Travel thoughts & what-nots…

去一个地方玩，有一定非玩不可的地方、非做不可的节目吗？

不去观光，好像什么都没玩到、看到。其实不然。

也许人世间没有所谓错过的风景，每个当下的风景是旅人眼里脑里真正的“拥有”，尽管只是瞬间。若连当下的风景也错过，留恋脑里期待的那个风景，或许那才是真正的错过。

旅行好不好玩，跟去什么地方没有关系，最重要是会不会玩。会玩，可能什么地方都好玩。

（摘自：《无所事事的旅行》 黄向京著， 2005年5月11日， 联合早报〈现在〉）

That’s exactly how I feel about travelling… so her words sum it all!

I once heard on radio, a DJ said that when travelling, so many people are so focused on taking photos that they dun actually see the place and live the experience, which is why she dun take photos when she goes on trips now. Good for her lah, got elephant’s memory. For me, I can’t even remember what I did yesterday, much less a trip that I went on some months back… or worse, years back… so I need to capture the moment, so that I can reminisce when I come back.

They say a picture tells a thousand words. I say, a picture also tells a lot about the person who took it.

What do you feel about the mood of this photo?

Photo credit: Ms Tan Chiew Hua, 17 June 2005

Now, same place, same time, same object, different view:

The results are quite different yea?

Conclusion: The former photographer is a pessimist, the latter is an optimist! Hahaha…

It’s amusing that a group of friends can go on a trip together and come back with different memories of it though everyone had gone through the same experience.

If you see the photos taken from my Laos/Thailand trip that I use as my screen saver, you might get the impression that the region is all about nice waterfalls, pretty sunrises/sunsets, beautiful trees & flowers, dried leaves (??), twigs (???)…

Then you look at the photo that affected Caroline the most:

Photo credit: Ms Caroline Teo, 21 April 2005

And you wonder… eh… did we come back from the same trip??

It’s funny, how when we narrate our experiences from the same trip, we all tell a different story. Of course there are common points, but you can tell that everyone remembers different aspects of the same trip.

Memories… are only as true as the way we chose to remember the experiences…