here and there

What are caught moments ? Is it the instance when your reality is altered? When you actually lose the concept of time and exist only in the moment? Is it the fleeting moment that stays with you through the years?

personal moments caught:
Standing, poised and ready at the train doors after waking with a rude jolt and rushing to collect your luggage so you can be ready for the 30 second allotted time for exiting the fastest train in the world, only to realize that you are not actually at a full stop but just slowed down. (Japan)

As you sit casually with a fellow traveler at your table after finishing a simple meal, talking of backpacking life, two young girls silently arrive off the street and quietly go around the table collecting food scraps into their bags like ghosts in your reality. (Guatemala)

You have just turned in from the highway after a long drive, entering a small game park and it is dusk. You drive slowly, and see a long pointy horn attached to a massive body. Not too far away, among the grass. As the Rhino slowly eats, you discuss with your partner how large it is and how lucky you are to see one so soon after turning into the gate. You watch it silently as it gets closer in the long grass. The moments pass, the Rhino turns away calmly, to be followed by a small pointy horn and chubby body of a baby Rhino. (South Africa)

You are led into a side street and into a large inner space that reminds you of a stadium or ice skating rink, but filled, filled with people roaming or sitting at round stations. Each station surrounded by its own colorful flags and smells that hang like a fog. Looking around you realize you have entered a feeding wonderland, helplessly wishing that you had more time, more days to experience each possibility. (Japan)

The dark skinned woman covered in light clothes smiles at you as you sit on the dirt ground smiling back. She gives the 2 year old boy covered in desert-dirt green leaves on long stems. He holds them tightly in his palm and with pure joy eats them. Two things come to mind, how differently western children would react and how the colors of the green leaves contrast so starkly with the dirt, the cloth and the desert surroundings. (Sinai, Egypt)