BootsnAll Travel Network

The Tranquilo Traveler

The Tranquilo Traveler is a celebration of voluntourism, slow travel, and other interesting ways to see the world. Travel writer and award- winning Moon Handbooks author Joshua Berman created The Tranquilo Travel as a resource for world trippers and international volunteers, a window to the author’s travels in Nicaragua, Belize, and beyond, and an update of his books and articles.

The Moldy Backpack Blues…

Username By Joshua | October 18th, 2005 | Comments 1 Comment »

From my freshly trimmed mustache
To the bottom of my walkin’ shoes…

moldystrap.jpg

Tranquilo Traveler Rule #1: When your backpack has been sitting in the corner for so long that its leather shoulder straps cultivate fuzzy gray blotches of vegetation, when there are spider webs clinging to its frame, then, my friends, it is time to move on.

Yes, the hour has arrived to yank back our sprawled-out material lives, to simplify our possessions and pack them into bags, which will then be humped onto a rickshaw for one final ride through Birpara. We’ll look briefly back at our Akhil Bhavan flat, framed in tree leaves and peaceful in the early morning light, then we’ll roll north up the MG Road as we reflect on two more months gone by.

akhilbhavan.jpg

We’ll pass the low-built white shrine to Shiva and Sunni (Saturn), and see remnant’s of Saturday night’s worship evident in melted wax and incense butts; past our laundry-wallah as he builds a fire on the curb for his coal-heated iron; past Babu the toilet paper-wallah; past Mohan’s Internet shop; through the bus stand and market mayhem where we’ll wave goodbye to Sanjay at Lovely Sweets; and finally, we’ll cross the railroad tracks and pull into the station, our driver’s back shiny with sweat from the trip.

Bulbulda will surely be there to help with our bags and tickets and see us off. He has been a true friend and guide to us, especially since Sarmishtha and Debasish left. Then we will climb onto the Siliguri-bound passenger coach followed by a shared jeep to Darjeeling, back to the high country, back to the Himalayas.

train.jpg

If you found "The Moldy Backpack Blues…" useful or interesting, please share it with others by bookmarking it at any of the following sites:
del.icio.us:The Moldy Backpack Blues… digg:The Moldy Backpack Blues… newsvine:The Moldy Backpack Blues… furl:The Moldy Backpack Blues… reddit:The Moldy Backpack Blues… Y!:The Moldy Backpack Blues… stumbleupon:The Moldy Backpack Blues…

One Response to “The Moldy Backpack Blues…”

Gerry schehr | October 26th, 2005 at 6:08 pm | comment link
top comment

Hey Josh,
It sure is a great honor to cronicle your travels.I see you have taken the advice of old(former) teacher,and probably many others, and continued your writing. I hope the next volume will be on South Asia. It’s so good to see what you have accomplished and the great reviews that you are getting from your books. I am proud to have shared a part of your life and hope that we continue to stay in touch.I don’t know your schedule and if you will be returning to Long Island, but when you do I’ll be looking forward to spending some time with you.
I am back in action (so to speak) teaching a course in American History at Molloy College. It is called the American Dream and parallels the contemporary issues of society at the turn of the century (1900)with the same issues of today. I am using Doctorow’s “Ragtime” as a class text.
There is so much to talk about so let’s keep in touch.
Schehr power and beauty

Leave a Reply

If you have not commented here before, please take a moment to peruse our
Commenting Guidelines.

This is a captcha-picture. It is used to prevent mass-access by robots. (see: www.captcha.net)
To prevent automated spam appearing on this blog, we ask you to demonstrate your human-ness by entering the 5 character code in the space provided. If you cannot decipher the characters, click "Generate a new image" for a new set.

 
 

  

Pages
BY JOSHUA BERMAN
Categories
Travel links
My Links
Monthly Archives