Goodbye 'paradise'. Hello 'chaos'

Hello everyone.

Anyone that has read the last few installments of my blog may have noticed a running theme. Basically that I have been sitting around on an island doing not a lot apart from sunbathe and drink beer. This is because in the last month, to be honest I have done not a lot other than sunbathe and drink beer. At least by my standards. I mean i've got my advanced scuba licence, i've hiked through the Malaysian rainforest, i've partied at the full moon party and explored the Islamic architecture in Kuala Lumpur. However if I look back through my trip then by comparison I have had a very lazy month. However I think it was necessary.

Now I know this may sound ridiculous to those of you that hold down full time jobs, but traveling constantly is tiring. And after 9 months where i stopped in 3 places for more than 4 days and 1 place for more than a week, I was very tired. I need a holiday from my holiday so to speak. In actual fact, when I wrote my last post I was more than ready to leave behind my life of rest and get back to some 'proper traveling'. I asked in my last post if you could tire of paradise. And the answer is ultimately yes. Or at least for me it is yes. The only reason that I have spent the last week on another 'paradise' island off the Malaysian coast was because one of best friends, Keval, happened to be there. I enjoyed the week greatly, but more for the company than for the location. This is not because it was not beautiful, it was (see above). We were staying on the stunning Pulau Tioman, but unlike my companions, I was not blown away. Possibly because for me it was more of the same, possibly because I am a traveler at heart and am not content when i am not moving around at light speed exploring.

We shall see. Tomorrow I fly to India and according to friends and other travelers I have met on the way, this is set to be one of the most chaotic legs of a trip that has already had a fair amount of chaos. And I welcome it. I miss South and Central America. South-East Asia is too easy, it lacks edge. I am now entering the final leg of my year away, albeit a long one. I will be traveling overland from Mumbai to St Petersberg, via Katmandu, Shanghai, Beijing, and Mongolia.
If I want to get back to real traveling, I may as well jump in at the deep end.

Maybe chaos is my paradise?

Speak to you all soon

Phil