It Was Rare, I Was There, I Remember It All Too Well

How long will two realities be able to coexist before eventually falling apart and destroying each other?

Hello 2017! I know it's already April July August but it's still the first blog post of 2017. In just a glimpse, another year has passed. 2016 has been a year of major changes. A change from student to working adult, a change from being a carefree youth to paying bills, rent, student loan and learning how to be a functional adult without any proper user manual. Heck I even change jobs!

The world and everything is constantly moving and if you keep on holding on to the past or regrets you'll be swept away and always wonder why things can't ever be the same as they used to. Sometimes you think back, how can you be able to relate to someone so well but as the years pass by both of you slowly drift apart until both of you become almost strangers?

Facebook has the On This Day thing where you can see cringey post from the past. It's funny to see yourself grow and become so different than the sakai 5 years ago. I can say I have changed from an immature kid who wants to be a special snowflake in high school, to a passion driven youth leader motivated to create an impact, then to struggling engineering student who worries about not being able to grad but still want to skip class because cannot wake up, to a lost graduate seeking for the career path to follow and now to a social recluse who wants to meet and know more people in the new job but can't seem to know how to say a simple hello.

So back to where I am now. I've recently started a new job and I seem to forget how to make friends lolol. Sometimes the things I do, I can't really understand why I do it. For instance, I changed jobs because I got offered a new job which I don't know why I applied for. I randomly applied on Jobstreet although I was quite contempt with my current post. After that random application, I got offered and here I am now in a new company wondering why did I left my old company in the first place.

Prior to starting this new job, I went to Luang Prabang on a solo backpacking trip. I was hoping to rediscover the excitement I felt when I went solo to Jogja two years ago. Luang Prabang gave me a different experience and a new perspective on solo travelling. It was not a bad experience but it was not a great one to be honest.

Being a UNESCO site, everything in Luang Prabang is expensive D: I am a budget traveler although now that I have started working I can afford to splurge more, the Asian cheapskate-ness is too strong in me. This is why I felt so happy in Indonesia where everything is cheap and free. Most of the temples and pretty places in Luang Prabang requires entrance fees and it's not cheap. Surprisingly the items bought from the night market can be very cheap if you know how to haggle. The town is quite small so most places are in walking distance which is nice. I didn't get to see the blue lagoons of Kuang Si though due to unfortunate circumstances.

Although the trip was not how I expected it to be, it was still nice being able to go to Laos for the first time. I am not left with Myanmar, Cambodia and Philippines and I can complete my ASEAN list.

The temples are no joke. Really beautiful

The lanterns seem pretty and all but how to bring back

Thinking back, the place I felt most fun was in Jogja. I can't say it's Ho Chi Minh because I have spent a lot of time there and it's almost like a second home so it would be very biased. Next destination? Bromo, Kinabalu, Yangon, Hoi An, Chiang Mai, France and New Zealand! The last 2 would prob be at least 2 years for sis convo in France and 5 years before I hit the age limit to apply for a working holiday visa.

Oh wells, maybe the next update will be a year from now after my next random adventure!