Just Another Millenial Travel Blog

Sunday morning end of July. Travel guides open trying to be motivated to plan what to do in Beijing and Shanghai. My glimpse of motivation fades away questioning what am I doing here at all. After writing some flash cards with Mandarin vocabulary yesterday in the evening I felt more like Sisyphos and less like someone who has any chance of actually diving into China and its culture.

Trying to be a „traveler“ but questioning what this means at all leads me to write this text instead of planning (hello procastination). So yes I will see all the classical tourist attractions in China and eat the Beijing Duck. I will walk the Forbidden City and will for sure be impressed by its massive size and rich history. I will see the Shanghai skyline and have a great evening walk at the Bund. I will drink a Singapore sling at the Raffles hotel and see the skyline from Marina Bays. With all the obligatory photos on my iPhone and a suitcase full of precious souvenirs I will go back to Switzerland.

Will I take away anything more than some photos, memories and 2,5 joyful week? Is it even necessary? Or is the whole point to „have fun“? As having lived already in various European countries, that are culturally more or less close to Germany, and haven’t even fully understood them (is that a reasonable claim?) I already recognized in my preparation what a different caliber, especially China, is. So where is the distinct line between actually diving into a foreign country and being someone who just takes photos and enjoys holiday?

Think to an end that travelling will always remain, more or less a surface experience, the alternative would be, if you are interested in, to life in all the of these countries. Even though it might be tempting it is of course not a realistic scenario to life everywhere (and a privileged perspective to life abroad and travel at all; did you know that 80% of worldwide population never took a flight?). So travelling is the inevitable, privileged compromise, right (all first world problem I am conscious of)?BTW in summer Lake of Constance to me is the most beautiful place (especially when the lake is azur blue, those are the best days). So no necessitiy to leave at all.

Excursus: One of the best holidays I had back than during glorious Uni days was in Sofia, Bulgaria. Just two broke girls without basically any preparation in a cheap hotel room. Food was cheap and delicious, future aspirations were high and discovering a city that is great mixture between post-Soviet history and the Berlin of the east was amazing (very underestimated and not very touristic*). One day we went to one of the surrounding mountains of Sofia (due to lack of preparation I do not recognize the name). We wanted to get to the top but the cable car was not working. It was a pretty remote area and as we were badly prepared and basically illiterate due to Cyrillic script we figured out anyway there was no public transportation back to Sofia. After being lost for some time a man in his 40s, who went there by car, offered us to take us with him down to the valley. After some discussions we decided we have to go for the offer. Ever sceptical Hanna of course was already projecting a kidnappping and was tracking everything on Google maps. As I am still alive and in good health everything obviously went well and we even had a great conversation about live after the fall of the iron curtain in Bulgaria. After 30 minutes he dropped us at a mall near Sofia and we were happy and thankful that everything went so well. It didn’t feel superficial but like a real experience and adventure and I still smile thinking about it.

So planning is a hybris anyway and for someone like me who likes to be in control the conclusion might be to be prepared to some extent (VPN!) but to let go of the reins and instead to dive into Singapore and China with joy and curiosity. And of course not having the requirement for myself becoming an Asia expert in the 2,5 weeks.

What do you think about travelling? In the end don’t everyone of us lives in a parallel society and as long as you stick to the law and behave decently, that is okay?

*Something being „authentic“ and „not very touristic“ is a claim of tourists I love the most. Obvious contradiction.