Flightster

Their Bullets, My Colors and Your Weird Doily Fetish

• by Colin Wright
• on October 11th, 2010
• Leave a Comment

Truth be told, I was hustling a bit. Okay, slightly running. Fast-walking. I was fast-walking through downtown Penang, Malaysia.

I feel that I was justified, though. I’ve heart gunshots before, hell, I’ve seen someone get shot (thanks Buenos Aires!) and I know that’s it not quite as dramatic or slow-motiony as the movies would have you believe, but still, when I hear gunshots, I pick up my pace a little bit.

And that’s what I did while I was in Penang and the reports started echoing off the walls.

The first thing you do in a situation like this is seek out more information. Your ears perk up for more gunshots or shouting or anything that will indicate if they were, indeed, gunshots and not just steel falling on iron or something like that. Your head tilts upward, your eyes quickly focusing and refocusing on people as they walk by, people at the end of the street, people down the alley to your right. Did they hear it? Are they responding, as well? Are they running? Which way?

That day in Penang people did seem freaked out, but the mostly just slowly walked into their shops, leaving the lumbering-few out in the streets, left to ogle each other, hoping for some kind of information that would justify a fast-walk in the opposite direction of whichever way they’re currently going.

For me, it was easy. I was headed toward the center of town, hoping to pick up some samosas and lamb curry from a place I had been pulled into the night before by an aggressively friendly Indian man, and all I had to do was turn tail and make my way back to the hostel I was crashing at for one more night before taking an overnight train back to Bangkok.

But after just a few seconds of fast-walking back toward my small, ant-infested room (and safety!), I stopped dead in my tracks, dumbstruck.

It was a color that did it. Just a color. Most people would have walked right by, and in fact most people did just that as I stood there, anxiously trying to pull my camera out of my front right pocket, slightly afraid that it may fade or someone might tell me not to take photos or something like that.

I hadn’t come across this shade of orange before. Or at least, I thought to myself, not like this: weather-worn, contrasted with creamy white and Japanese-red, black and a rusty green. It’s PERFECT. I must have it.

And so I snapped a photo and strolled back home, bullets and samosas forgotten, thrilled to have done something productive with my time.

I know, I know, it’s likely the years of art and design classes, the study of color theory and general obsession with aesthetics that led me to react this way, but I would argue that most anyone can find SOMETHING that will make them respond just as enthusiastically when traveling to someplace unfamiliar.

It’s especially intense overseas, since the cultures and customs (and color schemes) can be so dramatically different, but it’s possible to make the same impactful discovery a few blocks over, provided you haven’t been there before and there’s someone thereabouts with different influences and ideas from you.

Putting yourself in the position to absorb them, to really take them in, requires being open to new ideas and experiences. I had walked by this same archway a dozen times since coming to Penang, and somehow that moment was the right one.

I’m not saying you should try and shock yourself into creativity by putting yourself in harm’s way or firing guns and looking around or fast-walking everywhere, but I am recommending taking the time to really experience your surroundings. I mean, REALLY just breath it all in and exhale it back out by telling someone else about what you saw, heard or experienced. Taste it both ways and see what you end up with.

For you, a certain shade of orange may not be that remarkable, and that’s okay. To me, those doilies you love are rubbish, so there. The point is that either one of us should be able to get something more out of our travels as long as we exert a little extra effort to notice all the colors and doilies that are out there, even when our expectations are lowest.

The photos alone are worth it, but the memories I have of those all-encompassing, full-sensory-overload experiences are gold, pure gold.

And hell, it will be even better if you have a doily to remind you, weirdo. Just let me know if you come across one that’s got an interesting color-scheme.

Colin Wright

Colin Wright is a minimalist, branding expert and serial entrepreneur. While running his blog Exile Lifestyle ,his branding studio Colin Is My Name and his e-publishing business ebookling. Colin travels the world (moving to a new country every 4 months), meeting up with amazing people, giving talks (to audiences ranging from tech industry professionals to college students to Catholic school girls) and hunting down new and interesting experiences.