Chapter 3: The People

Few thoughts about the people on the truck, who are my fellow travellers and my friends/family/therapists etc for the foreseeable future:

Most of them are going from Beijing to Istanbul, so they’ll be my friends and family for the next 3 months. There are several who will say goodbye to us in China and go trekking into Tibet and Nepal. I am the only one from this lot who continues from Istanbul into Africa. There’s an amazing variety of backgrounds, ages, professions and personalities. Age ranges from mid 20s to mid 60s. There are Australians, Brits, a German, a Swiss, a Belgian. Crew are 2 absolutely amazing Kiwis (Donna and Dion) married to each other for the last 18 years and running overlanding trips for the last 7. Their picture should be in the dictionary next to the phrase “loving what you do for a living” and also next to “how to communicate with your spouse without words” (I swear, in midst of some truck/travel disaster situation when other people may start panicking, Donna and Dion just look at each other and know exactly what needs to be done. It is beautiful to watch this couple). There’s a fire fighter from Melbourne, chemistry teacher from Adelaide, environmental economist from Canada, banker from Germany, and bunch of people on extended sabbaticals (hurray!! More people like me trying to figure out what to do with their lives!!). There’s also an amazing variety of reasons why these people decided to do this trip. Here’s my attempt to psychoanalyse them J

1) Some treat this as a normal longer-than-usual holiday (i.e. after this I go back to same job, same house, same routine)

2) Some treat is as an extremely cool and adventurous way to see parts of the world you wouldn’t normally set out to see and do things you normally wouldn’t have a chance to do (overnight in your sleeping bag on the Great Wall of China!!!). They are probably planning to return to the same jobs, houses and routines but (crucial difference to group 1) they keep an open mind to what other things they could do with their lives. If they stumble upon something amazing (new career, new country they just fall in love with and want to live here etc), they have the courage and passion to go for it.

3) And finally, some treat this trip as part of the extended soul-searching journey they have been on for a while. This adventure has been calling for a while and they finally answered. To them it’s not just a holiday, but rather another opportunity to dive into the richness of the world and seek answers to some of those important questions we all have inside of ourselves. After this trip they don’t necessarily plan to dutifully return to their jobs and daily routines, but rather to consciously consider the options, soul-search into what they really want, and hopefully arrive at the destination equipped with some answers and the courage to choose the life paths (work, home, relationships etc) they really want instead of those that just happen to be available. They don’t just want to live a comfortable but shallow existence. They want to live their lives consciously, fully and without regrets.