night walking

i think the picture below pretty much sums up my experience in kuala lumpur. veni, vidi, vici. maybe, maybe not.

while traveling there is an activity i especially enjoy which i call night walking. it consists of, predictably, walking at night. but not only are you walking, you are walking quickly and absorbing all the input that is coming at you: the sights, the smells, the sounds. it works best in a big city, and by yourself, when you can just walk without direction or destination in mind. walk here, cross that street, look at that bum, smell that sewage, smell that dried fish, look at that strange grey snake like sausage thing, ask what that is, "fish" the old man says. ok, keep moving

acting like i'm climbing in a cave.

every so often when i forget i am traveling i like to go for a little night walk. ten minutes in kuala lumpur and i can get good and lost and flood my senses so it feels like the city is breathing into me, reminding me that i'm a foreigner, that i'm in a far off land that was created long ago and has existed for years and years without me, reminding me how big the world is and how insignificant i am in it.

chinatown, kuala lumpur

i guess that's the best way i can describe what traveling does for me: it puts me in my place, figuratively of course.

bird park, kuala lumpur

my first real travel experience was going to costa rica in college. i went for a month, took spanish classes and lived with a host family. my first big revelation came one day when i was at a bank, stannding in line waiting to exchange the big bills i had gotten from the atm into smaller ones, so i'd be able to buy things since nobody, and i mean nobody ever has change. so i was waiting in line, rehearsing the spanish in my head of what i had to say to the bank teller, looking at all the costa ricans going about their daily lives, and that feeling passed over me a like a wave. i felt tiny and insignificant and it felt great. i knew then i needed to travel more, to see more, do more.

i get that feeling from time to time,  mostly while i'm traveling. it's a pretty good feeling, yeah it feels pretty good.