Getting Closer.

There are so many lessons that travelling can teach the willing student. How to sneak into 5 star hotels to use the facilities. How to ‘borrow’ a Wi-Fi connection. What can and can’t be used as toilet paper. The list is endless. At the top of the register however must be patience. Countless people before me have written countless books concerning travel, more than some libraries here in Peru even have on their shelves. But one phrase stands out for me, that travel is a series of amazing experiences interrupted by sustained periods of waiting.

 

It’s how we cope with these interruptions that defines the travel experience we achieve. If we have one hand on the guide book and a well-used watch on the other then you had best pack your meditation mat. No one likes to wait, our western culture of instant gratification has instructed us in the art of suppressed (and not so suppressed) frustration. I talk of this because right now I am waiting!

 

Since hanging up the backpack and selecting an alternative method of travel, by bicycle and now motorbike, I have enjoyed the freedom of not having to wait on the timetables of others. But here’s where my challenge lies ….. I am still waiting for my bloody motorbike!

You may recall from previous posts my shipping agent, let’s call him Peter. At last update he informed me of a delay in Singapore. Well he must have that email set as a template as I received it again only with Korea substituted in the location field. Apparently the crate required fumigation, not surprisingly as the guy hired to crate it originally in Australia wouldn’t exactly have passed a health and hygiene inspection himself.

Originally when I hired Peter to take care of the shipping he quoted me 48 days to get the bike here. It’s now been 56 and yesterday’s email now informs me that I am fortunate enough to have another 3 weeks in which to further hone my patient talents. The good news, I have a date. The bad news, Peter will not release the vessel name or container number to me. Does anyone reading this live in Melbourne and know where to find a couple of bricks?

So my challenge now is how to fill my time before my eagerly anticipated mode of transport arrives. And I’m flying solo here for a while as Carlie has had to head back to Oz for a family emergency. The language school finishes at the end of the week, I’m not sure that ‘graduating’ is the correct term, my professors are less endeared to my grasp of low level profanity than I thought they should be while they attempt to hammer verb conjugations into me with a level of futility better reserved for trying to stop North Korea from obtaining nuclear weapons.

   
But let’s take stock here; 3 weeks, cash in the bank, developing Latin American country, loads of beaches and no wife. Yea, I’ve got patience!