Gulliver’s Travels
I can only imagine how smart I would be if I hadn’t lost so many brain cells to blunt force trauma
I’m tall. Six foot six in the states and former British Empire. Just under 2 meters in the rest of the world. In the US and most of Northern Europe, this is tall, but usually not “stop and stare” tall, though I occasionally get that too.
In much of Europe, the structures were built from a time when most of the people were shorter, which has led to some amusing moments, and the occasional lost brain cell from banging my head into things.
In Asia, I am a freak of nature. People stop and stare. They ask me to take pictures with them (very politely). I was pulled out of the security line in the Singapore airport because I was too tall for the cameras (they did not want me to duck or squat). My feet hang off just about every bed.
The Thai masseuses were truly mystified about whether this would work.
Of course, I am a highly extroverted giant person, so mostly this is an opportunity to start a conversation, get a laugh at my expense, and hopefully leave a positive imprint of America in a world still reeling from the last several years of a very different America than they had come to expect (and usually admire).
In most places also makes us unmistakable as locals. In the Singapore and the Philippines, that has meant an incredible amount of scrutiny of us as we walk in and out of buildings and immediate attention of the authorities if we bend or break any rules (like using the gym as a visitor and not a resident or playing cards on the roof of our Airbnb condo complex).
Several weeks of this gives me just a small inkling of what it must be like for the people, who face that scrutiny in so many of the places where they live and work.
Of course I have been fortunate enough to find a few places and images that make me feel at home along the way.
