For Patrick-Yangguizi (page 2 of 19)

Like all of you, like Alan too, I’m still in shock from this terrible news. It’s the worst thing that can happen, especially for his loved ones. As a mother myself, my first thoughts are with Patrick’s mother, and I’d like to offer my condolences to her, his partner, and his family and friends (since I can’t find better words to express how I feel).

Patrick’s family would like to gather photos of him. If any of you have pictures of him from VF meet-ups in Nice or elsewhere, could you take the time to share them? I know there must be photos of him from the VF gatherings in Nice, but there are so many, and since I didn’t attend those meet-ups, I’m not familiar with them. It’d probably be quicker for those who were there to pick out the photos where Patrick appears. Thank you so much.

Hi Anne,

Photos of Patrick and Ding can be found in the meet-up from April 29, 2005, in Nice, by clicking on "Photos de rencontre" on the homepage of this forum.

I attended that dinner where I had the great pleasure of sitting across from Patrick and Ding. I’ve picked out two photos that mean a lot to me:





It’s so heartbreaking to know we’ll never see him again... All my love to Ding, his parents, and his many friends.

He freed me up for a few evenings and lunches in the times ahead...... every time he returned to Nice, we’d share moments together. The last one was in May, and he still talked passionately about his love for Korea, about his feasts with that smile of someone who devours time with gusto.....

I won’t hear his phone ring anymore, or his jokes about my fear of going to India......

But we all know him, and there’s no doubt he’ll find a way to deliver some wild stories from this long journey he’s just begun—we’ll just have to stay tuned.....

You lost your bet, Patrick..... I’m really gutted I won that one. The battles were beautiful, though—they’ll be missed.....

See you soon, my friend.....

I’ve got this huge lump in my throat, and it’ll take me a while to swallow this pill. Patrick has left to go on "another journey."

I didn’t know him personally either, but I followed his steps in India, Korea, China, and Iran.

You’ll be missed, Yangguizi.

A lover of words, food, and travel, you made us dream by sharing your encounters, stories, impressions, collections, oddities, and adventures in a tone like no other. Under your pen, the ugly became beautiful, the ordinary captivating, the unpleasant humorous, and the unfamiliar, familiar...

You’ve moved on and found Love. A journey that left a deep mark on us, just like all the others... You’ve embarked on that other voyage, too soon, too quickly.

Farewell, artist.

...may your journey continue in the hereafter! 😊

women xiang ni!

Now you walk in the land without a name. A giant journey on eternal steps. Farewell, wanderer, may your path be beautiful. Your way drifts from our horizon lines.

DeCléricy

🙁🙁So sad, last great journey for eternity.

I didn’t get the chance to meet him, but like so many others, I read his stories and loved his truly unique writing style.

My deepest condolences to his parents and his partner.

Rachid

🙁 I found out this sad news when I woke up two days ago... We’d exchanged messages just a few days before you left for Uganda, since you were torn between Ethiopia and Uganda.... I was really looking forward to your travel journals... What can I say....... Thank you for all the travel journals you’ve left us—they’ll keep your memory alive on the forum. My condolences to your family and loved ones. Ciao Yanguizi !

Sad news... I was stunned this morning when I heard. I can't quite believe that this guy won’t be writing on the forum anymore. Without even knowing each other, just by crossing paths here, helping each other out, you almost start to feel like family. Such a strange feeling.

I was in the middle of reading his travel journal about North Korea and was about to send him a message, but in the meantime, the Reaper paid a visit... Everything’s already been said about his writing skills and the way he told a story. I imagined him as someone who really lived life to the fullest. He’ll be missed.

Fair winds, Patrick. Eric

Patrick, we’ll miss you, I’ll miss you... I was lucky enough to meet you in Nice a few years ago, but I really got to know you through your posts on VF. I truly admired you, secretly. Your determination and the way you lived life to the fullest, your love for the world, for humanity, for culture, your taste for adventure and discovery, your insatiable thirst to learn and understand things deeply, your keen insight, your ability to form your own thoughts, your humor filled with such beautiful sensitivity, and your magnificent way with words—these are just a few of the things I admired so much about you.

Thank you, Patrick, for sharing your inner life with such generosity. Everyone loved “Yangguizi” on the site—everyone. You had a real talent for bridging or reconciling differences while sharing your own perspective with such finesse. Through your writing, you were—and will remain—a pillar of this community.

Without you knowing it, perhaps, you also played a huge part in making my dream come true: creating a site that, above all, inspires travel and the discovery of others—and, in doing so, the discovery of oneself. Thank you, Patrick. I’ll always be deeply grateful. This autumn, I’ll be in Nepal with my partner and our child, who’s still in her belly. Without Nepal and the people I met there, VF wouldn’t exist. Without generous people like you on the site, the dream around VF wouldn’t have become a reality. Without that dream coming true, I wouldn’t have met my partner, and I wouldn’t be waiting for the arrival of our second child. When I gaze at the Himalayan mountains this autumn, reflecting on the cycles of life, I’ll have you deeply in my thoughts...

Your unexpected departure reminds us all that we’re on a journey every day, with a return ticket in our pocket—one whose date we don’t know and can’t change or cancel. So let’s do as you did: make the most of every moment of this great journey that is life. Let’s explore, open our eyes, be curious, learn to love this world, this life. If life has a meaning, isn’t it to live it fully? You, Patrick, seemed to have understood that so well!

Rereading some of your messages on the site today, I came across this text you posted a year ago:

«My definition of travel is one that includes discovering something new, an experience (not necessarily something exceptional, just something new) and the approach that can lead to that discovery. You might not discover anything new or noteworthy, but being in a mindset where you’re on the lookout for that novelty is what matters. Travel begins in the mind [...]»

Thank you again, Patrick, for your incredible generosity. The sadness of our grief will surely fade, but everything beautiful you left behind in this world will remain.

All the members of the VoyageForum team and I extend our sincerest condolences to Patrick’s family, partner, and friends. Feel free to contact me privately if you have any specific wishes regarding Patrick’s posts on VoyageForum or for any other request.

Thank you again, Patrick...

François

Good evening everyone,

A great traveler has left us. At 32, he was a true legend—I’d say an *exceptional* traveler.

My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.

CEGA

This autumn, I’ll be in Nepal with my partner and our child in her belly. Thanks again, Patrick...

François

What a lovely summer-like piece of news... right in the heart of this chilly autumn!

As the humanist Jean-Henri Fabre wrote:

« Everything ends so that everything may begin again, everything dies so that everything may live »

I never met Patrick, but I remember during long flights and waits in airports, I always had one of those printed travel journals with me that I loved reading.......

Respect to you and your family...

We’ll miss you, your second family at VF....

I didn’t know him, but I read his account of Cambodia the night before my departure... I loved his unique way of observing and describing the smallest details like no one else could.

Rest in peace. RIP.

From this trip, we won’t have a travel journal! We’ll miss you, Yangguizi—we already do. But this is the trip where we’ll catch up with you. You’ll just have a little head start, though you could’ve waited a bit!

Affectionate thoughts to your whole family.

I just discovered you, but you’re already gone, You leave us on the shore Disoriented, like a single child, Abandoned. From the lines you traced, which I barely skimmed, What flavors explode Under your rhythmic words. They reveal to us the Love Of a life just begun. Child of infinite places and skies, you return to your home leaving in your wake The beauty of landscapes. We’ll know, by gazing at the peaks, To remember You.

for me, the hardest thing to read on your profile is this:

Last site visit: 28 July 2008 at 10:26

happy trails on your new path, unknown friend

What a shock. Words fail me.

VF loses a pillar of its community, Shanghai loses an expat.

Wo ye hui xiang ni.