The Travel Bug

Man, my backside is starting to get itchy.

I haven't been anywhere this entire year. (Yes, I've been to Singapore a lot.. and also to Sarawak.. but that doesn't really count). I need to go fly somewhere.. anywhere, where the people are different, the food is different, the culture is different. I suppose I have caught the bug ever since the end of studies.

To graduate, I studied in the UK for a short while... I visited Liverpool, Sheffield, Brighton & Whitby, Blackpool & numerous other small towns across the country... I visited the Seven Sisters, went hiking in the Peak District and backpacked for 2 days around London. All of which really left a lasting impression on me. The short way of describing it would be 'charming' I guess.

After that I managed to visit Paris (also on backpack) for a few days with a friend. We slept through the 8 hour bus ride from London to Paris and by the time we woke up, we were in the most visited city in the world. We walked for 3 days, visiting the Champ Elysees, the stunning Sacred Coeur Basilica and of course the Eiffel Tower, which rather comically at the time was filled with Scottish men wearing kilts due to the rugby world cup. In between that, we got harassed and spat on by a homeless 12 year old girl and got cheated out of all the cash we had in our pockets.

After I started work, my first overseas assignment was to Brussels, Belgium. I ate so much chocolate and drank so much beer that when I came back, people joked that I had eaten half of Belgium. But it was also there that I finally started to appreciate beer. I went alone, and I got lost in the middle of a small town where no one spoke English. And somehow by chance, I ended up having coffee with a Chinese woman and a France man, who was insistent on teaching us how to say "Enchanté" properly right in the middle of the Grand'Place. It was also then that I discovered that the MOST important words EVER in French are "Parle vous anglais?" and that French fries were in fact invented by the Belgians.

I went to Thailand for a few days... and the airport proudly proclaimed that Thailand was the 'Land of Smiles'... which turned out to be entirely true. Because we were lost in the middle of town, my Indian colleague and I were trying to bark instructions to the taxi driver, and all she did was continue smiling and nodding her head even when she didn't understand a world we were saying. I found out that when the waiter tells you they have 'flied lice' on the menu.. they really mean Fried Rice, though I'm pretty sure that other kind is available too.


After that, I went to Shanghai for 2 weeks.... and for the first time in my life, was eternally grateful that I at least knew how to understand and speak basic Mandarin, which proved to be a life saver. I found out first when what people meant when they say the Chinese entertained through their food.. because between 2 of us, my host ordered TWENTY (20) dishes...insisting that I tried at least a mouth full of everything. Perhaps it was my squinty eyes, or maybe my halting mandarin was amusing to them, but I found myself being taken care of very well by the Chinese folk. I had Japanese sushi with a very sweet young Chinese lady who insisted that I be showed around town... as testimony to the hospitality of Chinese people. And elderly man who was shuttling me around actually announced to the whole bakery that I was an 'important visitor' from Malaysia when I went to buy some bread - which left me completely shocked (and embarrassed).

Sigh...

I need to go on another one of those trips again.

Being on the road can feel lonely and unsettling at times. You feel like you've been plucked out from your roots and being moved from one place to another. But if you're like me.. you will also find it to be exciting and enriching. You never know what you're going to see. You never know who you're going to meet. The fact that you are in a totally different  environment where nothing is the same from what you know means that you're gazing at everything with fresh eyes... everything is being experienced for the first time. You experience every detail, every sight and every moment with child like wonder. You find even the most ordinary things amuse you "Wow, look at their buses! Look at the way they eat! Look at the shape of their chairs! Look, they don't use chairs! Look at the TV they watch, it's dubbed! Look at the cloths they wear! Ooo... they have Dim Sum too? Wow, you've HEARD of Malaysia?" I want to feel that again. I want to be sitting in a foreign part of the world getting all excited over what the locals will find to be the most mundane and ordinary item in their daily lives - like a cup holder or something.

Travel is beautiful...But it's not about how cool it is to be standing at a place where everyone knows else and wants to be at. It's about experiencing for yourself the things that God and Man has made of this world.. from the majestic sights of divine creations like mountains, valleys, oceans and rivers to the sights and sounds of things created by man - villages, cities, subways, trains, festivals, cafes and the like...They are all beautiful. They show you the wonder of God and that though we do not see it, there is an invisible hand that created everything. They show you the ingenuity of man in crafting and creating a life for himself on earth - different in means and method, but same in purpose and desire.

Anyway....... enough philosophical mumbo jumbo...

The closest opportunity I have this year is perhaps to visit India for a short while, though nothing is confirmed yet. Frankly, I've never thought about visiting India... but I guess if the opportunity came, I would still take it up.

It's just that - living in multi-cultural Malaysia, I've already been quite exposed to Indian culture. I have Indian friends, I speak a few Tamil words, I watch Hindi films, I've attended Indian weddings, I've tried  (almost) every conceivable Indian bread and curry there is, and I'm even pretty good at eating with my hands.


But I guess I'm just being too picky. After all, Indian's a pretty big country. Who knows what I'll encounter.

Cheers everybody...