Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Familiarity: I'm back!

This is a picture I took on the flight back to Kuala Lumpur from London yesterday night. I rarely take the window seat because it's made me feel claustrophobic, but for some reason, the seat next to mine was empty for the whole journey back so I was able to lie down and sleep properly on the way back. (but the jetlag is still here!) KL really took my breath away. I know this may inflict a good laugh to many Malaysians: 'KL is beautiful' - for the usual habit we have making derogatory joke about our own country even though we still love most of her - but really, it's beautiful.

For the past month, I have been travelling a lot, I mean, A LOT. Thank God and of course, my sponsor, for the opportunity. I went around UK,  south of France, Monaco and Switzerland for a few weeks, took thousands of photos, but have yet to go through them. I will try to blog about them and share with you, my dear readers, about the funny, ridiculous and awesome experience I have had thus far, but these posts will mainly, serve as a memoir for future myself, about my second year far far away from home, away from its comfort and familiarity.

Familiarity. There's never anything as comforting as that. Whenever the flight I'm in is taking off from a city, I always take a picture of the bird's eye view of the whole city, whispering 'thank you for the beautiful time here.' Or even if I was just transiting, like in Dubai, I love to see how this city that I have yet to explore. I saw Burj Khalifa, the Palm and  Atlantis hotel etc. I want to visit these wonders of man's wonder one day, if my transit is long enough. :p These overviews never fail to amaze me, but it's just big picture of the whole place, and did not mean anything too sentimental. But for KL, it's completely different. It's (almost) home for me. When we flew over the city yesterday, I definitely saw the Twin towers and KL tower. I'm sure anyone who knows Malaysia can recognize those buildings, but if you, like me, lives/stayed here before, may catch a glimpse of much more than those 2 iconic landmarks. If you look carefully, you can actually name many buildings in view. 'Oh, i know that building, that's so-and-so.' 'Oh yes, that's XXX! It looks so different from up here!' then it brings back all the memories. And what about those roads and the toy-like vehicles: Federal, LDP, NKVE...   You can see how the roads that normally look so straight when you are on it actually isn't that straight at all. Ah, the familiarity!

'We have landed at Kuala Lumpur International Airport...' the pilot announced after a smooth landing. I was overwhelmed by a sense of relief that I am finally back. Jeeyen and Jia Nyuk came to fetch me back home, with Pico the poodle and we were cruising on high speed, on the highway and roads that were once, all so familiar to me.

And it hit me, another year has passed. Thank God, thank God! for guiding me through the past 2 cycles. I know You will be there for me, for the many many years to come.

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