Maldon - 2
October 1995
Towards the end of October i began to get this sinking feeling that it was time to get my shit together and get ready to leave the country. I wanted to go around the 22nd of November, which was new moon and i wanted to fly directly to Kerala if it was at all possible. I started phoning round travel agents but it was looking a bit difficult. The route i wanted was London to Kerala to Penang to Australia - i would find a flight to Vientiane when i was in Malaysia.
But this wasn't as easy as it might have been. It was easy to get a flight from London to Delhi to Bangkok to Australia, but i really didn't want to go to Delhi or Bangkok. Delhi was much too far away from where i really wanted to go to in India and there was no way i was going to do that trip by surface. I hadn't liked Bangkok when i'd been there previously, and wanted to avoid it at all costs. It was the easiest place to get to Vientiane from, but i couldn't help that. I'd rather have gone somewhere else where it was more difficult than have had to spend any time at all in Bangkok. Penang seemed to me like the best place, it was closer to Vientiane and airfares were cheaper than Kuala Lumpur. Singapore would probably do if it had to. But it wasn't looking too easy to find a flight that went from London to southern India at all, let alone one that went on to Penang and then Australia.
I was beginning to go a bit crazy with all the hassle when i suddenly remembered i'd been thinking it would be easiest to fly to Colombo in Sri Lanka and then get a flight from there to Trivandrum in Kerala, at the very southern tip of India. Why had this gone out of my head? So i started checking out this route and, yes, it was exactly the right one to go on. Air Lanka flies to Colombo and then on to Australia via Kuala Lumpur. Perfect, specially as they also do a flight from Colombo to Kerala, which fitted in really well with the one arriving from London. I would have preferred Penang, but i'd certainly settle for KL.
I finally worked this out about three weeks before the date when i wanted to leave. There were seats on the Colombo flight, no problem, although Colombo to Trivandrum was full, but i'd probably get on that one too without any trouble. If not, i'd just have to spend a day or two in Colombo, which would be interesting anyway. At this point, i still hadn't decided where i wanted to fly into in Australia. It would either be Brisbane or Melbourne. There were advantages in both really, although Melbourne would mean a lot less travelling in the end, as i would be heading north quite soon anyway, because it would be starting to get cold in the south by the end of March.
The plan at this stage was to spend a couple of months in Kerala. Then on the new moon in January i'd fly to KL, where i'd find a flight to Vientiane, where i'd stay until the new moon in February, when i'd fly to Melbourne - thirteen moons after i'd left Wyndham twelve and a half months before. The biggest problem was that i didn't know the dates of the new moons in January or February. I'd have to find that out before i made my final flight bookings. It could be a bit tricky - although there must be some next year's diaries out by now, surely.
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I began to look back over my stay in Britain. I'd been there a long time, but i didn't really seem to have done anything much. The time had gone so incredibly fast, it was almost impossible to believe it had been four months since i'd arrived from Mexico. Six months since i saw Nicki last. And eight months since i'd left Australia. I'd be glad to get back there, i felt.
When i'd left Australia, it had been with thoughts of finding another country to live in. I was sick of Australia, or rather, i was bored with it. Now, as usual, i felt different. I was looking forward to getting back, although i had a lot of travelling still to do. I wasn't that concerned now with finding somewhere else to live. In fact, i realised that i could probably never live anywhere else permanently. I'd really come to appreciate the freedom i've got in Australia and the luxury of living in such a beautiful and uncrowded country.
It was always possible that i might find somewhere in Kerala that would grip me and refuse to let me go and i would have to stay there for the rest of my life, but i doubted it. India was always probably the best possibility for me to be able to live in, but it seemed unlikely that it would prove to be the place i set out to look for. I felt certain that the place i was looking for was the place i'd left eight months ago, and the place i would be returning to in four months time. However, as always, time alone would tell...
Very soon it would be November - the real beginning of winter in Britain. I was two thirds of the way into my journey and, although i'd been quite static for a while at that point, i'd soon be on my way once again to an unknown place and an unknown fate. I was looking forward to getting on the move.