What do you take back from travels?
One of the things I treasure in travels is discovering or learning something good or useful or beautiful from the people in those countries. Sometimes you chance upon them in an unlikely place or situation or person.
Something I still recall to this day from our family trip to Bandung, more than 15 years ago is a pretty phrase.
We were supposed to make a move, but we were not done shopping. The driver then said to us : "Masa mencemburui kita". I was kind of awed. It was such a pretty phrase. It sounds poetic to me. I wish we speak like that normally.
Spoken language, especially, is no longer pure in cosmopolitan cities, like Singapore. Sentences or phrases are a mixture of popular or used languages. Sometimes the locals are even surprised to learn that the word they have been using is not their original language.
Also, we are always in hurry to convey our opinions and thoughts.
Perhaps that's why we turn to poetry and books?
Let me try, to remember, to slow down in casual situations, and speak pretry phrases. Aamiin.
* Masa mencemburui kita is Malay/Indonesian - which translates to "time is envious of us", which means 'we don't have much time'.
