"Sea of Otherness"

If there were a phrase that best describes the feeling of awkward self-awareness one has at the realization that you're in a truly foreign place, it must be Carl Hoffman's description of his being planted in a "sea of otherness" while traveling on a ferry in Indonesia where white men were curious but scarce commodities. His book called "The Lunatic Express" is a must-read for all Urban Nomads!
First of all, I think that the desire to discover the world in its unperturbed, untainted, unspoiled state is at the heart of everyone who has had that peripatetic flame spark inside of them. Well Carl took that a couple steps further than most. He didn't want to be a tourist or anything like that. He wanted to be a traveler. To be among the poorest, the destitute, the least affected by society. He wanted to experience the "deathtraps" of overcrowded ferries and unsafe airlines. He wanted to feel the sweat of his neighbors lying side by side like sardines on linoleum platforms while hundreds slept on boats with little more than small portholes for air. In fact the book's subtitle conveys his goal: "Discovering the World ...via Its Most Dangerous Buses, Boats, Trains and Planes."  What Carl Hoffman did was decide to seek out the most statistically dangerous places in the world and write about them.  It makes a great read.
There is a strange and odd relationship I have to this Lunatic Express. The name "The Lunatic Express" was first given to the railway in East Africa that once linked Uganda to the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa in Kenya, or British East Africa as it was known then. It was thought to be the ultimate folly of imperialism by its detractors --  to think that the colonialists could build such a rail system in the midst of warring tribes, marauding lions, ravines, famine, lack of funds -- you name it. But actually the Brits did it. It's a feat of ingenuity and persistence.  But there is another reason for the name and I came to know why on a very personal basis. A visitation, you might say. Perhaps by a "lunatic." In the early 1980s my sister and I had the pleasure of going on safari in Africa. We were told we must take the train from Nairobi to Mombasa. It would be unlike anything we had ever experienced. Well, if truth be told, one detail had been left out: that the train was also known as the "Haunted Train to Mombasa." The building of the railroad had a storied past, including the massacre of some 500 Maasai and attacks by warring Nandi. Many felt the Brits had no right to tear across the land of the tribesmen. It was controversial then and it has remained a bit of a mystery since. To this day, stories of dead Maasai workers on the train haunting passengers, of bells ringing in the middle of the night, of windows rattling and unscheduled stops are commonplace. All I can say is that night was unlike any other…and it certainly was lunacy!