Reasons to travel (number 1,094)
People often ask me why I travel the way I do. Or tell me that I’m brave to backpack to far-flung places. But I’d like to flip that around. Can you think of a better way to build a lifetime of memories filled with exciting places and experiences?
Imagine you’re in your 80s and reminiscing about your life. Now imagine being transported to another time and place at the drop of a hat. One that brings back fabulous memories that haven’t faded one bit.
They say that, like smells, music can evoke powerful memories of certain experiences or situations. So I dashed back from the restaurant to write this before the latest one evaporated from my mind. There are a handful of songs that bring back strong memories of different times in my life. Many are related to travelling (surprised? Nah!) and all are of happy times.
I’m not a religious person. I’m barely a spiritual one, but I do believe that there is power in the universe. I can’t explain it, and I’m not even going to try to understand it. Things happen for a reason, even if you have no idea (and will never know) what that reason is.
Powerful memories
Case in point: a few days ago I was enjoying an early evening beer at a hostel in Pokhara, Nepal. I had done the rounds of travel agencies in Kathmandu earlier in the week to find out about trips to Tibet – another bucket-list country for me, like Nepal. It would be an expensive trip but I figured that’s what credit cards are made for. Still, I was dithering a little and that evening was about going over the options and making a decision. Like many of my big life and travel decisions, I sleep on it for a few days while it stews in my mind and then go with my gut.
So that’s what I did. I sent a WhatsApp to my chosen travel agent and fired off photos of my passport and visa so they could get started on the permit applications. Then I sat back to savour my beer. The next song to come on was Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’. One of my mum’s favourite songs, and one that has some hilarious memories attached to it, as we would sing it at the tops of our voices, swaying to the melody. My mum hasn’t been with us for a long time, but I interpreted it as her telling me that I’d made the right decision. I must have looked like the weirdo midlife nomad that I am, sitting with my beer in my hand, tears threatening to spill over and grinning like a fool.
See what I mean about songs and memories? Now add travel to that and think about the memories that can appear.
A movie reel of memories
Some songs have more than one connection to an experience. When they come on it’s like a movie trailer reel in your mind, flicking through the different memories it brings back and daring you to deep dive into at least one and relive it. That’s what prompted this blog post and the dash away from my curry to my laptop.
John Denver’s ‘Country Roads’ has been with me since my childhood. The movie reel flickered into life with my dad’s smiling face and smooth voice singing along before fast-forwarding to two of my closest friends welcoming me home while on holiday from the US after I had moved there, the three of us turning up the volume and dancing in the kitchen.
The US link took me to an Appalachian Trail hiker camping spot in Glasgow, Virginia, where around 20 hikers serenaded one of their own (trail name Country Roads) with the entire song, roaring out the chorus – a community unlike any other I’ve ever experienced and very similar to backpacking nomads. From Glasgow, Virginia, to Arran, Scotland, and a village pub with live music where the singer gave it a good go when I asked if she would sing it with her powerful, silky voice. Soon enough, half the pub-goers bellowed out the chorus with us!
A final thought…
And now to tonight. An Indian restaurant in Lakeside, Pokhara, where the tears sprang up again at all these wonderful memories, and I swayed, softly singing along.
I’ll leave you with this one – if you need any more encouragement to travel – still viscerally real years later: fun (featuring Janelle Monáe) and ‘We Are Young’. Wherever I am and whatever I’m doing, I’m transported to a rooftop in Santiago de Cuba on a sultry night, sweaty and happy after a night of salsa dancing and rum drinking. And I’m smoking a cigar*.
* I’m not a smoker and I’m not encouraging it; it was one of those ‘I’m here, I’ll give it a try’ experiences.