Planning is overrated on the subject of journey. The greatest journey of my life occurred after I had no thought what I used to be going to do. When I used to be in my 20s, I made a decision to spend a month in China. I did not know…

Planning is overrated on the subject of journey. The greatest journey of my life occurred after I had no thought what I used to be going to do.

When I used to be in my 20s, I made a decision to spend a month in China. I did not know the language or have an itinerary. I landed in Beijing, checked right into a hostel, and met three Korean vacationers heading north. I requested if I may tag alongside.

We ended up touring by northern China collectively, moving into adventures I by no means would have deliberate. We made our technique to the Uyghur area earlier than the federal government cracked down there. I did not know I used to be witnessing a spot that will change dramatically just some years later.

The greatest a part of the journey traced again to a ebook I’d learn years earlier—Journey to the West. One of the oldest items of Chinese literature. In it, the characters journey down the Silk Road and go to the Flaming Mountains of Turpan.

I grew up within the desert, so I needed to see what the desert regarded like there. When we lastly acquired to the Flaming Mountains, they regarded precisely how I’d pictured them years earlier than. Massive and sumptuous. Standing there felt like closing a loop between one thing I’d imagined and one thing actual.

In Turpan, we met a taxi driver who drove us to the mountains and all around the area. We did not communicate the identical language, however by some means we communicated anyway. We shared tales about our households, our favourite meals, our soccer groups. He even let me drive the cab for a bit. I forgot to put in writing down his identify, and I nonetheless surprise what turned of him.

Those are the moments you may’t plan for. If I’d scheduled all the pieces out, I by no means would have met these three folks within the hostel or ended up within the Uyghur area. I by no means would have stood in entrance of these mountains or pushed a taxi by Turpan with a stranger who turned a good friend for a day.

That month in China remains to be my favourite journey I’ve ever taken.