I’ve found I’ve been the happiest visiting third world countries – How about you?
The full question: I’ve found I’ve been the happiest visiting third world countries – out in the middle of no where reverting back to making shadow puppets with flashlights, riding 2nd hand bikes down dirt roads, etc. How about you two?
Early this morning I went for a short walk around the backstreets here in Pokhara. Within that short hour’s walk I saw a half dozen things that only reinforce my answer to your question. I saw a woman walking alongside one of this city’s free-roaming, sacred cows. She was stroking its back and then brushing that same hand across her face while she softly chanted her prayers to the heavens – only to stop, smile and return my humbled greeting of Namaste. I saw bare-footed and bare-butted toddlers wobbling back and forth between two mounds of dirt that were on opposite sides of a semi busy road, while speeding motorbikes happily slowed down to let them cross the road. In front of the aluminum walls they call home, I saw a mother in her fluorescent-bright colored headdress bathing her nude daughter in a bucket. I saw two dogs spastically bark an entire herd of water buffalo down the middle of a heavily trafficked intersection. And then, right before turning off the main road and back down our little guest house’s road, I saw a massive parade of protestors emphatically marching themselves down the main drag – screaming and shouting with all their might.
The answer to your question is yes. Hell yes, actually. I feel alive here in SE Asia. In a way that has yet to be duplicated anywhere else in the world.
Thanks for the question, Gina. -Adrian