July 15th. On the 19th I’m due to leave India. Only 4 full days left, and nearly every hour will be serving a purpose until the time comes for me to board the flight that will take me away from this sacred soil of India.
So far I haven’t written about my plans. I haven’t told many people of my next destination. I made my decision a few weeks ago, but I still didn’t want to broadcast it to those on the home-front, because there was so much else going on at school and my head was fuzzy and scattered. I didn’t want to put myself in the position of explaining my reasons for choosing to do what I’m doing.
The decision to leave India, wasn’t by choice. It’s something every tourist has to do, after 6 months of being here. It’s compulsory to leave for at least 8 to 10 weeks before re-applying for another 6 month tourist visa. So that decision wasn’t my own. However where I was going to go to next, was. I knew the time was nearing for me to start at least moving in the direction of the precious family in both Ireland and Holland. I’ve stayed away a lot longer than I expected; for 15 months already. Even though I’ve established myself almost in this lifestyle of constantly moving, with job options that will keep me on the road, if I so wish, I still felt (and feel) that going back home is a little too “backwards” and risky. But what would I be risking? I had created a drama in my head that I would be stopping dead in my tracks, after having flowed so freely for “so long“, since leaving Europe. So it felt safer for me to slowly make my way back, instead of getting on a flight from India straight to Ireland and landing back on home turf with a massive “thud“ So, 3 weeks ago, I decided to take a chance on something different. And now that I’m touching the “plan“ I have set for myself, I can’t explain it without bringing up a part of my journey that is amazingly special to me.
I’ll backtrack a few months. 7 months to be exact: December. I was in Thailand. I was in paradise, surrounded by people who complimented this environment in their presence. 1 person in particular. Through forces beyond ourselves, our paths crossed. What at one point seemed to be the most scary bus journey of my life with consequences I had no clue of, suddenly led me to the most magical meeting. The ferry that brought me to Kho Phanghang, an island off the East coast of Thailand, also brought me to a special person, who I had an instant connection with.
After our first encounter we spontaneously spent 2 special weeks together. We then parted, without knowing when or if we would see each other ever again. The 2 of us were travelling and therefore well aware of how flexible people are, when they are on the road. In this flexibility a change of heart can be unexpected. Special people enter your world and leave it, just as easily; from one day to the next you can never know what will happen or who will come into your life, to turn things upside down. Just like it happened, on that day in December, when we met on the ferry ride. 2 week later, when we parted, we knew so little, because of the open road we were both following. But what we DID know was that we had been destined to meet at some stage of our lives and we also knew that we were blown away by the strength of our connection. Even still we said goodbye. We wished each other so much more magic in life and we promised to stay in touch without giving any guarantees that we would stay close or that we would even make the effort to see the other again. We were both so open to let the world work in whatever way it was going to, because we knew if we were meant to meet again, then it would happen.
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