All the right places

When I got back from Korea in August I was lucky to get a green cab at the airport. It was a Prius. The driver liked to talk. I kind of thought maybe it was one of those taxi confessional things, you know with a hidden camera. He asked me where I had been, we talked about Korea a little, teaching ESL, etc. He had also given up some information that his father worked for the CIA. After talking about me for a while, I said, "so, CIA huh?" and we changed the subject.

We had a nice talk. He told me about how he had to come to terms with the work his father did, even though he was just a map maker and was not out in the field plotting assassinations or overthrowing governments. He was a really nice guy (the driver that is) and the time from the airport flew by.

As I got out he opened his trunk and pulled out a book. He asked me if I liked to read. I told him I did. He said, "since you were in Japan, you might like this book that I wrote", and handed me a copy of a book called "All the Right Places".

I brought it with me on this trip and started reading it on the flight to Amsterdam, but I was too flustered then to really enjoy it. I was on a new adventure to who knows what, for quite a long period of time. I had lots of worries and fears with me on that flight. The book was not resonating with me.

The other day I picked it up again. Somehow now, after a month away, I am open enough to connect with it. I'm loving it.

I recognize a lot of the experiences in the book, in Japan, and then on to Hong Kong and the infamous Chung King Mansion where most travelers on a budget end up (and I did once).

Today I spent the afternoon reading, napping and watching the final episodes of season 5 of Weeds. I came across a quote in the book that hit me. Brad, the author, and taxi driver, was on a boat in China. He was speaking to a Canadian woman. She said, "If you don't get out with the masses, go places where you can't speak the language or drink the water, you lose all perspective on yourself. You begin to think the life you live at home is the life everyone lives."

I thought it was right on and pretty much describes one of the reasons why I feel I like to travel so much - to keep that perspective, to remind myself that my life at home is not the life that everyone lives.

I just came back from a bike ride. I guess it was the evening rush hour. There was all kinds of traffic - cars, bikes, pedestrians. Squares were full of people drinking, talking and smoking. Children ran around like crazy. The wind was blowing and you can feel fall in the air. Very few people were wearing shorts - some were bundled up like it was winter.

I saw the guys that stand on the side of the road - mostly African men, selling tissues to drivers who stop at the lights. Others stand and point out parking spaces. People park and give them money to watch their cars. I feel like it is bordering on extortion and wonder why people have to do that for a living. I thought of the prostitutes, who today I was feeling really tired of seeing every day outside of my window. I passed the Mormon missionaries, chatting up a single guy (single as in alone) - they looked very serious. He was smiling.

I thought about how I am in the right place right now. I am doing the right things. I don't know why. I don't really have much of a plan, but it all seems to be falling into place and it all feels right.