Backpack, Partner and Insight from India- Forty years Later

I think I have learned by now never to use the word “never”. And here I go, I just did it…

I remember saying some 40 years ago that I would never marry someone who had not traveled extensively and who had not spent time in Asia, specifically in India. Of course, I knew what I meant in those days: it was difficult for me to fathom having a partner who did not experience and could not understand and appreciate the significance for me of just backpacking for a year on my own in Asia and then spending another 3 ½ living in Japan and Taiwan. It felt so much a part of who I was, how otherwise would someone ever get what it was all about- moving between overcrowded trains, superb treks, guesthouses, writing journals, questioning life and experiencing new and different people and cultures day after day? It felt so deeply embedded in me.