How I love the feeling of travelling by bus at night. Aside from the thought of comforts and convenience, travelling at night gives me the kind of feeling I would always find serene and sentimental.
When I travel I don’t usually sleep especially when I’m alone. I would bargain my sleepiness with the chance of seeing the view towards my destination. I would rather watch the endless trees in my window than waste my time dreaming of nothing that I could remember when I wake up. I find joy in watching the birds fly in time of our passage, the trees of different shapes and colors, the houses of different designs and structures, and the people of different appearance and actions. The view in my window is far more interesting than the film being played in the television of the bus I am riding at.
I remember my childhood when we used to travel by bus to visit our home in Bicol during summer breaks. I refuse to sleep as my mom would always tell me to. I would fight boredom by playing games in courtesy of the view from my window. As you may have guessed by now, I would always sit by the window when I am travelling with a company (I refuse to take a window seat when I’m alone for security purposes—you know it’s easy to stand up and run when you’re seated at the isle part). Riding the bus for 8 long hours is excruciating. As a little girl, that for me is way too exaggerated adjective to describe our travel to Bicol. Because then I enjoyed it. I play games only I know. Back then we usually travel by day. With millions of cars passing by, I would busy myself choosing a model I would want for myself. I would even justify my choices to myself why and why not I have picked such vehicle. That alone is enough to consume a couple of the 8 hours travel time. When I get bored, I will shift to houses. Same mechanics applied. From then, my mind would start to wander. I tend to imagine a lot of things and most of the time, imaginations jump from one subject to another, from one theme to another topic. And so, unconsciously I fall into sleep. When I wake up it’s because we had a stopover and we have to eat. I do not get out of the bus though. I am not comfortable eating out on places I am not used to (yeah, mind you it’s hard to feed me.) So we usually have our foods packed and eat inside the bus (I don’t use public rest rooms too—for 8 hours I can!). When the travel resumes, I fall into the same hobby of mine. I am an imagination freak person as you may say. It consumes my idle hours. I would look up at the sky and dream of flying, and playing in the clouds and from then my mind would bring me to flying carpets, flying ship, the stars, and the moon and so on.
Today, I would still find the travel time excruciating. That is exactly the reason why I would refuse travelling by day. The destination is no longer new to me so there’s no more point in choosing to stay awake for the sake of the view than sleep the whole 8 hours away. So I would always opt for a night travel. You know it’s a different kind of feeling that I would usually feel whenever I would sit there beside the window with my iPod on and look at the darkness outside. I cannot anymore play games like what I used to do back then because I only see vagueness and uncertainty out my window. No more colourful cars and houses only darker versions of it. Anyhow, I find joy in it. I feel calm and free-spirited. If only I can feel the cold breeze at my face the experience would be close to perfect. It’s a liberating feeling when you see nothing in focus but blurry details of what is out there. It’s like everything is out of your control and you can’t do anything about it but admire. You just let your mind be free from being held by details. You are what you dream. You are what you imagine. You look up at the sky and see the stars smiling back at you. No more worries, no more hold-backs, just pure possibilities and what-may. I wish I don’t have to move out of that seat ever again. I wish that the black in my window would never turn into light again. Night is my refuge and my untying rope. However, I am not much of a night person so I sleep. I am not that strong to fight the call of doze. It is only when I am able to consume the greatness of the experience that I submit myself to slumber. When I woke up, the light has taken the place and I feel usual again. The day is on and I am on reality. I would just resolve in looking forward to another surreal experience like that. So as I step out of the bus, I am me again.
This is just an unsolicited insight I got from a recent night travel. *wink
No comments:
Post a Comment