Killing Time

Yesterday as I was taking the shower I thought about how much I like travelling, either for work or for leisure (especially for leisure). I mean I REALLY like travelling, just for travelling’s sake. I like everything about it. The packing (Tip # 1: use ziplocks for your makeup, lotions and potions and accessories so that if anyting spills, it won’t smear your clothes with pink goo that is the devil to wash out), the selecting of what to wear to the airport (Tip #2: Sensible shoes, a warm jacket and a bottle of mineral water. And no, those 5" Renoma heel do not constiture sensible shoes), the checking in at the airport (Tip #3: Always smile to the guy who does the check in, you’ll get better seats… or even an upgrade to first class hoho!), the ‘hello I am from Malaysia’ small talks with taxi drivers, even the jet lags (I don’t sleep well anyway so jet lags are great sedatives), the checking out of the bathrooms in hotels to see how plush (or poor) is the bath kit et cetera. Even changing money amuses me. Really. You should see how I struggle to convert Rupiah into Ringgit in my head to see if that cheap pair of jeans is indeed very cheap. And being a Muslim, finding a Halal place to eat is always an adventure of its own.

But mostly, I like being in a foreign place. It’s not about soaking up the culture or eating all sorts of strange food, although I must agree that eating is a big part of my travelling experience, ahem. I think it’s about making your way around (getting lost is something that I actually look forward to) in a place that you know absolutely nothing about, forcing you to interact with the locals, adjusting yourself and your set of moral and cultural beliefs to accommodate others, cursing in Bahasa Malaysia when something annoys you without anyone batting an eyelid, and enjoying the freedom of being unknown. It’s like having a clean slate at life. No one knows me here. I could be mysterious, I could be annoying. I could be deep, I could be lame. I could be nice, I could behave badly. Maybe it is a journey to find oneself? I don’t know how eating fried cockroaches could lead to  that.

And the best part of travelling? The buying of souvenirs and coming back home to distribute them. Don’t you think so? Raise your hands if you have never received a souvenir keychain or a cheap t-shirt and I will show you a liar!

I hate Takuya Kimura. He is so damn pretty, should be against the law.

Two days ago I spent 8 hours watching ‘Beautiful Life’ where Takuya pouted his way to a pristine beach and a little shop with bells at the door. Aih. Sometimes I had to shield my eyes and peeked from the corner of my (well-worn) pillow because he is just too pretty for words. Why God, why?  Lucky for him he can act. I remember reading a comment that he made many years ago about his singing ("If I sing, please run in the other direction"). If you have ever seen SMAP sings, you know that THAT is an understatement. They are even worse than a Vogon reciting poetry.  For your comparison, THIS is a Vogon:

And THIS is SMAP:

Haha.