It makes all the difference.

As I leaned my head against the window of the bus that would take me half across Thailand, I replayed the last couple of days in my mind.
Swaying through crowded streets, my pack on my back, beads of sweat rolling down my neck, completely lost in translation. I was excited yet scared, anxious yet tired, relaxed yet uneasy. But most of all, I couldn't have been happier.
I had worked for the past 1.5 years, been planning, plotting even. I had toyed around with dreams and destinations, I had read dozens of stories of people who had gone before me.

And here I was, finally.

I had imagined this in a thousand ways, but none of those could've lived up to what I'm seeing, hearing and smelling here.
I have absolutely no idea how this journey will evolve, yet I feel strangely confident.

It makes me think of a line from Kerouac's 'On the Road' (yeah, you'll read me quoting that one a lot on here)
'...now you just dig them up in front. They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for the gas, the weather, how they'll get there - and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see.
But they need to worry and betray time with urgencies false and otherwise, purely anxious and whiny, their souls really won't be at peace unless they can latch on to an established and proven worry and having once found it they assume facial expressions to fit and go with it, which is, you see, unhappiness, and all the time it all flies by them and that too worries them to end. Listen, LISTEN! ...'

Kerouac was right. If I look around and see other travellers, I see few, if any, with a smile on their face. Sometimes I myself worry too much. What to do, where to sleep, how to go? Eventually, we'll get there, the important thing is to GO.

Travelling is something one has to learn, just like any other skill, like languages, soccer, IT, cooking, etc... I myself am a total rookie, but I'm so damn curious to see where this road will take me.