Getting out of the Comfort Zone - Part One My Birthday

I have always assumed that as one becomes older, the balance between being adventurous and opting for an easier life tilts in favour of the easier life.  Certainly, the body seems less inclined and slower than it once was, and the mind develops demonic filters to question the sensibility of an apparently foolish scheme or activity.  Such is the ageing process.

However, I try hard not succumb to travelling on this one-way road and, like a salmon swimming against the current, I cling onto the vestiges of my youth.  Sometimes I think it is hopeless to think I can replicate my youth, even more so to do things I never had the guts or confidence to do twenty or thirty years ago.

Some adventures are physical, but others are adventures of the mind and especially those that take you out of your comfort zone.  These adventures involve either challenges where the outcome is at best uncertain and at worst costly, physically, financially or both.  However, the reward is pleasure and satisfaction at having done something different.

Not all adventures and challenges require planning, nor need they be expensive or time consuming.  Two such occasions arose unexpectedly last week.

Last Thursday was my 58^th birthday.  I panic when I think how quickly time passes, and I am almost beside myself when I wonder how much time is left.  There is so much to do.

However, to celebrate my birthday, Khamma and I decided to take the short trip to Pakse in Laos.  It is only three hours away by bus, and that includes the border formalities.  We stayed in the Champasak Palace Hotel, which really was a Royal palace before Laos became the Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos.  Nowadays it is a bit quirky, but not expensive, and not a bad place to stay.

As usual, we did not have a particular plan regarding activities for the day until we came across a shop renting motorcycles.

I have a bit of a love-hate fear of motorcycles, as a couple of my friends will testify.  I fear them because I can see it does not take much to have an accident, and I ‘love’ them because I can understand the freedom and exhilaration they provide.  I have never owned one, save for a scooter in the distant Mods and Rockers era of the sixties and seventies.  I have never driven a proper motor bike save for pottering around on Khamma’s Honda, which I thoroughly enjoy.

Nevertheless, the rental offer was a bargain at 50,000 kip (£4) for a full day.  Compare this to the ‘comfort zone’ alternative guided tour at $65 each per day, and you can understand why my brain started to work in the way that it did.

There were many disadvantages in taking up this challenge.  My first thought was that I had reached 58 years relatively unscathed, and this was neither the time, nor the place, to blemish this achievement.  The second thought was I had not seriously ridden a motorcycle, never mind passed any kind of road proficiency test.  In Laos, they drive on the right hand side of the road, if they drive on any particular side at all!  However, most important consideration of all was Khamma would have to ride as pillion passenger.  Not that appeared to worry her unduly, but she did not realise the limitations of my experience, in particular the lack of experience driving a motorcycle with a passenger on the back!  With this mental list of disadvantages rapidly forming in my mind, I signed the ‘contract’, paid over the money, left my passport in the shopkeeper’s capable hands and we rode off, before I changed my mind.

There are critics claiming that males cannot multi task.  My counter claim is that they have not studied the myriad of thoughts running through my mind as I started the bike and Khamma clambered onto the back.

—        Where are the gears, brakes etc

—        Keep to the right of the road

—        Where is the traffic coming from and where is it going to

—        Where is my confidence to move and join the traffic?

—        Balance the bike with Khamma on the back, who, by now realised this is not easy.

—        We need fuel, where is the petrol station

—        Watch that bike and car coming towards me on MY side of the road

—        Careful of that car overtaking me on the left

—        Where is second gear?

—        Is 30kilometres an hour fast enough?

—        Where are we actually going?

—        Look at the state of the road – pot holes more like craters

Was this a good idea for a 58-year-old novice?  The answer was of course yes.  We had a fantastic day out with lots of laughs and about 130 kilometres under our belts.