Playing it by Ear

Playing it by ear is term loosely used to describe travellers who are either too naïve, too stupid or simply too lazy to plan ahead. It's how I've done most my travelling in the past and provided you remain optimistic, it usually works a treat. Occasionally however you will run into problems.

I remember dog paddling for five hours in a monsoon through the streets of Kunming in China, clutching my guidebook like a life preserver while all the time praying to Hostelius - the God of budget accommodation - for suitable lodgings. A crack house would have done. But in the end optimism and Mr Slong's Budget Traveller's Hotel got me through. I was playing it by ear and I was optimistic. There's a lot to be said for optimism when playing it by ear and there's a lot to be said for Mr Slong's Budget Traveller's Hotel when travelling in Southern China.

Anyway, again I stray, so let's break the whole playing it by ear thing down a little further using an Oktoberfest example I prepared earlier. You be the judge.

Okay, Oktoberfest, the biggest fuck off beer fest in the world. We're talking 18 days, 10 million visitors and enough beer to fill a small lake. So taking those stats as given, would you say not booking accommodation in Munich during Oktoberfest was a little too naïve? Certainly, who wouldn't, but I think of the three instances used to describe playing it by ear above that there is one that fits just a little bit better; like a finger up a bum so to speak. You guessed it, too stupid. I mean, what sort of punter rocks up to arguably the largest festival in the world without even having looked into the options for accommodation. We do, that's who.

Okay so that's two out of two. Too lazy by effect has been taken out of the equation by this stage. It's like being given an exam to sit and turning up without a pen. We'll never know if you're too lazy, because the stupidity of not bringing the pen has in effect removed it from consideration.