places
Forgiveness
I left Cambodia a different person than I arrived. I'm sure it stems from a great mix of everything I saw and learned there, the stories, my interactions. I left all of my belongings with a tuk tuk driver, a stranger, for an entire day, trusting he would meet me later to deliver me to the airport, he taught me trust with the simplest gesture of faith. People shared with me stories about how their families were brutalized by the Khmer Rouge and how they accepted and forgave those for what happened, Buddhism is true. I witnessed great giants roam free in the jungle after spending years as elephants used for entertainment and labor, we need space and freedom to be truly happy. I went to temples where monks prayed for me and I've never felt more undeserving in my life. It was the little things too, the lady on the overnight bus who began to lean her back against mine, curled in little balls so we could both get some rest, I've never so tenderly touched a stranger before. Everything about Cambodia shook me to my very foundation, it made me question everything about who I was and who I wanted to be.
cambodia
cambodia
Trust
I have an incredible attachment to Tangier. It was the first place I truly felt a traveler versus a tourist. It's where I learned to listen to my directional intuition while turning a corner, going down a street, getting lost in a medina, trusting that I'd be found again, either by myself or somebody else who would guide me home. I arrived in Tangier after an overnight train ride from Marrakech still a person afraid of what was coming next. After a tantrum and a swift talking to from the best hotelier I've come across, I learned that I had arrived in a place that would wrap me sweetly in its warm arms. I dream often of Tangier.
I went to Morocco during Ramadan, it's hard to put into words how powerful the call to prayer to break fast every night felt. I would sit in my room and listen to an entire country rejoice and gather, pray and celebrate. It made me feel like perhaps we are doing things wrong over here in America, that maybe we need to challenge ourselves for the greater good more, maybe we need to come together and break bread in community more.
tangier
tangier
Style
Let's get honest, Europe and America are pretty similar, except over there everything feels better, there's this slight elevation to everything, this subtle nuance of class and style. People move differently, it feels appropriate to stop, gaze, let the world spin around you.
In Barcelona one witnesses what could only be an affair and somehow it feels acceptable because it feels like you're watching a movie, a life outside of your life, like all of the elements have been placed there in a methodical fashion. The way the street corners are all octagons, this slight variation from the norm we are accustomed, creates an almost obligation to carry yourself with a level of refinement. The architecture so masculine, yet thoughtful, the open streets that feel like they were made to throw a party, to drink the extra glass of wine and enjoy the sweet nectar that is this life.
The details are everywhere in Barcelona, my hope is that a fraction of them have been embedded somewhere inside of me.
barcelona
barcelona
Happiness
I will never have enough words for Vietnam. Even thinking about the country makes my heart race and creates a sense of longing. There is a purity in Vietnam that is indescribable, I have never seen so many smiling faces or felt so much love and care. There is an energy there and you quickly become apart of it, everybody moves as one entity, dancing in a type of unison.
My breath was taken away completely by Halong Bay, the beauty is otherworldly. Leisurely early morning bike rides through Hội An, waving to locals opening their shops for the day, saying "ciao" to each other, the never ending welcoming people to their daily existence. I was welcomed to eat at tables with families so I didn't dine alone, trying to piece together conversations by relying on gestures to communicate gratitude. The memories, young kids trying to form a line at Văn Miếu temple, the Vietnamese women taking a break from their day for yoga trying to teach me a traditional dance, all of the people who insisted I come back now that "Vietnam is part of me".
Since I can't do it better, Anthony Bourdain's words on Vietnam, "just getting from here to there in this part of the world is pure pleasure".
vietnam
vietnam
Peace
Things happen to us in the desert. It's where we lose our mind a little bit but become better friends with our souls. Maybe it's the expanse, the danger, how you have to stay close to the edge or there's a chance you'll float away into the abyss. The desert has the depth of the ocean, but its land and maybe that's why I feel so drawn to it because I can't make sense of it. There is this great, sexy, romantic, mystery to the desert. Everything feels different there. The times I've been lucky enough to spend the night, in the desert, under the great sea of stars in the sky, I feel most at peace. When the galaxies are visible to the eye and all of the noise of life fades away, I know I am a small part of a great system. I gain from these moments a feeling of magnified meditation, a vibration, where I feel so much a part of something and also like I am nothing. The silence and wonder create a space for my mind to wander and dive deep inside of myself. In the desert I am perhaps most like water, where I stop pushing against everything and simply begin to flow.
white sands
