"Sitting there, alone in a foreign country, far from my job, and everyone I know, a feeling came over me. It was like remembering something I'd never known before or had always been waiting for, but I didn't know what. Maybe it was something I'd forgotten, or something I've been missing all my life. All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness. But not too much sadness, because I felt alive. Yes, alive.”
- “Paris, je t'aime” (2006)
Every traveler eventually needs to travel to nowhere.
Anyone can go there; not many bother or dare to.
Because when you are there, you find yourself waiting for you.
Tamir from Israel, traveling around the world until his money runs out. We met him at Glacier Point while we were waiting for the sun to set. He randomly took out an outdoor stove and started making coffee, but not without offering to make us a cup too. As for why he’s traveling around the world, he said, “I’ve always wanted to do this. When I turned 30, I thought, if not now, then when?”
Get closer and closer and closer to the things you love.
All the places I have been,
and all that I have seen,
let me hide them in the depths of my heart.
some feelings you never forget, like the day we rode a bike down the roads of ____________, the wind streaming across my face as the sun set. i didn't want to forget the moment. i remember telling myself to grab those feelings and never let them go, but i knew they wouldn't last. they would exist for the entire duration of the journey, and maybe a little while after that, then they would disperse, and i would go back to square one, again.
but maybe what's important is that i was on that bike, and i was on that road, and i was traveling along it as the day wound down, and i saw that beautiful golden light for myself and felt that kind, soft breeze on my face. that is the most important thing: i was there. no one can rob me of that memory, those feelings, even if i can only taste them vaguely now.
i want to be there again, wherever 'there' is. again and again, and then to come back only to wish to go back again.
"You spent the first half of your life becoming somebody. Now you can work on becoming nobody, which is really somebody. For when you become nobody there is no tension, no pretense, no one trying to be anyone or anything. The natural state of the mind shines through unobstructed -- and the natural state of the mind is pure love."
- Ram Dass
“This morning I'm leaving New York
Once get on the plane
What would I be thinking of
This morning I'm leaving New York
A plave of letting go
A place of moving on
Here's to New York...
Don't matter where you're from
Just matters where you go
No one clings for long
New York…”
- “Leaving New York”, Chet Lam
"And in that moment I swear we were infinite"
Now that I'm home with the benefit of distance, I can finally say, of all the American cities I've been to so far - NYC, Portland, LA and even San Francisco - I enjoyed Boston the most. I liked that it was clean, bookish, calm, and yet still bursting with endless creative energy. A town for writers jazz musicians scholars spoken word poets bookstore owners street artists internet entrepreneurs and anyone in between, but still managing not to descend into the chaos that so characterizes New York. What a pleasant surprise.
San Francisco. Despite my foggy, half-awake brain, a few first impressions. Coffee. Coffee shops. Trams. Roads - many roads - usually winding up and up. People smoking cigarettes. People dining outside restaurants. And then the light - soft and bright. And the Patti Smith lyrics ringing in my head, "Holy New York, holy San Francisco / Holy Peoria and Seattle, holy Paris / Holy Tangiers, holy Moscow, holy Istanbul / Holy time in eternity, body, holy eternity in time..."
Why do I travel? And how do I travel in the most comfortable way? What do I want to say? What are the things that attract me while I'm traveling? Traveling alone forces me to answer all these questions.
Being in a city like Tokyo further reinforces what I don't like about traveling. I don't like shopping or consumerism. I see the thousands of shops that tourists flock to and I feel almost nauseous. All I want is to hole up in a cafe and read. Or visit the museum. Or a nice park. Maybe visit some small shops. Eat good food. Take photos. Sometimes that's all I want to do.
So that's what I shall do in the next few days. There is no point in pretending to be a typical tourist. I am a "boring" tourist and I intend to remain that way.
Hong Kong, land of my original dreams.
In Seoul we kept opening doors and going into stores, cafes, even public spaces like the national library. I was constantly amazed at the Koreans' eye for design, and their ability to mix and match elements in such a perfect, if slightly haphazard, manner. Their interior spaces fall together nicely. They are places you want to eat, sleep, and live in. They make life seem comfortable, livable, sweet, even. But as travelers we entered each space and found ourselves having to leave soon after. No matter how long we seemed to be in any place it felt temporary, brief.
