On Why I Long for Southeast Asia

• The existence of chili
• The warm air
• Greens, so many greens, on the plate as well as outside
• Ah! multicultural desu ne.
• Well, I haven't been to most places in S.E. Asia, so I should not generalize
• I haven't seen, let alone experienced, how some people live
• But you know
• You know...
• Dark history, you feel it in the window panes
• China, Arabia, India. Europe. Japan. Neighbors. Les indigènes.
• Tiles, oh, tiles!
• Plants grow, oh, plants.
• Rivers are not clear
• Am I simply longing for the expat life?
• Perhaps.
• You know how FOREX works, don't you?
• There is some guilt involved
• O false sense of security, of understanding and communion
• O!
• The darkened, flickering fluorescent lights
• Oh, if we were audacious enough to attribute an at-the-end-of-the-day philosophy to S.E. Asia, I think it could be: Do not sweat the small stuff!
• What do you think?
• The message is: You know, we are on earth, here & now
• People are not looking!
• Even if they were...meh! Hello? Why care? Please be more practical.
• I need to learn that. I mean it.
• MPH (Malaysia)
  
• Gamelan (Indonesia)
• The open air, not in the colonial sense, though...but perhaps a little bit, I don't know
• The smell of morning
• Frozen takoyaki from Japan, that's just nostalgia, or double/triple nostalgia
• Made-in-Thailand ice cream
• Mmm...orange!
• Fading colors
• Concrete blocks
• You don't feel so lost, even if you are
• Scatter, like islands
• Like islands, scatter
• And watch the sea, trees. If not the sea, hills. Dark and light hills. Towers. Dream.
• Where is New York anyway? Lolo said: "To me, my navel is the center of the universe. To you, it may be different." Lolo added: "Don't think that there is only one map of the world." Then Lolo and her friends said in their hearts: "There are many." Lolo then added: "So don't be confused. Time, too, follows no uniform rules. Time does not wear school uniforms, for sure." Lolo said she learned this while being a resident in Southeast Asia. Or so I thought.
• Oh oh, never mind.... Well. It's just impossible making a list of your really favorite things.