the things that need to be strapped to other things as the days go on.
The challenge was to get so many necessities into a one quart plastic zip bag for the plane. How did I do?
Some of you have FACEBOOK and some have What´s App and some could figure out DROPBOX and some couldn´t. But every one has the internet and so I am hoping to share the road with you through this medium. As I say in my Logo, Age Enriches. Although I am feeling the challenges of solo travel at this age I am also grateful for still being able to go. For having all of those earlier trips to use as comparisons to add breadth and depth to one upcoming. Please forgive the blog for not being sophisticated or gorgeous but hopefully it will engage you and you will all be with me. Onward.
