In 1994, i resigned from my short lived career (only 2 and half yrs), a career which i had thought as a child would last me a life time....(what an irony, the only reason i stayed on for more than a year was that i was bonded) :) Well, how some people's aspirations change through the years....
i was bitten by the travel bug when i made my first trip in 1991 to Bali with some hostel mates. After that, the subsequent trips to Malaysia and Thailand got me even more addicted to backpacking and i found that 2 weeks were just too short a time for so much to see and to experience, so i decided before the fire in my heart dies or before my body says 'DGMI'(don't get me involved), i had to make the dream trip of my life....
July 1994,
With a wonderful travel companion MH, we flew to Pakistan and travelled from Islamabad northwards to the beautiful Hunza valley onto the Karakouram highway, overland into China, onto part of the silk road : Xinjiang, Gansu and then into Sichuan where MH had to depart for home while i continued onto Yunnan. Altogether i was away for 3 and a half months and had such a wonderful time that, 13 years later, the experience remains my most cherished and proudest memories.
A few days back, i saw an article in a magazine which introduced the word "gapper"- it originated from Britain in the 80's and refers to a person who takes a long break in a year ( known as a gap year), normally between a few months to one or two years, away from work or studies or whatever, and just travel or does voluntary work away from home during the 'gap'. According to the article, these are normally people between ages 25-40, mostly fresh graduates taking a long vacation before embarking on a career, or people in their mid careers taking a sabatical or people in between jobs.
Erm..hmmm, so i qualified as a gapper then.
The 'gapper' trend has gotten very popular in the last decade. In 1994, most of the gappers i met then were Europeans and Japanese, in the late 90s, more Hong Kongers, and in the new millenium, South Koreans and a lot, and it's really a lot of mainland Chinese. Each time i meet one, my heart itches to 'gap' again....but never more so than during this recent trip to Daocheng-Yading.
My first night in Chengdu Traffic hotel was spent with 2 lady gappers, one a Jap girl who's resigned from her job and gone all over Tibet for 5weeks and intending to do more, the other a Hong Kong girl who's completed a course, gone all over the Tibetan regions in Sichuan for a month and still looking at more...
In Daocheng, i sneaked into Yading with Wong, a middle aged HK guy who's also resigned to travel until he's satisfied.
And then i discovered more gappers in Daocheng itself....the founder of Yading People's Community, also the boss of the first hostel in Daocheng loved Yading so much he left his hometown in Chengdu to set up the first backpacker hostel and subsequently, with the help of a bunch of other gappers including an environment researcher from Beijing and his British student set up a community that looked into improving the lives of the Daocheng community and the preservation of the environment there.
At the hostel i stayed in, the boss also resigned from his publishing job,left his hometown to set up a hostel in Daocheng, which opens only from spring to autumn , as for the rest of the year, he's trekking in the mountains and valleys somewhere or relaxing in some corner in some paradise land.
And then there were more and more of such i come across with in Zhongdian and Lijiang.
Hmmm, how i envy these people, to be able to let go,and live the lives they truly pursue, with passion and in freedom.
Now, I'm SERIOUSLY thinking of doing exactly just that....
。。。。去实现我的野人的梦
Updated 24 Mar 08 :Read a very interesting account in Chinese of this gapper who spent 13months gapping from Guangzhou to Macau, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, India, Pakistan and Tibet. Very captivating story with beautiful and meaningful pictures at http://www.doyouhike.net/forum/globe/1/279778,0,0,0.html
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