13. A TRAVELER IS BUT A PILGRIM ON A QUEST

I gallivant whenever I can, when time and money permits. Travel opens the mind and the heart, but only when one travels without expectations. It's like leaving the windows of the mind and the heart opened so that the light may shine in - into the body temple, illuminating it, so that one may see clearer......and dispel the darkness of ignorance, for the body temple has long lived in darkness.

Mother Earth has no borders. Immigration and custom controls, walls and fences are man-made, created by the politics of men and their egos, pride, greed and ambitions. As I move around a country or cross borders into a neighbouring country, I note that for the most part, the people look the same. Many speak one another's languages or dialects, eat more or less the same food, costumes are similar with adaptations. Political ideologies changed the way they worship or don't worship, conquering forces changed their religions and their food and even their dress......but essentially, we are a hodge-podge of the same kind or people, the same stock.
 
Wherever I am, I can pass off as a Japanese, a Korean, a mainland Chinese, a Thai, a Nepali.
My daughters, products of a mixed union, can pass of as Indonesians, Filipinos or North Indians. Some Indians I see out in the streets can pass off as Caucasians, its their mannerisms and dress that tell me they're Indians.

Conquering colonial forces leave behind something impossible to eradicate - their offsprings, whether through rape or marriage. Rape is a weapon of war. Their simple minded thinking is, it will dilute the conquered peoples. Little do they realise that in Mother Nature, Diversity is the keyword. The end product is taller, bigger, stronger, hardier, more colourful, more beautiful, more intelligent. I see Kashmiris and Afghans and North Indians with green, grey and blue eyes, light hair and skin white as snow.

In Singapore, the delibrate cross-breeding of tropical ornamental fish and cut orchids are thriving export businesses. Singapore's multiracial population has produced a younger lot of people who are all of the above.

In Turkey, although its people are chiefly Muslims, the Turkish are a hodge podge mixture of Europeans with very European mannerisms and tastes.

Countries which have a tradition of immigration will have a more interesting population, more culturally diverse - the US, Australia, Singapore, to name 3, are melting pots. It is in this pot that one will encounter unity in diversity. Truly, we are One with just 6 degrees of separation......and that's close.......

'A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving' - Lao Tzu
 (in today's lingo - it's the journey, not the destination.)