I was getting ready to go out clubbing for a mates birthday. As I was doing my make up last night and trying to tame the vivacious mane that is attached to my head which is uncontrollable in this cities climate, I looked at a scar I have on my arm in the mirror that I got from when I was travelling.
Normally, I wouldn't pay much attention to it but for some reason it , as I continued to get ready I started to pay more attention to the other battle wounds I have collected of the past twenty years of being a smelly traveller child. It made me think, that these blemishes on my skin aren't just the bits of discolouration and damaged tissues. They are pieces of your travels and your experience's that you carry with you for the rest of your life, a piece of your adventures that you never get rid of, even in your old age when your face looks like a prune and you have lost all control of your bladder.
As I have mentioned in a previous post, when one comes back from travelling it all feels a bit like a dream and it's hard to believe that it has all happened. The Travellers Body often goes into shoc,k and carries some of them most valuable, memorable and beautiful experiences will ever have as a traveller.
The most important parts of the Travellers Body are the travellers arm and the travellers feet.
The Travellers arms often take a beating or two and are the most exposed part of the travellers body 95% of time. The travellers arms house some of the most emotional, and meaningful experiences the traveller will ever have, wether it comes from holding some of the most beautiful children in your arms and tickling them to death, to getting a henna tattoo on a street corner during rush hour, to moving your way through the coral reefs of the Indian ocean, to saying good bye to some of the most amazing people you could have ever traveled with, not knowing if you will see these people again. The travellers arms are filled with passion and feel both pleasure and pain as they are the easiest location for mosquitos to bite and injuries to occur.
The travellers arms are also the most decorated part of the travellers body, as bracelet acquiring is a universal traveller hobby. The travellers arms show them of with pride, these bracelets are either bought in markets or shops, or given buy some of the locals you met on you way that enriched your trip. The travellers arms pride themselves on showcasing these trinkets as each trinket tells a story, a story that is unique and is not the same as anyone else's, and the travellers arms are filled with stories and pride themselves on there extensive collection.
The travellers feet become tougher with each destination, the skin gets thicker as the terrains they cross get richer. The travellers feet leave only footprints, on the surface of the earth and disappear. The travellers feet collect little things as well, usually dirt but that gets washed away and also blisters and scars acquired from bush-waking, wearing new exotic shoes or just being an idiot. My travelling shoes still have dirt stains in them from when I was in Kenya, it won't come out and to be honest I don't mind. When I was in Kenya I hadn't showered for a week, hadn't brushed my hair in days and had come out of the hospital 4 days before that.I was in the middle of nowhere,surrounded by rolling hills, farm lands and goats with a view of Kilimanjaro and the wind blowing though my hair and I couldn't have been happier. So when I'm walking down main road in Vancouver in my traveller shoes I have a little bit of that Kenyan paradise with me.
I suppose all the travellers body is at the end of the day is a story, well i suppose its more of an anthology or a chronicle as it carries many stories with many chapters. I acquired a few more battle wounds, or story starters over the summer, that remind me of different things. I have a big scar on my leg from the exhaust pipe of a motorcycle when I was in Rwanda, which in the words of my dear friend Ryan "makes you more badass'. Another one on my leg that was caused from hiking on a muddy day, one of my foot courtesy of the rocks in the Indian ocean, Multiple ones on my arms from mosquito bites and rashes from the amoeba, one on my forearm from my near-death experience in a Rwandan hospital, and one under my hair from when I smacked my head on a toilet bowl in Nairobi. I'm am proud of every single one of them because each one has sort of helped me shape who I am.
Some of them are the result of brilliant adventures I have had, some of them are from some of the most terrifying moments of my life which have now made me a lot stronger and a lot braver.
" Studying makes you brainy but travelling makes you sexy." Therefore, if you have a collection of battle wounds you are probably one of the sexiest people out there, and it shows that your interesting, have character, are gutsy, have a sense of adventure
As bizarre as it sounds, i'm looking forward to collecting battle wounds/ story starters whatever you want to call it as its going to make the anthology or chronicle of my life that much richer and when I die, I hope I have a fair amount because then it means my life as a smelly travel child will be with me, and it shows that I made the most out of my life as a smelly traveller child.
No comments:
Post a Comment