Taste the world

If you liken food to places, you’ll discover that there are too many delicious gourmet that have yet to be tasted, that there are simply too many mouth-watering places you have yet go.

In fact, the world is such a huge place that I’m sure, I won’t be able to visit every single country in my lifetime - even the war-torn Iraq, or the estranged communist countries North Korea or North Vietnam. I’d love to visit ‘em, don’t ask why, although the probability of them capturing a suspicious Asian prowling their countries in the name and spirit of backpacking, and them remove my head, would be rather high. No, I don’t believe they are THAT hostile; it’s only that our beliefs differ from theirs, and put them apart from the rest of the world.

For years I’ve been curious and interested in various aspects of humanity, their cultures, languages and practices that differ from one another - which is why I am equally interested in knowing more about religions like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Christianity intrigues me more.

I read recently in StarWeekend, about these people trekking and climbing up some snowy mountains in Tibet, and it took them eleven great long days to reach the base of Mount Everest (with the help of their guides, of course). The descriptions are as mouth-watering as you can get, and I wonder when it’s finally my turn to reach even the base of one of the great heights of the world.

...although I probably shouldn’t dream that far, as I’ve yet to even explore my own country completely (there’s that obscure place or two, or the Borneo island), as reminded by Heng Li while we were on the way back on an obscenely congested Metro Bus today, back from deciding and ordering plants for the Leo Garden at Annway near Pyramid, which took about an hour to think.

Which reminds me of today’s morning. I was supposed to collect the BOD minutes from a very sick Andy early in the morning so Shawn and Heng Li tagged along and we ended up watching half of Hitch. We could’ve finished the movie had I known the assembly will be long and filled with useless, unenlightening, dreary talk on drugs, and not go back so early at 8:45am..which is way past the usual assembly time at 8:20. The frigging thing ended at 9+, and we sneaked in rather openly through the back gate.

Back to topic. The neighbours of Malaysia: Thailand, Singapore. Geez. And the furthest I’ve been is their frigging borders! That’s a huge insult!

I’d love to see the cultural difference and other assorted oddities in Thailand, the famed beach of Bali, the intriguingly polite and curious Japanese in Japan, smell and experience the wonders of United Kingdom, the romantic France, the source of Renaissance Italy, and other obscurely-named places which would serve one of the best dishes to your mind and soul.

And the distant, brazen icy land of Antartica. Taste the world, people, and lick it clean.