"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
I can scarcely believe that it is only a month since I waved goodbye to my parents at Newport station. What a month it has been!
I've had all sorts of adventures - climbing into volcanoes, visiting temples, eating strange and exotic things, chatting to locals, chatting up foreigners. I've biked, hiked, hitch-hiked, taken buses with chickens, taken taxis without, caught trains, planes and a ferry too.
I've met Balinese, Javanese, Chinese, Malay, Indian, Nigerian, American, Argentinian, German, French and even someone from Birmingham! In short it's already been a trip of a lifetime.
But what still stands as the most striking thing is the sheer generosity and good spirit of the people here. I have been welcomed into their homes, entertained, fed and watered. Cycling yesterday when I was dying for a drink an old guy on a scooter pulled up beside me and gave me a cold can of coke. He caught up with me sometime later and handed me a bag of sweet, juicy fruit. And why? Well, I guess, just out of pure generosity.
We do all cry, laugh, eat, worry and die but what makes us human is the capacity to share these things, even with strangers. And long may it last.
Next step Sumatra...
I love it:-)
ReplyDeleterossy