The other day we went to the city and the taxi driver took the express way without asking us. It wasn't necessary, but it wasn't worth a fight, either. Plus, there's worse things that could happen in a Thai taxi. Traffic slowed down close to Mo Chit, it was a bit jammy, and at one point everything stopped. We looked around and found ourselves in the middle of a stagnant world full of angry vehicles, nervously waiting to be unleashed again, spitting car saliva on the road.
And then I saw this kid, maybe twelve years old, selling necklaces to the cars. He was smiling, even though he was standing on the highway at more than thirty degrees celsius, wandering around with a metal pole full of goods on his shoulder, inhaling the fumes of hundreds, no, thousands of cars. Cars like the one we were sitting in. But he didn't seem unhappy, he seemed to be in a good mood, his eyes were laughing. The cars started moving and the kid slowly disappeared behind us. It got me thinking.
I think one of the most amazing things about traveling is when you start reflecting on things. You see something or hear something, and all of a sudden you start asking yourself a million questions. You think about your current situation in life, your academical development, friends and family, past and future. You compare your life to a life that is not yours. A single turn of events as a child, one little decision made differently as a teenager, people you meet, things you do, your whole life could have happened in a different way.
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