Travel

Joan Didion realized in her 28th year that: “ It is distinctly possible to stay too long at the fair.” 

Good things never come easy, and love is the best of all things, think about that. 

Be patient my darlings!

But still, fuck COVID!

"A long-time confidante of the rain and snow, I am ninety years old. The rain and snow have weathered me, and I too have weathered them."

Maybe it is true, most of us don't walk in Bali, but when we do, it certainly does something to you, it moves you, in the little alley, in the deserted land, in a small indomart, in a little girl's smile.

Perhaps home is everywhere.

And everywhere is home.

Watching the dark slowly disappear and that golden layer appears above and becomes larger and larger, I would have this warmth rise within and that I know, as small as humans are, it is still a wonderful thing to be alive and to be here, wherever you are, to have this life, to walk the path, to make mistakes, to learn from them, to laugh, to cry, to dance, to love, to over and beyond. 

The very first time I came to this magical island was in the name of love. And it has been in the name of love all along.

I take long walks along the river and park, write poems in my head and on the paper. Time has slow down here. Shops close at 4. I cook dinner and bake cake (things I can only imagine myself doing when I'm 37 and with my three children ). I often have trouble remembering where I was, and that’s okay too. 

And on the last Monday in March 2019, I got to live that memory again. I was 9 years old again. And the weeping willows and the boats in the rain, they are all coming back to me.

As a matter of fact, they never left.

As the boat started to head back home at full speed, I took a final glance of the fascinating island over my shoulder, the sun started to set into the coconut trees and somewhere by the port, a group of girls was singing a sad old Chinese song.

"In that place wholly faraway..."

On this beach, by the vast Indian Ocean, we three never felt more of Charlie's Angles. Except maybe our Papi is way more exotic than the original Charlie!

I will always remember the day I crossed the Capilano Bridge, twice.

She understood now that coming back to the past can't really trick the time, when she goes back home, where there's the future, she already know what to do, and that's something she learnt from the past, a past she took a 13 hour flight for, and it was absolutely necessary. 

I don’t remember anything from the menu, but I got IDed by the waitress and not gonna lie, that made my night:)

Little did I know that an eye contact 5 years ago on the street of Shanghai would lead to a friendship of a lifetime.

If you are planning your next trip, make it to Copenhagen if you haven't been. Make it to Copenhagen even if you have been before, some places are just worth going back again and again, I already have a picture of me sipping virgin something in a leafy courtyard by the canal in a sunny spring.

I never thought that I would get a sunburn in England, unheard of right? Or is it just me?

I'm happy, as heavy as it is, that history now is history, we remember and carry on with life, and hope for a better tomorrow. Or, in this case, a better brand new year. 

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

That night in my dream, I thought I too, have already lived here for many, many years.

I'm so ready to save the file 2018 in a folder that I won't open for a long long time and ready to put some of the shattered pieces back together in the coming year, with hope.

I left the desert for about 5 years now, but the life I had there, forever has a soft spot in my heart.

If the London Eye made me almost cry, then the London Dungeon just made the 27-year-old me burst into tears!

Apart from my weak city legs that caused the delay, I was also just taking a moment and soaking in the beautiful scenery along the way. It's just simply breathtaking.

The two things in life I revere the most are the mysterious nature, and the invisible time.

Even though “never say never,”  I’m almost sure I will never return to the magical island that is called Bali. 

My love for travel came early and it was influenced by two people: My father and Echo.