There’s something about the chaos and cacophony of Asia that I can’t help but love. The relentless swirl of sights, sounds, and smells colliding have had a hypnotizing effect on me since my first visit in the fall of 1988. It’s not just the intensity of it – it’s the vibrancy, the immediacy, the overwhelming now of it all. And yet, I have also always had a divided relationship with Asia. Too much of it, for too long, can leave me frayed at the edges, yearning for cold, calm, silence. But after being immersed in the serene calm of Sweden for way too long, the pendulum has swung. Now I desperately need Asia.

I crave the sensory overload of bustling streets, the kind where you have to weave through a sea of motorized humanity, where every corner is alive with the sizzling of street food, the chatter and laughs of food vendors, the cries from sidewalk hawkers and street hustlers. I also miss the layered aromas of Asian cuisine – the tangy zest of lime, the punch of chilies, the earthy sweetness of soy and garlic blending into something almost transcendent. I long for the smiling faces of strangers, those fleeting moments of warmth exchanged in crowded markets or tiny street cafés.

And the weather – oh, the weather. The kind that wraps you in a blanket of warmth, an enveloping heat that makes you feel alive and allows you to shed layers upon layers of clothing of cautiousness of convention.

I yearn for the plentifulness, for the kind of life where fruit spills out of baskets, where spices fill the air, where every glance reveals something new for me to explore, something vibrant to experience. An abundance of abundance, if that makes any sense

There’s a part of me that thrives on the intensity, on the chaos that makes you feel so small yet so connected to something unmeasurable, forceful, unstoppable.

Sweden’s calm is restorative, yes, but now I’m ready to dive headfirst into the storm of life again. Asia is calling me – its colors, its noise, its flavors, its sweat. I’m ready to embrace the pulse of a my world that refuses to stay still.