Adieu

It's time for me to wrap up my Asia trip now.

I met so many people during this trip, each and every one of them played an important role in different stages of my life; people that I truly love and value. There are two important life lessons I learned from this trip is: 1) I am completely and unconditionally loved by my family and 2) Contrary to societal expectations back home, married life and single life are actually the same...different lifestyles with their own set of challenges and advantages.

My high school class 3 Sos 3

This trip marked the first time when I actually felt pangs of separation from my family. It manifested itself as an unidentifiable cramp. a very uncomfortable feeling in my gut that I wrote off to be the result of doing yoga with a relatively full stomach (hence the digestion problem). Before that, I'd usually be the first one to hop on a plane back to the U.S. I saw the U.S. as the place where I lead my life the way I want to lead it, as opposed to how my family or relatives or society wants me to.

The second lesson I learned had something to do with attending my 15 year high school reunion. I felt a little bit apprehensive at first....not just about being single in my mid 30s, which is uncommon among my friends back home, but also about the kind of judgement that might be passed on me based on what I have/haven't achieved. That's the thing about these reunion events.  I felt it myself: that sense of curiosity of how my friends turned out and what they look like now quickly turned into judgements like "Boy! is he huge now" or "What happened to her? she looks like an auntie!" type of superficial outer-appearance rating.

My family 

It turned out I was worrying too much for nothing. It felt wonderful to gather together with some friends, acting a bit like our high school selves, catching up to what we've been up to for the past 15 years. It was there I received sage advice from my married friends about how important it is to wait for the right person, that being single is way better than being with the wrong person.

Now as I prepare myself for the 10 day silent meditation retreat coming up this week (Lord, the things I get myself into when I'm on an impulse), I shall bring these two pearls of wisdoms along with me as I contemplate about where I've been and where I'm going in my life. My family's love for me will function as a protective shield, engulfing me in much needed warm and tender energy...especially when I come face-to-face with my inner demon (who I always imagined to look like Ju-On from The Grudge, with jet-black hair covering her gaunt and pale face).

With my long-time friends

Thank you so much for sharing this journey with me! I really appreciate you taking the time to read through this blog!

With love
Sunny

Top 10 Moments I loved most from our Jogja and Bali Trip

10. Visiting the ancient Buddhist temple Borobudur and Hindu temple Prambanan during our short trip to Jogjakarta.

Posing in Prambanan

 9. Dinner at Potato Head in Seminyak. A gorgeous place serving great food that's definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Bali.

 8. The near-death experience of swimming at Dreamland beach with Christina, Anya and Klara and making it to the shore to finally see the red 'swimming prohibited' flag placed near our beach chairs.

 7. Having dinner at an organic place in Ubud, sharing good food and silly stories with 4 of the most awesome traveling companions ever:)

 6. Having drinks with Navin, Anya, Klara and my brother Nelson in Jakarta after the welcome dinner we hosted for them at our parents' place.

 5. Doing Hot Yoga with Anya in Bali on the morning of our departure.

Buddhist Statues at the Borobudu

 4. The invention of 'fluffy' the guinea pig with Klara during our worst meal in a touristy restaurant during the whole trip.

 3. Watching the magical Kecak dance at the Uluwatu temple by the sea.

Kecak dancers receiving a blessing before the dance commences

 2. Sharing sex tips I learned from reading Dr. Ruth's 'Sex for Idiots' with the girls during our flight to Jogja. I tried to whisper but the plane engine was way too loud. So I spoke 'softly'. The guy sitting in front of us kept on looking back at our direction.



1. Watching my friends reading through their newspapers and guidebooks at the airport and feeling immensely grateful that I have them in my life.

Last brunch in Jakarta

An Indian, a German and a Ukrainian meets a psychic Buddhist nun

I’m taking a break from my holiday right now.

Five days after Navin, Klara and Anya had left, I’m still recovering from the task of being a host and showing them around my country last week.  It wasn’t just the pressure I put upon myself to present the best face of my country.  Switching from the American/Western direct, straight to the point way of conversing to the Indonesian roundabout way, which emphasizes more on etiquette and decorum than efficiency took on a daily basis took a toll on me towards the end of the trip.

Not that they were difficult guests or anything. In fact, their flexibility and openness really helped a lot in terms of easing the myriads of planning done during the trip. Accommodating to 4 (and eventually 5 with Christina who joined us later in Bali) different individuals with different interests could have been hell. But they made it easy. I think we all pretty much got to do what we wanted during those 9 intense days they spent here.

At my parents' house during the welcome dinner

Since it's sort of a family tradition for us to visit Buddhist/Daoist psychics to have our fortunes read, we decided it'd be an interesting cultural experience for our guests to meet up with the hottest psychic/clairvoyant in town. A petite woman in her early 40s, ibu (ibu is the Indonesian word for 'mother' or 'madam') Dewi looks like a China doll with her smooth fair skin and small almond-shaped eyes…a China doll with long curling fingernails and a 50-50 psychic ability to tell you what lies ahead in your life's journey.

By 50-50 I mean I believe that she does have some ability to read our energies, and see things that can’t be explained. There are some things she told me about myself that I've never shared with anyone. Yet, the rest she seems to fill out with some basic psychological profiling techniques; techniques she's mastered since she's met thousands of people who have come to her for all sorts of 'consultations': from love life, careers, whether one should start a new business, you name it. 

I won’t reveal what she told them as it’s private of course. I can share some things she told me when I visited her with my mom a few weeks ago. She said that I can finish my degree by late next summer, around August or September 2012 if I wanted to. She also said that it is written in my destiny to marry a divorcee or widower, someone around 10 years older than I am. And that I’ll have many kids (because apparently I love children)...at least 3.

My mom's sweet and sour por

The fact that it was the first thing we did as a holiday traveling group made the psychic visit particularly interesting. Here we were, 4 individuals, about to embark on a fun yet intense trip around Indonesia. Although we knew each other relatively well, there were personal things that Ibu Dewi revealed that, whether it's true or not, we probably wouldn't have revealed or discussed voluntarily to one another. It took us quite awhile before we stopped discussing the validity of some of the things she said to us. 

In front of the house where I grew up

After saying our goodbyes to ibu Dewi, we did a brief tour around Jakarta. We basically drove by some sites at the city center. On our way back to my parents' house, we dropped by the house where I grew up and where my brothers currently live. We had to rush back since my mom had organized a welcome dinner for our special guests. Among the dishes prepared, there were exotic items such as sea cucumber and shark's fin, and normal dishes like my mom's walnut shrimp with mayonnaise and condensed milk, and her famous sweet and sour pork. Later on in the evening, my brother Nelson took us out for drinks. That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip....seeing my two worlds coming together before my eyes.

The next day we left for Jogjakarta to see some famous Hindu and Buddhist temples in the area. We stayed for only less than 2 days there, since our priority was magical Bali with its gorgeous beaches and cultural splendor. The entry on Jogja is coming up a.s.a.p.

Anya and Klara looking gorgeous at the wine house