In search of a lonely planet文章翻译

In search of a lonely planet文章翻译

由于此文纯属个人翻译,可能有的地方会有问题,真心希望对你有一定的帮助~
In Search of a Lonely Planet
In late 1972, my wife and I had spent six months traveling through Asia when we landed in Bangkok from Calcutta. We’d bought an old car in London, driven it all the way to Kabul, sold it for a small profit, and carried on east by whatever transport came our way. We didn’t realize it at the time, but a travel revolution was about to take place in the region. In the next 40 years, travel was going to be on a dramatic growth curve everywhere in the world, but nowhere would the change be as great as in Southeast Asia.
在1972年年底,我和我的妻子用六个月的时间在亚洲旅行.我们以加尔各答为起点,飞往曼谷(泰国首都).之前,我们在伦敦买了辆旧车子,一路开着,去了喀布尔(阿富汗首都),在那里我们卖了这辆旧车,得了一笔小钱.接着,我们以搭便车的方式继续向东.当时的我们并没有意识到,但是事实确实如此,一场旅行的革命正要在这里爆发.在接下来的40年里,旅行将在世界上产生巨大的变化,但是没有任何一个地方的变化会赶上东南亚的天翻地覆.
Four decades ago, Bangkok was still winding down from its role as a Vietnam R&R escape. The movies of The Beach and The Hangover, Part 2 were still many years away. My wife and I continued south: we hitchhiked from Bangkok to Singapore, took a ship to Jakarta, and thumbed a ride on a New Zealand yacht sailing from Bali down to Australia. Sure, there were other tourists around—we certainly weren’t first-time pioneers—but compared with today’s numbers, they were minuscule.
四十年前,曼谷还是一个刚刚摆脱了越南后备地的地位的小地方.电影The Beach and The Hangover（第二部）还演着很久以前的故事.我和我的妻子已经踏上了南下的征程.我们继续搭便车旅行,从曼谷到新加坡,又坐轮船去了雅加达,之后我们搭着快艇从巴厘岛出发到达了澳大利亚.当然,我们旅行这期间也有其他游客---当然我们并不是第一次这么做的的先锋者---和今天这帮人相比---他们就显得渺小了.
A host of factors came together around that time. The baby boomers—I was one of them—were stretching their travel wings and going farther afield than their parents had ever dreamed. Europe was just the jumping-off point, whether we were planning on riding the Marrakesh Express or following the Beatles all the way to India. The first 747s had taken passengers on board just two years earlier, and soon a host of new airlines would become familiar names, flying us to undiscovered places and doing it at delightfully low prices. Plus, the world was opening up. Over the next 10 years, Southeast Asia would make the transition from war zone to fun zone—and in the subsequent decade China, almost totally closed off since the communist takeover in the late ’40s, would open its doors.
那是,很多的因素影响着世界.作为生育高峰时期出生的一代人,远远超出他们的父辈的想象,正四处搜寻可以游猎的地方,我也正是那个时期出生的孩子.欧洲那时正是飞速发展的时候,不管我们选择乘坐马拉喀什（地属摩洛哥）快车还是选择跟随披头士一路前往印度,第一批波音747都已经把乘客们送往世界各地了,很快,大批后来被人们所熟知的航线开通了,人们可以去以低廉的价格飞向尚未开发的地方.更令人振奋的是,世界已经越来越小了.在接下来的十年里,东南亚将会有战争地带转变为娱乐天堂,而且随后不出十年,中国,这个40年代被共产党统治的,曾经闭关锁国的地区,也会大敞国门.
A generational shift, aviation developments, and dramatic political changes kicked off that travel revolution, but it was technology that really pushed it along. Suddenly we could book cheap flights, find comfortable hotels, research our sightseeing, and tell the folks back home about it, all more or less instantly.
这是一代人的转变,无论航空事业的发展还是政治的变革,都对旅游的革命的产生了巨大的影响.不过,真正推动这一革命的还是科学技术的发展.突然之间,我们能够买到便宜的机票,找到舒适的宾馆,探索我们的风景,将见闻告诉家里人了.不得不感叹这一切变化发展是如此之迅速啊.
So in many ways the world has become a much less lonely place in the four decades since the first Lonely Planet guidebook. Yet I never forget that if you want to get away from the crowds, the empty places are still out there.
由此可见,自从第一本孤单世界旅行手册出版以来,这个世界就已经不是那个孤单隔绝的地方了.不过,我要告诉你的是---想要摆脱嘈杂的人群---跟我来吧,宁静的地方依然在等待你的光临.
Recently, with a group of friends, I trekked from Simikot in the far west of Nepal up to the Tibetan border. We’d arranged for a Chinese truck to meet us there and transport us to Mount Kailash. All it takes is one circuit of the holy mountain, the Tibetans say, and you’ve wiped the slate clean of all your sins. All your sins from this lifetime, that is—more circuits are required if you want the cleanup job to extend to earlier lifetimes.
最近,和一群朋友,我长途跋涉,从偏远的尼泊尔西部Simikot出发,一直走到西藏边境.我们准备了一个中国的卡车在那迎接我们,它将把我们送到冈仁波齐山麓.这段行程不过就是围绕此山一圈的旅行.西藏人说,这神圣的山,会把你的灵魂都洗涤的干干净净.当然,你要是多绕此山几圈,你前世的罪过也会被原谅了.
We were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves at the Mount Kailash campsite, until a few hours later two cyclists turned up and put us firmly in our places.
如果不是几个小时以后突然出现的两位骑自行车的旅行者,我们会十分坚定地觉得这次在冈仁波齐山麓的露营实在太令人满意了.
“Where have you come from?” we asked them. After our mountain walk, it would take us a week to drive to Lhasa—and the other alternative, Kashgar in far western China, was equally daunting. Wherever they’d come from, it was a long ride.
“们从哪来的?”们问到.如果是登山之后的我们,可是要花费一周的时间才能抵达拉萨的.当然也可以选择喀什葛尔(中国新疆西部城市),不过那绝对不会是什么简单的旅程.可见,不论他们从哪里来,一定的是,他们已经骑了很久了.
“Oh, we bought the bicycles in the bazaar in Lahore,” one of the weather-beaten riders replied.
“哦,我们的自行车是在拉合尔市(巴基斯坦城市)的集市上买的.其中一个骑车的人回答到,他一看就是经历了许多风吹日晒的人.
“Then we rode up the Karakoram Highway through northern Pakistan,” his companion continued. “And over the Kunjirap Pass into China.”
“接着,我们沿着喀啦昆仑山脉(与喜马拉雅山脉向北接连的大山脉)的高速公路前行,穿越巴基斯坦的北部,”他的旅伴说到.之后,我们经由 红其拉甫（位于中国新疆维吾尔自治区）抵达中国.
These guys had crossed the Himalayas! We were nonstarters. The walk and truck ride we’d been so satisfied with a few minutes earlier was a mere stroll in the park. Suddenly the world seemed a much larger place and the opportunities to find a lonely, uncrowded corner much wider.
这些人竟然穿越了喜马拉雅,哦,上帝.我们相比之下渺小了许多.那些我们几分钟前曾经引以为豪的徒步旅行和搭大卡车的旅行,现在看来不过是公园里的漫步罢了.突然之间,我发现原来世界竟是如此广阔,宁静之地的发现好像唾手可得的事情一般了.
Earlier this year I was kicking around the Solomon Islands and ended up one day at a small resort just south of the port of Gizo. I took a resort kayak and paddled out into the bay to an island a mile offshore. I pulled the kayak onto the sand and there I was, on the same sandy beach where a young JFK had stumbled out of the water, his patrol torpedo boat sunk after a collision with a Japanese destroyer nearly 70 years ago. How many people get to do that? Tourist numbers to the Solomons are still tiny despite superb scuba diving, comfortable places to stay, and fine local beers, such as the one I sampled with lunch.
今年年初,我在所罗门岛晃悠,无意中走到了一个很小的景点,吉佐港.我把小艇拖到沙滩上,想起差不多前曾经年轻的肯尼迪也在这个地方磕磕绊绊的上了岸,他的鱼雷快艇在和日本人交互冲突时沉没了.我不禁要问,有多少人会有如此的运气呢?来所罗门岛的人多是一小波一小波的潜水爱好者,他们觉得这里风景宜人,美酒佳肴也不缺少.这不,刚刚和我一起吃饭的人就是这么说的.
I’m a lucky traveler. I get that thrill of experiencing something by myself, far from the crowds, on a regular basis. You don’t have to walk to the remote corners of Tibet or kayak the backblocks of the Pacific to find your own place. Surprisingly, in our jampacked world, it’s still remarkably easy to escape the congestion. Could you find a more crowded European destination than Venice in the summer? Well, go there, walk a few blocks away from the swarms in St. Mark’s Square, choose any one of a dozen beautiful old churches, sit down in a pew, and look around. Chances are you’ll be by yourself.
要说,我还真是个幸运的旅行者.自己单独一人经历了那种惊险刺激,远离喧嚣,在一个在普通不过的出行中.你不需要去偏远的西藏,你不需要去太平洋那人烟稀少的小岛上.说来令你惊讶,在这个水泄不通的世界,要想躲避这种拥挤还是相当容易的.你能发现一个比欧洲大路上夏天的威尼斯更让人喘不过岂来的地方吗?那么,你去那里吧,从圣马丁广场多走几步路,从众多的美丽的老教堂中去选一个你喜欢的,坐在那里的条凳式座位上,用心看看这个世界.这是,你才是真正的自己.
The world is a more crowded place, the check-in lines are longer, the planes are bigger, the tourist numbers larger, but if you want a lonely place you can still find it.
现在的世界是一个拥挤的地方,排队等候的时间变长了,飞机变大了,到处旅游的人增多了.幸运的是,我们还是能找到一个宁静的去处,不是吗?