It's a strange thing for a traveller say.
It's a strange thing for a learned person to say.
It's a strange thing for somebody who rails against conspiracy theories should say.
But it's true.
The more I travel, the more I'm convinced the world is flat but not in the way that you think, not in the scientific sense. I don't think its held up by turtles or you just fall off the edge of the Earth should you sail far enough in any direction.
But go as far in any direction and still stay in the same place.
Churches turn into mosques.
Mosques turn into mandirs.
Mandirs turn into temples.
But it's still the same place.
Palaces lived in by kings.
Palaces lived in by emperors.
Palaces lived in by pharaohs.
It's still the same place.
A patch work of the tastes of the rulers at the time.
Rows and rows of concrete boxes line the streets.
Retail ports crowned with sun-bleaches signs.
Some in disrepair.
Some manicured.
Some abandoned mid-build.
Some abandoned for whatever reason; conflict, bankruptcy, death.
Walls once painted long surrendered to the elements.
Narrow tree line lanes dotted with fruit sellers and artisans turn into soaring most ways with whizzing cars.
Tesla's become beaten up cars with matted paint.
Matted paint turns into decorative tuk-tuks.
Decorative tuk-tuks turn into swarms of bikes and mopeds.
I could be talking about anywhere outside of Europe, America or Australia.
The centuries of trade and millennia of immigration means everywhere has been influenced by its neighbours.
Travellers would return with ornate doors for their homes that were coverted by their friends.
The OG influencers.
Instead of likes and payment for clout, it was food, art, ideas and innovation.
But empires happened. And the industrial revolution happened.
Mass production and logistics started to flatten the world.
We were all drinking tea from Ceylon, eating chocolate from Colombia and wearing cotton from America.
Then cinemas happened. Pumping images of sleek cars gliding down neon streets to fashionable apartments with buttoned up people.
What was once for the elite was discarded and passed down to the masses.
Then TV happened. Showing the world American diners and British pubs.
What was once for the masses for one was now for the masses for all.
Then social media happened. Showcasing every crack and corner of every persons, home and street.
What was once for film crew luvvies was now in the palm of everyone with a smartphone.
Suddenly any cafe, swing or wall could garner millions of views and hits.
A silly one minute video could mean queues outside your business for days.
And since tastes, tribes and trends are all the same, every cafe, restaurant, shop, hotel are all the same.
From the wooden pillared structures that n every road and coast that serves sourdough and lattes while wailing out Bob Marley to the hotel pools with their afternoon aqua-aerobics.
It's all the same.
But so is every day life.
Change the language on the signs, you could be anywhere.
Because the world is so small, it's flat.
