After Dark

What I miss about travelling in the past two years is the often limited time I have to wander the streets at night. I guess part of the reason is the pleasure of travelling per se: the joy of exploration, of experiencing foreign customs and culture, of being totally removed from the everyday and the familiar. In short, it's happiness in unreality.

My night walks and roaming in the streets hold a special place though, because it is usually at night that I get to enjoy a bit of uninterrupted free time exploring places and walking about with no particular destination in mind. In the eyes and mind of a foreigner, the night is either shrouded in darkness (which thus urges caution) or punctuated by bright lights that illuminate exuberantly and seduce quietly both at the same time. In this way it maintains a certain ambivalent aura, exhibiting its allure like a shrewd and worldly courtesan who tries to draw you with charm yet is able to keep a coy distance and within the limits dictated by her.

Your night sojourn begins after the sun has gone down. Before you realise it, you have already been swallowed by the after-dark brew of heady concoctions ranging from ceaselessly moving pedestrians to eager restaurants and bars that have thrown open their doors to welcome a city that has been shaken out of its day time sobriety. There's no way to escape the path before you, for everywhere you turn you find the sprawling tentacles of the night drawing you into its entangling embrace.

Walking the streets, you never know what awaits you at the turn down the road or the corner of the building. But the lights or the presence of souls ahead pull you forward, and you allow yourself to be led like a curious child who follows what lies ahead in his path. Sometimes it's the excitement of discovering something unexpected that eggs you on; other times it's just sheer instinct or a sense of loss that is aggravated by fatigue. The prospect of chance discoveries and unexpected encounters are powerful magnets. These are precisely the fruits that you yearn to reap when you throw yourself into the mysterious labyrinth of streets and sidewalks and alleyways. 'Fruits' like a hot, tasty bowl of ramen or barbequed meat. Yes, they count too.