[Travel+Book] #01 Journey Is Not Homework

What would be a good book to read before you travel? People will recommend some travel guide book with tourist information intimately.

But if you ask me the same question, I would like to recommend Osho Rajneesh's [EVERYDAY OSHO]. Oh, is not your destination India? Even so, I would recommend [EVERYDAY OSHO].

Because the most important thing in a trip is not the detailed "Information" or the tight "Schedule", but the "Attitude" to travel.

There are some people who need to set everything in advance, such as transportation, accommodation, attractions, restaurants, etc, before go on a trip. Whenever I meet them, I get confused whether they are going to do homework or go on a trip. Did not they want to get out of everyday life? so did they decide to go on a journey?

“Those who live out of fear think mostly of not committing mistakes. They don't commit any mistakes, but they don't do anything else, either ; their life is blank. They don't contribute anything to existence. They come, they exist-they vegetate, rather-and then they die – EVERYDAY OSHO”

On the weekend I returned from a short trip, I wandered leisurely between 'past and future' in the library and found 'Everyday' for eternity. No, I found a book with that type in it. [EVERYDAY OSHO] Um....actually Osho Rajneesh was like a movie that was so euphoric to me. However, i opened and read it. "Huh, this is a great book!'

That does not mean I went to India because I read [EVERYDAY OSHO].

While traveling to Nepal, I stayed at Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. I have met friends from many countries such as USA, UK, France, Spain, Germany, China, Japan and so on. Most of them say it is the way from India. I have traveled to Pakistan and Nepal and I thought India would be no different from their two countries. Nevertheless whenever I met travelers who traveled to India, I used to ask them what India was like. The answer that comes back every time was same admiration.

“Incredible!”

But while they answered "Incredible!", They did not answer at my question "Why Incredible?" In the end I returned to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, I got an India visa and went to India to confirm “Why incredible?”

I arrived the border between Nepal and India. There was an arched sign [INCREDIBLE INDIA]. “Was INCREDIBLE just national slogan such as [DYNAMIC KOREA]?” “Was that why they answered 'Incredible'?”

I arrived in Varanasi, where the Ganges River flows.

My roommate's name in Varanasi was 'Homework'. Of course, the real name was not 'Homework', but it did not come up with a more appropriate nickname. He spent most of the day lying on the bed. Comparing and analyzing famous restaurant and Guesthouse informations in Varanasi. While he was reading the tour guide books and analyzing, analyzing, and analyzing the informations, I roamed the streets of the Ganges without a travel guide.

I saw a scene of sand blowing across the Ganges River, covering the sandy plains, saw the dead skin of a crematorium bloat like a balloon in a flame, and saw an old woman putting shit in a plastic bag with bare hands, Drunk Indian tea boiling the Ganges River. My own mouths bursted out with the admiration of "Incredible!"

Whenever I returned to the hostel by the end of the day, Homework asked me to go out for dinner. “There is the most reliable restaurant!” Homework was the most vibrant when he talked to the guests at the restaurant. The pattern of conversation was the same every time.

"Have you been to M Restaurant in New Delhi?"
"Yes, the restaurant tandoori chicken was really good!"
"So you stay in R Hostel?"
"Ah, I stayed there for a few days!"

The conversations were the ones that share experiences about the hostels, restaurants, and attractions introduced in the travel guide books. And the next day, he was 'analizing, analyzing, and analyzing' the travel guide books while lying on the bed like the previous day.

Unexpectedly, I was accompanied with Homework until Bodhgaya. On the way, he said, “It is written on Lonely Planet that you can not get down and take pictures in this road, because a band of robbers are coming around.” “It is written on Lonely Planet that you shoul not eat any food around here, because the restaurants are so dirty” As soon as he arrived at Bodhgaya, he entered the analysis(?) and did same with Varanasi, went on to another city after three more days.

After Homework left, I spent days without any guide books. One day, I drank with an local restaurant owner whom I first met. We drank from the day. At the sunset, he dragged the bike and told me to go out to the suburbs. I got on the back seat. He drove the motorcycle to a place where Homework said it was a thief's area. Beside of the river, inside the hut, four in-house businessmen were smoking marijuana. He introduced me to the eldest. "This is my guru, it means teacher. but he do not teach the subjects be taught at school. Hahaha" The old man with white hair hugged me once and smiled.

"This is the first time he brought a restaurant guest to here. Of course, there were many whom he tried to invite. But everyone was afraid of something. so they never followed him. You're a little unusual."

And then.....there was a time of blessing with adventures, unexpected encounters, and unexpected laughs. Nothing was prepared for tomorrow, and nothing was certain. Instead, it was full of freedom of 'unknown.' Everything was unstable, but everything was comfortable after accepting instability as a reality of life. Like the sentences of [EVERYDAY OSHO]

“In the very asking for security, you create the problem. The more you ask the more insecure you will be, because insecurity is the very nature of life. If you don't ask for security, then you will never be worried about insecurity – EVERYDAY OSHO"