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I was packing long into the wee hours of the night before, and surfaced what-felt-like minutes later, dashing out in the pre-dawn silence to hasten across the traffic-less suburbs. Tiredness, it seemed, was already absorbing my enthusiasm, and all I could do was to slink back into my smooth airline seat and long for my eventual destination: Tokyo.
As my plane climbed out over continental America and headed for the open ocean of the Atlantic, a certain phrase bounced around my mind, in the gap between every moment of somnolence. It was simple but poignant: “We’ve seen the world”. 9 hours later I had completed the full circumnavigation of the globe.
It’s the 1st of August. This is the day I leave to go around the world. I peer into my Brother’s bedroom to see he’s still a blob underneath a wrinkle of covers. I tell him: “I’m away. See you in India“. In the fog of hypnagogia, he probably thinks I’m uttering nonsense. But it’s true – the plan is to meet 4 weeks from now in New Delhi.
From the moment I disappear through Departures at Hong Kong International Airport, to the second I rest my head on my old familiar pillow back home in Northern Ireland, I am on dazed autopilot. Everything around me is a dream. But then, was it a dream I just came from, or is it one now? It is hard to decide.
Travelling is like picking up a book you’ve neglected – it a continues on from where you last left off, how you last felt. Plenty has happened in between, but in the world I’m about to enter – where lucidity augments (and simultaneously muddles) – it’s just a moment ago that I stepped off the plane from Amsterdam, or more aptly, Glasgow.
In some ways, I’m reminded of my return from Hong Kong exactly one year ago, but in others, it couldn’t feel more distinct. The most exhausting part of my 6,000 mile journey isn’t the 12 hours slouching at the back of a jumbo jet, but instead the waiting around, kicking my heels at the ever dull Gatwick Airport.
For various reasons I was booked on a flight to Hong Kong the day after I was due to return from Peru. What would this mean? – 13,000 miles in the space of 3 days – nearly 30 hours spent a mile above the earth. Not before had I such a far-reaching journey planned for such a short space of time. But I wouldn’t have done it any differently.
My slow boat to China is nearly ready for departure. My journey can be more accurately described as a flight to Heathrow tonight and another to Beijing tomorrow. If no one hears from me, I’ve either gone missing on a Chinese internal flight (I will be doing 3 of them) or bought a ticket to Japan and decided to stay out in Asia forever.
