My ‘moments’ are when I look around – and chuckle. Not because I saw something funny, not because I thought of a joke: but simply because, I realise how unique the moment is, how incredibly I am to be alive, to be experiencing this moment, right there, right then, and how there is no place in the world I’d rather me.

These are my ‘moments’.

Happy travels to all!

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In the spirit of sharing here is one pulled from my diary – Kalimantan, Indo 07
It turns out there was another who spoke English in town, he, known only as The Arab, got wind of my arrival so joined Ferdinand and I for a pre dawn coffee. Apparently travellers very rarely come through this part of Indonesia, with the last being an American three months ago, who gave an English lesson, which they wanted me to finish off. Out came bits of paper with English words.
The Arab – Miz what dis meeen?
Me – Ah, it’s not good, it means that a person has sex with someone’s mother.
The Arab -Yes, yes, that’s right, how you say it again, mother – fuc%@er? Is that right Miz?
Me – Yes, but don’t use it.
The Arab – Miz, Miz what about this? (Shows me his phone on which the American had changed the welcome message.)”You’re a son of a b*&ch!” I don’t know what it means, but I like it. I say it to people and do this. (Pulls the finger). Tell me meaning Miz?
By now I was cracking up and choking on my thick black coffee in a filthy glass and gagging on the horrible cigarettes they proudly shared with me. The dawn revealed the dogs, the rubbish and the people waking up on the street in this dusty town, that had in likened to me as the ” bum hole of the earth”. My moment, the moment. And it dawned on me too, that this is this it is about. The glossy tourist brochures that had teased me; monkeys shows, visits to jungle tribes or mountain climbing- lost all their appeal. You can pay to see the monkeys or people doing “traditional” things and wearing “traditional” clothes, but you can’t pay for this. I had been floundering on this trip with what I wanted, and even it the midst of experiencing and feeling it, I still wasn’t able to articulate it any further, than realising that this was it, this was what it is about.

In answer to your question, what would I give for my traveller’s moment? I give up hot showers and soft beds. I give up being at home for Christmas, birthdays and funerals. I give up pay cheques in dollars and having a healthy savings account. Giving up – implies at least to me a sort of sacrifice, – going without – but it’s not. What I have are moments that money can’t buy, people can’t arrange and I still can’t articulate, and I won’t give these up and now don’t have to give for these moments. But I would still like a hot shower maybe once a month.

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I don’t think you have to travel half way around the world to have an absolute moment of clarity a.k.a. a traveler’s moment. I do think, though, that extracting yourself from the norm of day to day and immersing yourself into something entirely foreign and unexpected does a lot to shake things up. You can’t help but strip away all the superficial stuff and your left open and vulnerable to whatever comes along — something that is completely opposite to the feeling of being “at home.”

Pam, Marilyn, I enjoyed your stories.

Ben

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@Spillay: I don’t think it’s impossible to experience that kind of moment in your daily life, but it’s harder to crawl out of your everyday skin and look around. Having kids helps.

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It’s here that I get positively saccharin, maudlin, wallowing in sentimentality about travel. Those perfect times when everything stands still and you are so absolutely right there are why I love travel, too. And you’re right, you can’t seek them out, they just happen.

It would make a nice anthology, don’t you think, to have a collection of those moments compiled by some hard ass editor looking for the absolute best travel moments… hmmm…..

We were in Hawaii (Molokai) and wandered down to the beach to watch the sunset. Two island guys were fishing, drinking beer, playing music on their boom box while they messed with their reels while sitting on the open bed of their pickup.”You just gotta get out of the city sometimes and go fishing!” they said to us and we both laughed. Kaunakakai is the city?! The radio played Bruddah Iz’s “Over the Rainbow” and one of the guys turned to me. “You know Bruddah Iz?” he asked. (I play the ukulele) I smiled and nodded while the big orange sun dropped in to the Pacific.

Ahhhhh! Perfect.

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Set to Jimmy Cliff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU3Yqe2Z9yE

Ben

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