Closure

Last night, just as I was about to fall asleep, I was again lost not knowing where I was. The realization that the trip was over shocked me back to consciousness. I woke, not believing that all the anticipation of the amazing adventure slipped through our fingers just like that. It soothes me to look through our photos savouring all the moments. We did not expect ourselves to enjoy so every piece of the experience. We did not expect ourselves to not want to come home. Perhaps, mother earth has welcomed us home every place we have been. We are thankful for the experience and look forward to coming back to this blog years from now.

Click here to view an album of photos from the trip.

Home

Good to know that they miss us.

9 August 2011 - Day 80

We are at the airport, for the last time in this trip.

My heart is heavy from saying goodbye. The days begin again when I see people on the street who look like those I miss.

Besides feeling sad from leaving family, this isn't really how we expected to feel at the end of this journey. Perhaps the definition of being home has changed while we were away.

8 August 2011 - Left Malaysia

The day we left Kapalai for Kuala Lumpur, poor erik got sick and we ended up sitting outside the little tawau airport for hours. He spent all day the next day in bed while I hung out with my parents and waited for my brother and Mani to arrive. Luckily, erik was well soon enough and we spent a nice day going around the city the next day.

The best part had to be watching my parents being so excited about eating durian and all kinds of tropical fruits.

4 August 2011 - returning to earth tomorrow

We spent the last two days treasure hunting in the dive sites near the resort. Those days were more relax without needing to get up at 5am. All the dives including the night and sunset dives were all about being very slow to look for creatures difficult to see because they are either hiding, camouflage or very tiny.

Our favourites are the frog fish that is so colourful and looks almost plastic! They stand completely still in a place that has their exact colour and lure other fish to their mouths with a bone hanging on top of their jaw that looks like a shrimp.

I also love those fishes so tiny that is about the size of a finger tip.

An other wonder here, the thunder and rain only come to us when we sleep. Last night and many other nights, our dreamy head could hear the sky roaring so loud and the wave banging so strong that it feels as if it would swallow the whole chalet. But when we woke, all was calm. A fellow diver suggested that they pay to have bad weathers coming out only at night.

2 Aug 2011 - big fish

What can top lots of turtles and sharks? Fish with gigantic head!

In the beginning of our last dive, while we watched a huge school of jack fish swimming passed us, all the sudden, an even taller wall appears with Jack fish that have heads the size of our body. As if that wasn't enough, mingled next to them was a school of equal sized Double Headed Parrot fish. Our jaws dropped even with our regulators in place.

For the rest of the dive, there was a nice current that carried us, just by floating, all kinds of scenaries were paraded before our eyes.

The only bad thing about all this? I stopped being the photographer cause I am too lazy/tired. These mobile shots are all I got.

1 August 2011 - Sipadan flying experience

Sipadan was as amazing as Eda said. It has a wall that drops to 500m deep. I love to look down and think about how I am able to float looking into the abyss. There were so many fish and beautiful corals all the way from shallow to deep water. We saw lots of turtles and a bunch of sharks (don't worry moms, they were small sharks and they generally ignore people). Lots of schools of small fishes hovering over corals going in and out of them.

My body always feel like I am afloat. A few more days till we land.

p.s. yes! We got Sipadan again tomorrow. Yay!

31 July 2011 - Sipadan tomorrow at 5:30am!

Eda, we saw a few big turtles today!! They swim so easily haha. Also saw Cuttlefish so big! I didn't know they get that big. And squid and lionfish and colourful snails! They look so funky. And huge schools of fishes. Hehe did I say we had fun. =)

30 July 2011 - safely arrived the ocean

31 days ago, we left the desert that met the Atlantic ocean. Today, a boat took us to another paradise where our room rises out of a reef in the Pacific ocean with funny fish swimming underneath it.

We had our short orientation dive. I was quite nervous but happy to report that everything went well. Tomorrow at 8, we head out for some real stuff.

p.s. when we were having tea after dinner, we saw a small white ray swam under the platform. I suppose we can get used to that. =)

28 July 2011 - leaving for Malaysia tomorrow

The most prominent feeling of being in Hong Kong is a constant full stomach. Tomorrow, we head towards the deep sea for some out of the world excitement. Hopefully the no. 1 typhoon won't cause any detour.

26/7/2011

26 July 2011 - Thank you

Thanks my parents for creating and nurturing me. Thanks all the people who are so nice to me.

25 July 2011 - tea time

How come uncle erik is in Hong Kong too?

23 July 2011 - good morning Hong Kong

22 July 2011 - on transit to Hong Kong

After 2 weeks of Bhutanese food we wanted something different. So, last night, we went for spicy Korean food at a Korean guest house in Kathmandu. The kimchi was actually quite authentic.

When we wake up tomorrow, we should be in HK. Yum...

21 July 2011 - scv ready

After two weeks of Buddhism, we feel peaceful in our mind and fatter in our belly from the big plates of rice and curry. We have learned about 10 Bhutanese words and can't seem to enjoy dinner without spicyness.

Tourist visa in Bhutan requires that you travel with a guide and a driver. It does take the fun out of figuring things out on our own. At times, we are so well taken care of and provided with conveniences expected of foreign tourists that we lost the perspectives of the simple lifestyle here. It helps me to remember that we are in a country with one airline, which owns a total of three aeroplanes.

To my surprise, despite the countless rituals and traditions that are so important to them (e.g. it is sinful to go the counterclockwise around relics), Bhutanese are very easy going and not uptight. They definitely enjoy having guests very much as we have been invited to have tea and buttered rice crispy everywhere we run into people (e.g. one family celebrating new house built, one family having a ritual performed by the monks for the mother's recent death, one family just because we were there... etc)

Our favourite time was when we were in the farm house and chatted freely with the driver who usually don't say much. And our favourite hike was yesterday's hike.
Today, we flew away to Katmandu and the journey was well concluded with the overdued view of Himalaya. Mt. Everest stared straight at us from atop clouds and fog.

(Less than three weeks from home, two days ago when the weather was gloomy and we ended the day early because of rain, we had a small breakdown missing home and our cats. We learned something about ourselves.)

20 July 2011 - last hike in Bhutan

Last and the most fun, wet and photogenic hike to the tiger's nest temple climbed 900m. We were grateful that technology created hiking shoes that kept our feet dry and non-slipped even when it seemed impossible.

The rainy weather and constant shifting fog only made the cliff hanging monastery more mystical. To Bhutanese, the historical event of the famous guru's manifestation riding a tigress and flying to this location to subdue the demons made this place extra sacred. To us, we wonder how anyone ever built anything in the middle of a cliff back in the 9th century when, even today, to get burning woods, we saw monks carrying cut up tree trunks in their back to bring back to the monastery.

Bhutan

Bhutan is probably most known for its isolation and its Gross National Happiness index. A relatively young country and many aspects of it untouched by the rest of the world, Bhutan has the benefit of learning from the mistakes from the developed countries and taking on practices that are in the fore front. Having a small population who is immersed in collectivist beliefs and, under the leadership of the kings, have enjoyed peace for the past 100 years, the people have some level of trust in the government that seems rare to find elsewhere.

When the forth king introduced democracy to the country, it was not welcome, people preferred to be taken care of by the monarchy. Three years since the first election, Bhutanese seem to appreciate democracy, but some, such as our driver, still favoured monarchy. I thought to myself, these people are fortunate to have kings who have the foresight to protect them from any deterioration of the kingdom. My Chinese history study taught me that peaceful monarchy can only last so long.

The challenges of Bhutan is the delicacy of many issues that require the skill of one who walk the balance beam. Happiness is a noble goal but how it can be achieved under democracy when the country has little resources and increasing exposure to new needs that brings comfort to some but difficult to reach all is a question that the current government must aggressively seek answer to. So far, it appears to be on the right track, with free health care, 11 years of free education and other policies such as to provide clean energy to the villages, 80% of the population is reported being happy with their lives.

Being here, most things we saw are relatively rosy, safety is never an issue, a lost cellphone across regions will find its way back to the owner (which sort of happened to us =P). The atmosphere of a small village carries us everywhere from small town to the capital. At the same time, we observed contradictons in the culture that are perhaps innocuous or perhaps are underlying issues that represent subconscious mental conflicts. One of such is the ban of killing animals in the country because of the deep root of Buddhism, yet the country import all its meat already killed...

Thimpu skyline