A week before we started, I began the process of sifting through all my music and carefully selecting the tracks that I wanted to take along with me for the trip. Space was limited, so I tried to choose tracks that would suit a variety of different situations I imagined I would find myself in: riding a train through the countryside, cruising over turquoise water, sitting in a temple, or wandering frenetic streets, to name a few. Tracks, I hoped, would compliment these experiences, reflect the places I'd be visiting, and somehow, capture the essence of travel itself.
In reality, things didn't always match up. But sometimes, just sometimes, music and setting would align perfectly, completing the scene as though it had been choreographed. One such moment occurred when, taking off from Beijing en route to Hanoi, my mp3 player stopped. I pushed the display button to see what was wrong, and was delighted to see that it had reached the end of its 455 song playlist, and was waiting to be restarted. How fitting. The end of one journey marked the beginning of another. Our time in China was over, and while we had experienced a great deal during our month here, we were ready to move on. In fact, we already were; flying towards Vietnam at 700kph. The next stage could be started as easily as pressing play.
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