Hitchhiking galaxies and why travel is not bad for the planet
[Music]
hitchhiking
galaxies and why travel is not bad for
the planet
hello i’m michelle yanachan
i’m standing in the rain by the side of
the road on the isle of aaron
cold and wet although it’s august
not just me there are four of us my arm
is out
my thumb is up not in the sense of
everything’s fine but everything’s not
fine
please give me a lift
but there are no cars in sight the day
had begun in glorious sunshine
we’d plan to climb goat fell my three
friends and i the island’s highest peak
but it was tougher than we expected and
we ended up circuiting the jagged
summits and granite ridges
among heather and juniper trees
as the day rolled on the clouds gathered
shifting from summer to winter in an
hour which is what everyone tells you
about scotland
it turned out to be a classic atlantic
squall with high
winds and sheets of rain the four of us
started laughing
but that soon quelled into moody silence
it was still a long way on a set back to
our hostel in la cranza on the north
shore
it turned out there was some traffic a
few cars that drove straight past
understandably after all there were four
of us
sodding muddy each carrying oversized
backpacks that were also
soaking wet but then there was the next
car
it looked small from far away but also
small up close
it was a mini not like minis now the new
models
this is the late 1980s the old style
mini
well named for its size still
i stuck out my thumb almost as a joke
and it slowed before stopping the driver
was a young
woman just a few years older than me
piling she said with her warm scottish
inflections
i looked at the four of us are you sure
of course she smiled water dries
we squashed in wearing our wet max and
our muddy trainers with our pack
squashed on our laps
sorry i said we’re messing up your nice
car
she shook her head handing around
hard-boiled sweets before giving us top
tips
on where to find the best chips a
sheltered spot to swim
her favorite pub the windows were
steaming up and she rubbed them with the
sleeve of her denim jacket
pinned with badges such as cnd and save
the whale
she was my instant hero
she went out of her way that day driving
us right to the door of our hostel
i can’t remember her name but i will
never forget
her effortless kindness she made me look
forward to the day when i might have a
car
and give someone totally unpresentable
like we’ve been
a lift even before covid
hitchhiking was becoming less common
among travellers
yet it’s still one of the most elemental
ways of moving around
asking a favor of a stranger being
awarded one
a stranger that’s a tricky notion right
now
but some of my most cherished trips have
stemmed from the thumbing rides from
strangers
once in northern laos sitting on the
verge after the bus i was riding broke
down
a passing truck driver stopped he let me
and another traveller sit atop his cargo
of rice
till we reached the next town five hours
away no money exchanged
that other traveler and i ended up
continuing to shishwang banana in
southern china
she and i stayed in touch for years time
to time remembering the driver
who never knew he forged our friendship
it’s for chances such as these brushes
with strangers
that we travel and why we will travel
again
and we will travel again but it will be
different
we will travel less will be more
selective
more considered we’ll think harder about
our trip in advance
we’ll anticipate trips more fully more
richly
and by giving each trip more time more
attention
we will travel deeper we will remember
more keenly like that rain drenched trip
to the west coast of scotland
age 15 planned on my bedroom carpet with
maps requested by post
from the scottish tourist board and a
booklet from the youth hostel
association
i persuaded these three friends to come
with me the only way my mum and dad
would rub us out my plans
we left by trains and watford for the
greatest
trip of our lives the memories still
make me smile
the seeds of a life and travel we
trekked
we swam we made new friends
what is it about movement and all that
it holds for us
it’s not just something we covet it’s
something we need
it’s our beat we’re migrants all of us
that’s our resilience our history
we will always travel in fact
contrary to popular opinion right now we
travel to survive
to thrive so how unnatural it feels when
we cannot travel
freely that’s a new situation for many
of us
the lucky ones who used to travel much
of the world with absolute ease
official borders are relatively recent
inventions
most were drawn up in the last couple
centuries
the framers of the 1948 universal
declaration of human rights
attested a person’s right to leave any
country
including his own and to return to his
country
sounds good the right to leave the right
to return
but where do you go in between well
that’s complicated
while leaving your country may be a
human right entering another country
isn’t
and how acutely we feel that now
i’ve always loved crossing a border like
an act of disobedience
the free song that feeling of a new
adventure unfolding
the blast of freedom but i also know
what else borders can mean
as a barrier to another life to a dream
to real freedom my mother and her family
escaped
czech slovakia in 1948 a soviet
influence expanded they arrived in
germany as refugees
for 40 years they lived in exile
some of the family back in czech
slovakia were thrown into prison
as a punishment for their escaping there
were many they never saw again
who died before they were allowed to
return
i know about families about continents
ripped apart by borders
a few years ago i rented a car in prague
to explore the western borderlands of
the czech republic
the region where my family had fled
through in the dead of night
it was hard even to find a trace of a
border
the road just rolled on into germany
i studied the map again trying to locate
the former no-man’s land
the buffer zone between east and west at
a nondescript village called plett
i followed an unsealed lane into
woodland
there i found an abandoned centre post
in the trees
a hundred meters on was a sign
caution state border behind another
notice
buddhist republic deutschland nobody was
around
there was only the buzzing of insects a
farm building in the distance
would have once represented freedom
childishly i darted back and forth
across the invisible border
just because i could just because i
could
there’s resonance in that today
in 2004 i traveled the entire length of
the eu’s eastern boundary for a story
just before 10 more countries joined the
union by train and bus i journeyed from
estonia to latvia to lithuania to poland
and so on
the only reason i knew i was in a new
country was the beep beep
of my nokia notifying me the network had
changed
that’s how history shifts
ten years earlier i’d taken the
trans-siberian route from beijing to
moscow
passing through mongolian grasslands
across the endless step of russia
towards the setting sun one of the
passengers began to pass through the
carriage
his arms draped in heavy black leather
jackets
distributing them out we discovered he
wanted us to wear them at the border
so we could avoid playing duty the
jackets
would contraband i didn’t hesitate
so much of my traveling life has
benefited from the kindness of strangers
that it felt good to do a favor i also
welcome the extra edge to my journey
the rush in spite of the august heat i
slipped my arms into the sleeves of the
jacket
it turned out they were all extra large
most of us were swallowed up in the
clothing
but we all joined in the subterfuge the
entire
carriage had unanimously become the
smugglers and compasses
arriving at the mongolia russia border
the customs officials boarded
they moved through the carriage
evidently unamused by the sea of black
leather attire
i was singled out perhaps as the only
one with a western passport
heart one of the officials asked me
like i shook my head even though i was
sweating
whose jacket he asked i didn’t flinch
mine the man said nothing
my dirt and my nerves were now jangling
and i filled the silence inventing a
rambling story about a vendor at the
train station in beijing selling
cut price quality jackets and how nobody
wanted to miss out
sorry i added at the end hoping my
spontaneous apology
wasn’t taken as an admission of guilt
he knew i was lying but for whatever
reason
he decided to overlook my transgression
and the entire carriages
i like to think his decision was an act
of kindness too
later the chief smuggler circulated the
carriage to collect his stock
nodding his thanks she is here he paused
in front of me
thank you over the next few days
i watched him on the platform animatedly
selling his wares
feeling a little bit triumphant myself
one day he bought me three gladioli
one of the few things you could buy at
the train stations of eastern russia
back in the early 1990s babushka sat on
small wooden stools selling pots of
homemade red currant jelly
and flowers from their garden i trimmed
the long stems
putting them in a cut down water bottle
they lasted till moscow the withering
blossoms a daily reminder
of the kindness of strangers
u.s president joe biden said in his
inauguration speech
there are some days when you need a hand
there are other days
when we’re called to lend a hand that
often becomes more apparent
more poignant when we’re traveling
i have a romantic belief that world
peace can be achieved through travel
if we loved a trip to damascus we care
more about what’s going on in syria
and the decisions our government makes
affecting that country
we watch the news more closely and it
matters more
we think about the muslim owner of a
restaurant we ate at in mandalay
who might now be in a camp across the
border in bangladesh
or protesting on the streets of nypadore
or the shoe shiners in guatemala city
children around the same age as my kids
who
lucky for them go to school and come
home to a hot dinner
and a clean table to do their homework
on
i picture all those vendors in luxor
with business as slow as it is
and the hustlers upriver in the third
bolivar venezuela
hoping the tourists will come back to
see angel falls
i think about the brother and the sister
who i bought a fresh coconut from in
bentoto sri lanka
a few days before the boxing day tsunami
and wonder if they’re still alive and
the whereabouts of the guy who i danced
with in havana
who just wanted to get out travel
fosters empathy
i wonder if the emissions from the plane
from plane travel
can be offset by how many wars have been
averted
war and its massive carbon footprint
because some travel some encounters
might have contributed to increased
understanding between nations
kindness between people fanciful you
might say
perhaps but perhaps not entirely
my first glimpse of a mountain gorilla
was in windy and penetral forest uganda
it was the broad shoulder of a black bag
called bahati
he was stripping branches and chewing
leaves i studied his fingers so similar
to my own
with their scuffed cuticles the half
moons barely visible
trying to stay still i realized i was
holding my breath
as i heard his deep chesty sigh like i
said
later that afternoon at the uganda
wildlife authority office
i was interviewing the head ranger
herbert for a program i was making for
the bbc
what is it that you love most about your
job i asked him
the camera rolling he didn’t hesitate
the money he replied i was crestfallen
anything else i asked recalling our
powerful morning encounter
when you have a government job like me
you know you’ll get your salary at the
end of the month
hope it continued that’s why i love my
job
sure herbert went on to speak about the
pride he felt protecting the endangered
mountain gorilla
as well as how honored he was to lead
visitors who travel there from all over
the world
but the takeaway was his sentiment about
livelihood
we might think we traveled to take a
break to get away
for sunsets and cocktails but don’t
short sell yourself
remember your big tip for the helpful
tuk-tuk driver in siem reap
the carved soap stone hippo you bought
in harare
was a meteor tall beaded giraffe in
johannesburg
the city guide invited you to lunch with
their family after a tour of curitiba
the donation you made to a turtle
conservation programme in rajya ampat
because you were so moved watching her
mother lay her eggs in the middle of the
night
don’t forget all that the impact in your
travels is more profound than you might
realize
than you might ever know
and on reflection it might be those
encounters that turn out to be some of
your most
lasting searing memories i remember
herbert
as much as i remember the gorillas
and this is why we will travel again
as we all know so well more than ever
immersed in a pandemic
we are but links in a great long
interconnected chain
you pay your money you have an hour with
the gorillas
it goes towards herbert’s wages it keeps
the gorillas alive
ask yourselves not what you want to get
from travelling
but what travel can get from you
finally did you know we’re still
travelling
stand on the equator feet planted on the
ground
and you’ll be moving at 463 meters per
second
as the earth rotates on its axis that’s
1
670 kilometers per hour faster than a
jumbo jet
admittedly that speed gradually reduces
to zero as you move from the equator to
the poles
but even at the very northern and the
very southern points of our planet
you’re traveling quickly the orbital
speed of the earth around the sun
is 30 kilometers per second or 108
000 kilometers per hour not forgetting
the orbital speed of the sun
around the galactic center which is more
than seven times quicker than that
at eight hundred thousand kilometers per
hour
i close my eyes and find solace in these
speeds
conjuring images of the earth slightly
tilted
spinning full circle in just a day as it
hurries around the sun
and as the sun whizzes around the
supermassive black hole
at the heart of our milky way
see in this way the dot that is our
planet seems particularly small
especially vulnerable it needs us more
than ever not to forget what we have
loved as well as what we have lost
as we re-emerge this year scarred
to remember how more loudly the birds
seem to sing
or if it is that we’re living more
quietly
to remember how the air tastes different
in the city with fewer cars on the road
to remember how good it is what a relief
it is
to wake up feeling well strong healthy
to remember the sense of emancipation
being permitted to head outdoors
our curious perception of the passage of
time it’s bending
it’s trickery to remember feeling unable
to plan
therefore always being free
we will travel again but as we prepare
to get going
let’s not tune out what we must do to
travel more carefully
to travel with more care slowing down
and taking our time to discover the nub
of a place
while there to treasure the chance of
meeting a stranger
the kindling of a new friendship and
ultimately
to take better care of the planet we
stand upon
that happens to take us travelling every
day
even if we hardly know it
thank you for listening