"It should not be denied... that being footloose has always exhilarated us.
It is associated in our minds with escape from history and oppression
and law and irksome obligations, with absolute freedom,
and the road has always led West."
— Wallace Stegner

As I'm preparing to head off for a long backpacking trip through southeast Asia..

It is now time for me to go through a few check list... Let's review the basic with my dear Lonely planet...

TOP 10 WAYS TO LOOK LIKE A SOUTHEAST ASIAN VETERAN

1-Never bump your head climbing into and out of local transport trucks.

Oh come on.. been there, done that!
Bemos, betchak, local bus, economic train (the one that even local people avoid)
Name it, I master it.

2-Sniff out an internet connection in the remotest town

Easy.. my greatest achievement was probably to find a connection in the Tiger Leaping gorge..
the kind of place you don't even expect to find a place to sleep or to eat.. so let alone a computer.

3-Use mosquito repellent as deodorant.

Well, actually it is now my first beauty care of the day (as well as the last one).
Try to eat everyday by the riverside of a pungent canal which smell like death.. with so many mosquitoes
buzzing around you, that you'd do anything so there can be a few drop of blood left in your body at the end of the day.

4-Forsake proper English grammar for local pidgin.

That mixed with a bit or chinese or bahasa indonesia.. as well as hand gesture
and even sometimes a few drawing.. can literaly get you anywhere!

5-Walk through a pack of stray dogs without flinching.

And I would add also through rats, giant spiders, angry monkeys, leeches..
The list can go on forever.

6-Sleep through all-night karaoke parties.

As well as chinese's new year parties with fireworks right under your window (all night long...)

7-Squat bomber style on Western toilets

That's when you start to think that there is no such thing as a mandi, and that it's a real luxury
(bucket full of water with a plastic bowl to wash you)

8-Sit down to a banana pancake breakfast and reach for the fish sauce

Actually I would maybe go for the ketchup manis,or even maybe for the hot chilli pepper..

9-Be able to recount more than one « I almost died » story.

Three.. yeah I would say at least three.. but then after a while you stop counting.

10-Pose for group photos with complete strangers

A minimum of 3 times a day (can go up to 50times when being in touristic places)
and I've spend 5month in China and now almost 6month in Indonesia.. I let you count.

'Within a stolen moment of time between sky and earth, into the mist of horizon,

thoughts are hanging...'

Nizar B.

Lost in time, nowhere to be found

but in this no man's land.

Out of reach from reality and this shattered world

together, being apart and attempting to return where we found peace

both outside and within.

And before the clock decides to take time into its own hands again,

before we fade away with the first ray of light...

a last whisper, another never ending story of times to come.

It holds me over till I see you and I can feel myself become whole again.