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Writer's picturedea

on travelling

a thing that I love doing during flights (given that I have enough energy) is reading vietnam airlines' magazine. personally, I prefer heritage to fashion. advertisements aside, I love the aesthetics and quality of the content in every editorial. this time, I tore apart some of my favorite photos in the collection and reassemble them to my own likings. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.


I'm not really the kind of person who travels just to take photos of oneself. the magnificence of nature and history of a place are what draw me towards a place, where I am no longer a person like any person, and a place is no longer a coordinate on the vast map of the world.


I think, to travel to a place and to actually live there are two different things. when you travel to the beach, you'd probably spend all the time gazing at sunrises and sunsets. but when you actually live there, you'd start to care about the wind, the cloud and the stars as weather signs for your next trip on board. you'd care about the places you'd set sail to to come home with a boat full of fish. you make more memories with the people by working together with them. and I think the working part alone makes the dishes you eat eventually feel more flavorful compared to eating alone. it's like dating someone and actually living with them once you moved in.


there's long been this ongoing tug of war between the sea and the forest. at this age, I think I'm starting to appreciate both more. nevertheless, I'm still more drawn to the wisdom of the forest. to be fully immersed in the woods is a feeling like no other. it's not a coincidence that most chinese philosophers, or even western ones like henry david thoreau choses a silent life in the forest, humble yourself is the first step to immersing yourself in the universe of scents and sceneries. sometimes, I get annoyed if someone takes nothing but photos of oneself. it's the disillusioned perception of the self and the ego that bugs me. we are something, but we are only something among other things. it's through the process of learning more about the world that you learn about yourself, rather than making yourself the central entity of this vast universe.


as time goes by, one's feelings about the forest also change. the morning forest soaks and baths itself in this glorious sunlight, reflecting light through thousands of leaves and ripples in ponds and lakes. but when the night falls in, it triggers this rush of adrenaline caused out of fear. I don't think ourselves and our ancestors are afraid of darkness, we're rather afraid of the unknown. add a fireplace and you changes the atmosphere completely. you start to feel more secure and belonged. if the light hasn't been that important, we wouldn't have so much sun deities in our folk religions, and the oldest religion of all, zoroastrianism, wouldn't have worshipped the fire. nevertheless, it is owing to the dark that we learn the value of light.

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