Dedicated to my mom. I made her hitchhike, sleep on the floor, walk 10km a day with and without backpack, go trekking and more… She did all that at the age of 57.
I left Belgium almost a year ago and I can say I am lucky to have people in Belgium that care for me and miss me. My sister and sister from another mister came to visit me in India. It was short, and very fun. But my mom did something very different. She went all the way low budget with me for over 3 months. Walking around with a backpack and handling everyday life of a traveler on a very low budget, for as little as 10 euros a day. Not a lot of travelers manage to do that! No tuktuks when it is not further then 3km, but walking. Not very Asian, since most of the Asian people prefer not to walk over 200m and take a motorcycle or car for any distance, even under 1km. Every once in a while a nice tuktuk driver drove us for free a few km when mom looked too tired. Most of the time we hitchhiked, and although in doubt in the beginning, my mom liked it a lot. She ended up preferring hitchhiking over buses. And we met a lot of nice people on the way. Hitchhiking in Laos was probably the most memorable since it was damn hard to get a car and the roads where unbelievably dangerous and beautiful. We got the opportunity to sleep at the house of a Khmu Hilltribe family on the side of the road. (Lees waarom we bij een Khmu hilltribe hebben overnacht- Day 20) No bathroom, no shower, no bed. A nice wooden floor within the smoke of the extinguished fire that gave us heat and a nice meal one hour earlier. In Cambodia the police was our friend, they stopped cars for us and made them take us along with them for a ride. We also hiked a few times. We climbed up a waterfall, got our portion of bloodsuckers on the way and mom got the group to help her get up when she fell down again and again on the slippery muddy ground. She had no bruises at the end… But taking a ride on the back of the motorcycle with her brother on the roads in Koh Chang left her bruised just from squeezing her legs so much. Fear is in the head. Mom has breathing problems and had a spine surgery. But managed to climb hills and sit in the back of a pick up. The only thing that stopped her a few times from doing al these things was her fear of heights. For those who visited Angkor Wat and know how steep the stairs can be: I was climbing up the stairs of one of the temples in the city of Angkor, the stairs are old big pieces of stone that are way to high and have not a lot of space to put your feet on the slippery oxidized stones. I walked around once I arrived at the top. After a while I thought where did my mom go? How can she still not be at the top? I walked back to the stairs and saw her sitting at the bottom of the stairs waiting for me. Why did you already went down? Half way the stairs she got a panic attack because the colors of the stairs changed and had a different texture. I think my mom had to get out of her comfort zones a few times. Great! That is where traveling is about. Meeting new people, seeing new thing, seeing the same things in a different side of the world and seeing yourself very naked. She probably lost a few kilos from walking al the time. The body exists for 70% out of water. She could sweat out liters as if she just had a shower. But I am very proud of her that she gave herself the chance to do this and for once did something completely for her self. And giving me the chance to witness that and guide her around the world (South East Asia) as she did with me when I was too little to do it alone. Traveling together is more intens then living together (except maybe when I was 1 year old and started to walk around). She proofed people are never to old to travel at any cost and any budget and that nobody should wait until they are retired to take a chance to live a little or have any excuse whatsoever. A strong woman that did not retired yet, from life. Thanks for sharing this time with me.
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