A Vagabond's Testimony

Hello everyone. Greg, I guess I don't need to re-introduce myself to you. Can I proudly consider myself the one who partly inspired your vagabunding back few years ago. I still remember your call late at night (california time) when you said you were thinking of taking off. Back then you didn't have any clue this was going to become you. And here I am again, re-appearing on your discussion board....

Anyways, I stopped by this forum to read what the vagabunding community is writing about. I can proudly consider myself, just like Greg - a vagabundo. For me, it started suddenly, almost impossible to explain. One day, I got laid off work and decided to visit family in Russia. Before taking off, I decided why not take na extra month and visit Eastern europe. So, 2 months were sort of planned in the air. As I traveled through Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, I ended up at my "final" destination - Istanbul. I had a plane to catch, back to States...unfortunately..I purposely retreated into the deep turkish south not anywhere close to international airport of Istanbul. I decided at that point to stop roaming around like crazy maniac and start watching the life around me. Start living. Racing through 13 countries in 2 months exausted me emotionally and physically. I was ready to start a true vagabunding..

I settled with the family in the southern turkey where I started learning Turkish from scratch. The small turkish town started to get to know me. I found myself drinking tonns of tiny narrow tea cups of steaming turkish tea with the neighbors and shop owners. I found myself dancing at their weddings, and kneeing for hours picking up the olives in the mountains. I found myself involved in the town rumors and town prayers, into the rich and poor, dominant and ignorant. I started becoming them, talk like them, think like them, inhale hookah like them and sit at front of burning coal oven on cold nights. It was OK with me. Everything was OK with me? Why? Because I was no longer traveling, I was vagabunding... I had no tickets back, no wish to go back, only the strong desire to explore and live. During that time, I would walk for hours around the cave towns of Coppadocia, visit small settlements, watch old ladies prepare Gozleme and play with cute friendly sheep, horses, dogs and cats. At that time I started noticing things I never noticed. I never noticed them because I was too busy setting the alarm every night so that I can hurry into the corporate cubicle in the morning. The only thing mattered in my past life was point A to point B where the point A is my four walled room and point B is four walled cube. It was cold during november days in central Turkey, my nose would get red and I would all wrapped in shals shaking from cold...and happiness. I was singing..singing to my own self.

I bought a one-way ticket to Mumbay from Istanbul local tickets agency (it was cheapest way to go by the way..by from local agencies). I didn't know why India, I didn't how long or where. I knew that I needed to go to India, that's all I knew. I landed in Mumbay on a very hot day. Sharp smell of India cut through my nose and I suddenly realized that I landed in the country which might be scary for a lone femal traveler. I had no Lonely Planet at hand, my decision to go to India was sporadic in some way. From Mumbay, struggling through Colaba streets, I took a train to Pune, from there to Ajanta/Ellora, Aurangabad, Jalgao. From there I barely survived 10-hour ride in the second unreserved class to Rajastan where I spent some time roaming around Udaipur, Johdpur, Jaisalmer and the desert. I moved then into industrial Jaipur, then to cute and small Pushkar. I met many people on the way. Many people. Some became my travel companions, some passed like the air in the desert. From Rajastan, I moved through Uttar Pradesh, and then Bihar..the hardest two states for lonely travelers. There were difficult times which I would not want to go through again, but the whole experience was fulfilling. From Agra, I went through ancient Orrcha, erotic Khajuraho, into spiritual Bohghdaya. From Bohghdaya to Kalkutta where my travel companions took a plan to their home countries. At that point, I was left alone to cover additional few months in the South of India. The experience was amazing. After 35-hr ride from Kalkutta to Chennai, I went through small spiritual cities of Tamil Nadu, visited international community of city of the future Auroville, joined the pilgrims going from Madurai to Rameswaram island close to Sri Lanka and then to Kanyakumari to perform ceremonies. I left the pilgrims and went crazy traveling throughout the state of Kerala including small villages, towns and settlements. At that point, I was no longer scared of anything. Nothing really mattered anymore. Nothing except for moving forward. I became immune and strong. One month later I ended up in the ancient city of Hampi where I experienced another heat stroke along with food poisoning. At that point, this was not important, I began meditating. I met some people from former Osho spiritual movement, who influenced me a lot.

Another month later, I returned to States... Broke, extremely sick, exausted. It took me one month to start accepting reality. Everything in States was primitive for me after months of India. US TV shows were disgusting, news repelling, people talking about their cars, loans, houses, electronics ..simply ununderstandable. I would stare at things for hours. Nothing made sense. I was broke, so I had to look for some kind of work. I literary had few dollars left on my hands. It got to the point that disillusioned and frustrated I started going from one employment agency to another. Shortly after I started working. After couple months of work, I realized, once you are a vagabund at heart...you are vagabund for life. My heart was wondering even though I was typing reports, filling out time cards, present at the meetings. My heart was never there...

After 4-5 months of work, I took a christmas trip to Peru where my vagabundo spirit revived. That's where decision was made, to explore South America! I came back determined to start exploring again, not inthe future, but now, as soon as possible...

I will be going on my next long trip soon, hopefully covering North Africa and then South America...

This was a testimony...for you Greg, and for all those who are waiting for their time...

Do not be afraid to explore...at the end you will benefit more than you think, and each day spent exploring will be reflected in many years of memories...

I.