Day 43: Life Is Like A Train Ride

Train at 530am. Woke up at 430am. There are no street lamps. Walk to the train station in the dark. Almost cannot find the train station because it was too dark. This train is different from the previous ones that I took. Instead of 4 person sharing a compartment, there were no compartments at all. Everyone was sleeping on beds along a common corridor. It was then that I realised that this is of a lower class train which explains why the tickets were so much cheaper.

Strangely, I got checked on my passport again as I am the only foreigner (But I am not crossing a border). I also dont know why. Anyway I went to my bed and after awhile, the train conductor came over and gave me my bed sheets, pillow case and blanket as usual. But this time round HE WANTED MONEY. This had never happened before in all my other previous train rides in Kazakhstan and so I refused to give. It should be inclusive in the train ticket that I paid for. Guess what? And so he took away the mattress, pillow and everything else leaving me with nothing. Reluctantly, I paid. If not I had to sleep on nothing.

Was that coffee money? I think so. They know that we need those and so we will have no choice but to pay. Maybe thats why. Corruption. I had always meet nice and helpful people, but it is always the authorities who are giving the problems. Guess this is what happens in a developing country. Everyone is finding all ways and means to get extra income to survive. Thats life. But I am sure that things will get better here. Every successful countries had gone through the same process.

After I paid then I remembered that I have a sleeping bag with me. Could had save that money.

Once again I meet nice people on the train. There was this lady who sleeps on the bed above mine who can speak alittle english. There was also this cute little boy who was with his grandmother. He is so cute. I spent some time teaching him 1-10 in english and he could remember it very well. Then he taught me 1-10 in kazakh which I cant remember any of them at all. And so from time to time he tested me and laughed at me as he can do it in english but I cannot remember it in kazakh. It was so funny. He will just pop up in front of me and showed me his fingers. Then I just shake my head to let him know that I dont remember and he will go saying 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 in english. He was so happy that he can do it. HAHA.

This is the boy.



Some stops along the way. Stalls selling food.



Sunset.



The boy and his grandmother.



The boy and me.



This is a 1 day 2 nights train back to Almaty. Sitting among people who speaks a language that I do not understand is as good as I am alone. Looking out of the window, I see nothing but endless grassland meeting the sky. Once in awhile, there will be a few camels or a house sitting in the middle of nowhere. Most of the time, nothing. Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world and yet it is so empty.


Being in this situation on a train with nothing to do, this is a good time to do some thinking. Not to think of what I had done or seen ever since I started this trip, nor is it about what I am going to see and visit next. It is a very good time to think about my life.

With songs going through my ears from my mp3 player, memories of my teenage years flashed across my mind. Then I started to think about things like how long is this trip going to be. When should I end it? What should I do when I get back? As compared to my peers, I am already a few steps behind. No career, no ability to settle down any moment and dont even have a partner. Not to mention no achievements. Wait, no achievements?! I think I do. I think this trip itself is already a very big achievement. Seeing is believing. I think I had achieved much more than what one reads from books. By experiencing it myself, I had learnt how to handle things, people and situations independently. I had also learnt to adjust myself accordingly, to be flexible and to accomodate to situations. By putting myself in situations that I had never been before, I think I had gained more than I had lost out to my peers. Thus I must make good use of all these gains and put them into good use when I get back.

Life is just like a train ride. There is a start point and a end point. The journey in between is the process of growing. Different people comes in and out of my life just like they who board and alight this train at stops in between. During this process, interaction takes place. I experience, I learn and I gain. So before I reach the final stop of my life, I want to make sure that I had a enriching and fruitful journey and that it had not only benifited me, but also others whom I had crossed path with.

Life is a journey that is full of choices. I chose to live this way. To me, travelling is no longer a holiday or a break between work. It has become a lifestyle. I want to make it part of my life. Am I able to do it? Can I? Is there someone else out there who is also interested in this kind of lifestyle? Is there anyone who would like to travel with me? To work for a few years, save up enough money and then give up everything and just take off to go travelling till there is a need to work again. I think this is what my partner has to be like. Maybe I will meet my partner during this trip. Maybe she is already a reader of my blog, a follower of my Cold Journey. Maybe she is you.

ARE YOU THE ONE?



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