What A Fortune Teller Told Me

That I’m currently obsessed about how to make money in my own way, and how to make a lot of it. (I am)

That it’s not here yet, but I don’t have to worry about it.

That I lead a charmed life, full of travel, a life dictated by and dedicated to travel, and it will be this way for the rest of my life.

That I’m awaiting a life-changing transformation, which starts now, but “Life isn’t bad at all right now right? It’s pretty good? It gets better.” (Yes, and I’m looking forward to it)

That I will go everywhere in the world and see many amazing things.

That I should go to church more.

That I should avoid China.

That I should avoid, as best as I can, the east.

That if I absolutely have to go to China, to absolutely avoid the east of it, because you ren hui hai ni. Sounds like a recipe for a Taiwanese soap opera, so I’m not going to mess with it for a while, especially also since she said hai ni de ren shi yi ge ni ai de ren. I swear the Chinese language makes everything sound poetic, even while you’re having your murder/downfall/coming-down-in-the-world foretold.

That I should avoid the east of Singapore, too.

That my brilliant streak of good luck and charm in life extends itself in every way, BUT in the east. And so to avoid swimming in Pasir Ris, East Coast, Changi, for example. I don’t really swim; I wade. I didn’t know how to say “wade” in Mandarin.

That I need to eat less salty foods. (My sodium intake is… pretty scary.)

That next year I will meet a man who will love me but it will be impossible to be with him. “Probably because he’s married,” she said. (“Probably because it’s a man,” and “probably because I’m not available,” was what I was thinking.) Is this fortune-telling business gender-specific?

That “everybody loves you… but. But.” And she didn’t say anymore. I didn’t want to hear the end of that sentence anyway.

That West Asia, “The Middle”, and “South Asia”, is where I need to be right now, not China; apparently that’s where I’m going to trip all over myself while I’m there by the sheer choice of wonderful things waiting for me while my career peaks, while if I went to China I’d be stuck in a rut I can’t get out of. (I didn’t say anything at all about travelling, or about going to the Middle East, so the fact it popped up — and so much — was pretty amazing. That’s what she does for a living, right?)

She then let me know she was done by taking out a cotton bud to dig her ear with, and yawning a bit. (This woman has a reputation for being very ling; there was an endless queue of people after me!)

I’ve never really believed in any of this, but now I’m curious. Especially since The Plan, all along, was to build my independent photojournalism career in China. It hasn’t happened, time and time again, it just didn’t work out every time I tried to go. And I ended up deciding to base myself in a part of the world I’d never, ever thought of.

In about eight days I will get on that flight to the Middle East, and the plan is to pop into India often, take bus trips to Oman over the weekend, travel all over the seven emirates, and head west… to Syria and the likes of it. West Asia, the Middle East, South Asia.

So I’d better be tripping all over myself getting there, and it’d better be gold. Because this is where I want to be, on weekends: Suqutra, Yemen.

It’s still too early to be feeling butterflies in my stomach, and there isn’t much to pack. But you know that feeling you get when the stars are all beginning to connect? That’s sort of where I am right now, and it’s pretty nice.

P.S. Twitter is awesome. Two nights ago I’d twittered about how I was reading the Lonely Planet UAE, Oman and Arabian Peninsula, and a few minutes later the author of the UAE section twittered back! She runs a very cool blog, and I’m glad I found her: she makes it sound like I’m going to feel right at home in that city. That edition was the rare Lonely Planet that I liked, though I’m sure I’ll like the LP Vietnam when Tym finishes with it.

P.P.S. I don’t think I’m going to a fortune teller ever again — that was my first time, probably last. I don’t think I want to know that much. Takes the fun out of it, don’t you think?

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