What do I like so much about travelling? Travelling is life through a magnifying glass. You see everything more sharply, more focussed. Travelling is often a magnifying glass, especially after cloudy days. Sometimes it’s hard to decide: Straw or charcoal? I see people burning and I hear glowing stories. But above all, travelling is one thing: a reduction to the essentials.
You feel every gram of luggage that you don’t really need. You waste all the money you don’t really need. You forget everything you don’t really remember. You only find what you’re not desperately looking for. And the most important thing: friends come and go. As long as you stand still, staying is just a coincidence. But travelling friends stay, no matter where you are.
We had a good group and a good time. Englishman Jules, ingenious guitarrero and, apart from his weakness for lapdogs that demand too much money, an interesting and good traveller with lots of stories. He’s off to Thailand soon. Chris, silent knight, android gold miner and pure-hearted disciple of the sun, is flying somewhere to save himself the 140 euro visa extension. Miri, the permanently grinning red-cheeked good humour. And David. Both are flying home in a few days.
Travelling is religion for atheists. Nothing is certain, everything is uncertain and the rest is trust, hope and fate. That’s why friends are so important when travelling. They are home to go. At home, many people seem completely irrelevant to me. It’s only when I’m travelling that I know why a few are so important and valuable. I leave Romblon early in the morning to the first rockets of the big fiesta. Thank you, and goodbye to friends!
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.