Brokedown Palace Meets Little Miss Sunshine, But in Sri Lanka

There is a jangling, stomping, raucous, all-male, sing-along, dance party taking place outside my room right now. The entire local police force is out there celebrating. Most of my travel mates are all passed out in the adjoining room in a drug-induced stupor. I am taking it easy as well, writing in my journal, as my face just almost got eaten by a me-sized German Shepperd.

Let's start from the beginning though.

1. Picked up at the airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka: 7:15 a.m.
2. Two little Taiwanese/Chinese American girls, one Indian American girl, two Sri Lankan men. One van. Most of us strangers prior to this meeting.
   
3. Head to YMCA, where one of the guy's friends works in a restaurant. Eat some delicious dal curry with other delicious, goopy piles of yummy spiced things. Plus a giant block of congealed coconut rice.
4. Drive around forever in search of a hotel.
5. Super sketchy drug deal takes place (why does this always seem to happen to me when traveling with a bunch of people I don't know so well?). I guess I don't have any experience in this department, but this did seem extra shady even for a drug deal. There was a lot of driving in circles and strange men jumping in and out of the van. We did get to see some interesting part of Colombo, and it was a new cultural experience!
6. Finally arrive in Jayawardenapura (about an hour from Colombo) and settle into a random guest house.
7. While others get high back at the hotel, I instead, of course, go eat! Veggie rotis, veggie samosas, more dal curry, hopper (thin, spongy bowl-shaped crepe), crazy sweet milk tea, smoothies from "The Juice King" made from fresh papaya and one with wood apple (tastes like a pear-flavored fruit leather). This small village is about two blocks, so we've already visited almost every eating establishment on the main street.
8. On the back deck of the guest house, we befriend a Nigerian man who lives in Cambodia, and I listen in as my friend and he discuss the international jewel business. I admire the sporadic way fireflies reveal themselves and then instantly disappear into the night. Sometimes I wish I could do the same.
9. We are offered a few plates (boiled cassava, cucumber/tomato/onion salad, apples with salt and pepper) from the banquet occurring at the table beside ours. These are the local police. They are celebrating someone's recent promotion on the force. What an interesting coincidence that we all seem to be collected in this same place this evening. The recreational drug-users of the group found this less amusing.
10. We were invited into the guest house manager's home, where we awkwardly made conversation with his mother-in-law and were introduced to his adorable giant two dogs. The German Shepperd and I decided it would be a good idea to get into a head-butt contest. He won, his head being literally twice the size of mine. Tiny gash on my forehead and cut on my lip resulted in a hilariously, over-dramatic looking, blood bath on my face and hands.
11. All in all, a fun first day in Sri Lanka!
    

At the Low Cost Carrier Terminal

My trip is starting out with a 10-hour vacation inside the LCCT in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After what for no good reason at all has felt like a mildly emotionally tumultuous few weeks, this feels like a sort of cleanse to start my new adventure.

I had an onion paratha. Two bottles of soy milk. Read a book and subsequently was inspired to have a long, thoughtful conversation with myself about death.

Originally I was a bit anxious about the prospect of spending a night alone at the airport...and not even the nice one. This is where the poor people go, as my Malaysian friend reminded me many times during the past two days since I first booked these tickets. And "it's where...you know (in a whisper)...like a lot of people immigrate in from."

While I still have five hours to go (still ample time for abduction!), I'm actually really enjoying the experience. The solitude amongst a crowd of strangers. There's a kind of quiet sadness to the veiled women hunched over in uncomfortable slumber over their luggage and the consistent whirling by of janitorial carts, manned by attendants veiled not with burkas but with a sort of desperate, sleepy fog. Maybe it's my exhaustion or the fact that I just spent hours starting and finishing a book in the gift shop about learning to live through learning to die, but I think there's something kind of beautiful about this experience.

I look around and see people from all over the world, and...

...oh! we just got kicked out because they need to conduct pest control in the airport for the next three hours. I did, however, just landed myself a cozy spot between three Indonesians, who gave me an apple and took my photo, as well as a white guy, who looks a few moves away from finishing his rubik's cube.

Anyway, it's pretty amazing having all these very different people out here...heading to very different places...in very different life moments, but we're all huddled together outside this airport in Kuala Lumpur for this one night for the same reason -- just waiting for the next life moment on the other side of this next plane ride.

And, of course, because we're all too cheap to get a hotel for the night.

Travel Notes: Eating and Walking Hong Kong

Sooo...I meant to write something about this trip months ago, but now here I am...having just returned from another trip (to Japan) and now already planning the next one.

Luckily, this was an extremely memorable yet ridiculously simple weekend in one of Asia's food capitals (I still stand by the fact that Taipei wins as number ONE though), which can basically be summed up as just eating followed by walking...followed by more eating and then more walking. With little time for digestion as there was actually often simultaneous eating AND walking.

Some highlights:

My dear friend Mike's birthday meal/our first meal in Hong Kong/duck fat! Mmm.

Late night walk to the Star Ferry for a view of the very dazzling, very 80s HK skyline.

Pork bun treat!

Followed by more walking around in search of pork buns.

Followed by eating more pork buns.

Walking around The Peak. Pretty!

Walking around Repulse Bay. More pretty!

Lunch at the American Restaurant, which was named to attract American sailors when it opened right after WWII. So, I figured it only made sense to bring my American sailor, right?

Walking around Hong Kong Park. Turtles and birds!

Massive HK$860 meal at Yung Kee.

Stroll through the markets.

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Another walk, another park. Flamingoes at Kowloon.

A proper farewell to our eating/walking tour of Hong Kong. Dim sum at Maxim's.

Tourist Eyes

I’ve been fortunate enough to have nearly a dozen people stay at my place over the past months – playing hostess in a land that is still rather unfamiliar to me.

However, I’ve been in Taipei just long enough to have it sort of feel like home and to start getting antsy to move on to the next place. Struggling to decide how much longer I want this place to be my home. As I’ve settled in, my eyes have grown a little duller and less curious, so I love the idea of seeing this place with fresh eyes again. In a new light.

There’s nothing like seeing the world as a tourist.

You look at everything a little closer. You taste everything a little more intensely.

In general, you just pay more attention. There’s something very zen about this that I like.

I hate the way we often say the word “tourist” with such disdain (but I guess I’m biased having named this site after it). I met a guy in Florence who made a huge fuss about only traveling like a local (I get that part; that makes sense) but refused to do any of the “touristy” things…like go to museums and cathedrals.

Seriously? How can you say you’ve experienced a place like Florence without stepping into one museum or cathedral?

I say embrace the tourist experience – whether you’re traveling or not. Order everything off the menu just to try it once. Take super long walks. Stare thoughtfully at things like tall buildings, mountains and interesting looking people. Absorb all you see with the same intention and awe you would devote to a work of art at the Louvre or the view from the top of the Empire State Building.

My latest travel companion made a comment on our plane ride to Hong Kong that has helped me smile every time I’ve looked up at the past week of overcast, drizzly Taipei sky.

We were flying in a sunny patch above a thick layer of those fluffy, rich clouds that always make me hungry for an English trifle when he noted how funny it is that it’s actually always this sunny out…everyday….everywhere. Sometimes we just forget because there are clouds in our way.

What a very simple, beautiful idea – and coming from the most cynical guy I know. I doubt this yuppie-banker-type would have made such a crunchy-yoga-instructor-kind-of-observation while sitting in a windowless office cube.

But getting out and traveling does weird things to people.

So, like every visitor I’ve had, he’s helped me see my life in Taipei in a new light…even despite the clouds.

Happy Taiwanese Music

Maybe I've already been here too long, but I think this is the best thing ever.