Goodbye aren’t easy in general. On the road, you don’t have anytime to build a facade or to work on what you want to show or not. You are just truly, simply yourself. Everything is raw, big, intense. You can spend two hours with somebody and remember that all your life.
Travis and I have been traveling together for about ten days and in the end, what are ten days on a scale of an entire life or compares to the length of my trip?

What makes your trip is of course the landscapes, the smells, the colors… But I tell you know, it’s more clear than ever: what really makes your travel is the people you meet and who you exchange with.

We had this conversation together: would it have been the same between us if we would have met back home, with a non-adventure life, with a flat to pay, waking up to go to work everyday at the same time, doing the chores and going out at the same places all the time. Probably not.
Don’t make me wrong, I loved my life in London and trust me, I’ll be happy to come back at the same places I was going out, riding my bike (my sweet Ginette) along Columbia road, trying this new hype pop up restaurant on the rooftop of a warehouse in Clapton, dancing with my friends at Ridley Market Bar and laughing or crying with them and have a nice little life in Hackney again. (Actually, I plan to find a little boat to live in when I come back so if you hear about anything let me know. Oh and a job also!)

  
First of all, because of who we were before traveling and who we are on the road, we probably would have never met. Let’s be honest, have you seen his muscles? I would have been scared…
Ok, I’m joking, I knew I could beat him up at the arm wrestle, the real reason was myself. What I really liked when we were spending these days together was this great relation of equality. Back home, I always had this slight feeling of not being good enough (for my friends, lover, family, job…). Without saying that I feel over amazing now, I kind of have a better discernment about who I am and who will have the right to have a bit of my trust and my time and my heart. I need champions in my life now! (Am I quoting Eat, Pray, Love again?)

Secondly, it is true that you can imagine your life like an adventure even if you are staying in a place for a long time but come on, nothing compares to what you live while backpacking. Everything is exciting and extreme, all the time. You don’t have time to be bored except if you choose to be. I’m sure that helps to radiate good energies and attract good people around you. You are like this sweet child discovering things for the first time and there is no real place for sadness. Yep, it’s just more easy to be happy and positive.

Finally, I couldn’t have suffer being with somebody 24/7 even if I really liked that person. I mean, that everything happened so quick and it was a radical turn in my way of traveling as a solo girl, but it just made sense to share everything for ten days. Kind of things you just can’t stand back home is suddenly really nice as you know there is a dead line. You have to enjoy everything from that person and you know you’ll have just the good part of him or her. After one day, we were acting like we knew each other’s for years but didn’t show the little annoying things of our personality. You are definitely more intimate… So much than you can be sick in the room where is sleeping the other and it’s just fine, because you know you are on the same boat and that everything happening to one can happen to the other. No judgement, just respect.

  
I couldn’t imagine being traveling with somebody for that long, I was not expecting to meet somebody as amazing as Travis and so close from the moment I had this deep feeling of loneliness on this rooftop in Battambang. But once again, life surprises me. This time in a good way.

  
 Saying goodbye was really hard. Not because I didn’t want to continue my travel on my own, at the opposite I was sure incredible things were about to come. But it was too soon… You never know when you’ll see a person that you met while traveling and except if you really make it happen there is really few chances that you ever will.

  
I guess it’s a part of the trip. Knowing how to say goodbye to people, hope that you will see them again, accept that path are going in different directions and being thankful for everything you had the chance to share with them.

Thank you my dear for all these adventures and for making everything so easy! I was glad that you couldn’t go to Lao in the end and that we matched on the way we wanted to travel in Cambodia.

  
That day was a bit strange as I realized that Christmas was coming really soon and a lot of travelers were coming back home to share time with their family. But I decided to spend that moment in a country where I could not contact them for a long time (wifi in Myanmar is a joke) and where the culture is so different from what I’ve ever seen.

I was sad from the goodbye and so happy to finally being able to step in this country which just opened its border.
Once again, nobody was waiting for me at the arrival and that procured me an intense feeling of freedom and joy.

“I know, it’s going to be a good time…”