Back from Khmer.

As usual, it feels awesome when the plane touchdowns at Changi airport and I know that I'm less than an hour away from my comfy bed and home. It's been an awesome 5 days at the land of Khmer - Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang have been three contrastive places, but still, I'm (always) happy to be back.

Made a realization this trip, and that is, the only times when I go to and get out of bed early are when I'm traveling! That's supposed to be good for me right? Maybe I can use that as an excuse for more traveling :p

While on the buses where long hours were spent on the roads, I managed to finish a first reading of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. And it's managed to make me feel mildly flustered, with the recurring themes of dreams (both the sleeping and aspiration kinds), spirituality, beliefs and love. Out of my disbelief of most things spiritual, I barfed a few times in my mind when the author described scenarios which had a lot to do with religious faith (which is totally inappropriate, I admit and apologize for it). And yet, at the same time, I felt as though I could identify so well with the dreams Santiago (the protagonist) had and some of the mental states of mind that he went through in the book. Something that Paulo wrote about love in the novel also struck a chord with some stuff that's been on my mind recently; stuff that a new friend talked to me about a few days back, and that's made me start to re-think the path that I've set for myself awhile ago. 

It's made me think that perhaps I shouldn't be basing my life for the next few years so rigidly and irrationally on just one path, and not offering myself any alternatives. Who knows, like Santiago, I might just fall head over heels in love with someone whom I'm going to meet in the desert; someone who will not get in my way of living life to the fullest.

Okay, best to stop before this turns into some mushy stuff. 

Pictures coming after I've finished clearing them of the multiple dust spots. Sensor/lenses are dirty as hell.