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The Power Of Perspective

December 6, 2009 //
1

“Better to walk ten thousand miles of road than to read ten thousand scrolls of books.”

-Chinese Proverb-

I have always believed that I have a wider perspective than most people, especially those of a similar age group as me. I feel such because I consider myself an avid reader and a pretty good conversationalist. I have always tried to mix around with people of different age groups so I could learn as much as possible. I felt that it was crucial that I learn more, given my young age.

It might sound a bit over-praising, but I actually truly believe that I have a pretty wide perspective of the world.

I realized how wrong was I.

During my travels the past 5 months (3 months in New Zealand and 7 weeks in Burma), I realized how important is it to move around more to learn more things. This few months had been a real adventure, having to adapt to a totally different culture, weather, people. It has broaden my perspective in a way that I haven’t really clarify myself.

In this 5 months, I have been to a developed country (NZ) and an underdeveloped country (Burma). I could see the vast difference in thinking and in the infrastructure of the country. I realize how much this had changed the way I look at the world.

This is what I have roughly learn t, in a nutshell:

  • Every society has it’s own culture. Respect it if you’re going there to visit/backpack.
  • You have to learn to trust other people, even strangers.
  • You have to disregard certain things that are being said by others, especially those who haven’t travel to some place but keeps telling you that is very dangerous to do so.
  • The most beautiful places are those in which you have to travel real hard to enjoy. It might be a long journey or tough travel conditions.
  • What I learn t during this past few months wasn’t so much of the beauty of places, but more of the beauty of cultures.
  • Learn to let go of the need to control things at times. There are times when you should just learn to just let go the need to control or plan. Just learn to live in the moment. Don’t worry so much on the need to have a definite plan of what to do. Just learn to trust in things.

Just a random rambling. Had a sudden mood to ramble. I am random at times.

Categories Mindset, Thoughts, Travel

Flying Off

October 14, 2009 //
0

Leaving for Burma. Flight in around 4 hours time.

Just finished all my packing. Wouldn’t be carrying anything that makes me contact-able. Sounds pretty fun to me. Just immerse myself into the experience.

Nothing much I could think about at the moment. I guess life just unfolds. Life’s more exciting this way, without having a definite plan for what will happen.





Will hopefully try to take more photos.

Take care.

Categories Travel

Leaving For Burma

October 11, 2009 //
0

I am leaving for Burma in another 3 days. According to plan, I’ll be there for 7 weeks.

I have no idea what brings me there. There is just something within me that wants me to be there. It is something like an intuitive nudge within or something. I guess I am just following my heart. I have no idea why and what takes me there, but I know for a fact that I would learn something from there.

I have been trying to figure out why I would want to go to a place like Burma. I have heard ideas and opinions about Burma, mostly from people who have not been there. It’s weird hearing from people like that. They have no experience about something, and yet they form concepts around them. Mere guesses.

I wouldn’t know what to expect at all from there. I wouldn’t know how to communicate with them during my time there. I wouldn’t know what to expect at all during my 7 weeks stay there. I will be attending a meditation retreat there and that’s about it, no plans at all after that.

Part of me thinks that that is actually what I am after: a sense of not knowing how things are going to unfold. Just living life as it is, spontaneously. No plans. Just living life by the present moment. It would really seems like a sense of adventure to most people, but that what I feel that have been hidden inside me for a pretty long time: a desire to really try something completely different, especially from my normal day-to-day life.

I go there with no expectation of what it will be. With no perception of what things would be.

I go there with no experience of the past. I would be there just as a brand new person. Totally free from all “concepts” about who I am and what I should be.

I realize how much so many people depend so much on these “concepts” to make themselves feel more valuable or better about themselves. We are all filled with so many concepts of ourselves. These concepts stem from events that happened in the past or the way how people have come to defined us by their way.

This represents a form of limitation. This limitation is there because whenever we conceptualize something, we limit something. If we were to conceptualize ourselves, we are basically limiting ourselves.

We have to free ourselves from the concepts that are holding us back. These concepts, while at the same time give us a sense of worth and value, also at the same time bind us which in a way limit ourselves.

In actual fact, we are all beings with unlimited potential. We fail to realise our unlimited capacity and potential because we are all so busy chasing “concepts”, because we are more concerned with the value concepts give.

I have been thinking about my trip the past few days and feel that this is actually the reason why I’m off to Burma. Just another rambling.

Categories Thoughts, Travel

List Item 1: Visit New Zealand And Enjoy The Scenery

October 8, 2009 //
1

I think I really over-do this.

8th July 2009 till 6th October 2009. To say that I was only traveling New Zealand was a real understatement.

I still remember when I first started off on this journey to New Zealand. I remember how I was carrying so much in my luggage (most of them are irrelevant items, which I don’t need). I remember how I felt that it was as if there was a sense of homecoming. (I was born in NZ)

Fast forward 3 months and I am already back in Malaysia. How fast it has been. This has been an amazing journey for me. Especially love the scenery for which I experienced here. It has been said that to look at the beautiful scenery of the world, you would have to visit this three countries: New Zealand, Switzerland and South Africa. I guessed I have already seen a third of the world’s natural beauty I guess. =P

I feel so grateful to be given this opportunity to really enjoy this wonderful environment and scenery at a young age. I hate to say this but I think that many people residing in NZ actually take the beautiful scenery for granted, because they see it almost everyday. They might not even know that the scenery here in NZ is actually very beautiful.

I thank my parents for giving me this opportunity to visit NZ. Never realized how much I miss them until I am here. I was only here for 3 months, so I can only imagine how much more I would miss them if I were to travel abroad for my studies like some of my other friends.

I would give a rough summary of what I have done in this previous few months here.

Arrival on the 9th of July: Picked up by Kenneth and Charlene. Was already amazed by the scenery the moment I stepped out of the airport. I can’t imagine that even on the first day, we already created a havoc with the car.

First month or so: The first month or so was simply adjusting to the environment for me. I didn’t have the urge to really travel around NZ straight away, realizing that I have tons of time to travel. I spend more time researching and reading about what to do here instead. However, I managed to visit a few places as well. Places include Rotorua (my birth place), Taupo as well as Turangi. My time during this first month was roughly just getting used to the culture and the weather especially. I still remember the temperature on the first night was negative 2 Celsius, a pretty tough change to accept when you come from a place that have a weather in the thirty Celsius.

I was just plainly reading a lot during this period. I was basically moving between Auckland and Hamilton during this period.

Second month: I did the skydive and the bungy in Taupo during this period ( That’s two other Life List done!!! woohoo). Totally loved the experience that it gave me. Everyone should definitely try it if they have a chance. That was the highlight for the second month. The rest of the month was just the usual chilling, reading and running kinda stuff. It might seem normal, but it is actually what I love. Just getting to feel what I enjoy during this period. Plus, I get to do the two activities that I love doing most; reading and running. What more can I ask for?

Read tons. Books from Deepak Chopra to Marianne Williamson to Malcolm Gladwell. I didn’t really count how many books did I actually read, but I could have easily have read around 30 books during my 3 months period.

Did a fair bit of running as well. Decided to enter the Sri Chinmoy 12-Hours Self Transcendence Race (another Life List Item) which was on the 3rd October. Trained and ran pretty hard, hoping that I could  actually run the whole 12 hours. My training during this period was easily 100 to 140km per week; pretty tough considering that my fitness base wasn’t really there. But I trained hard tho, hoping that I could actually work my way through the 12 hours. ( I would provide a race report soon.)

Third month: This month was practically the same from the previous two months, just reading and running tons, except that I traveled much more than the previous two months. Travelled to the majority places in South Island.

The journey was such: We flew from Auckland to Queenstown, and started our journey up north. We spend our first two nights in Queenstown.Queenstown is a beautiful place to be at. Love how it feels like is a small town and with beautiful scenery and all.

From Queenstown we headed to Mount Cook, Lake Tekapo, Arthur’s Pass and Christchurch. We then sat a train from Christchurch to Picton and then a ferry from Picton to Wellington. The ferry crosses from the South Island to the North Island.

From Wellington, we drove to Taupo and Mount Maunganui (one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen).

I would try to post on those places which I really enjoy in another post, before I leave for Burma.

These are just some of those pictures which I have taken during my trip.

RIMG0184 (2)RIMG0145RIMG0088RIMG0143RIMG0102RIMG0043

I would like to grateful thank the Yews and Lais for all the help and kindness in letting me stay and learn there. They have done tons of good to me. I wish them all the best.

Categories 101 List, Travel
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