Month of new places

Tomorrow morning I (I'Ching) am off to Jakarta again. I dread this trip a little this time as I will be traveling alone and will be conducting a series of seminars on my own. It will be an intense weekend and when I get home on Sunday afternoon, I know I will crash! As I am growing older, I find it increasingly dreary to travel alone but one's gotta do what one's gotta do!

Having said that, I do look forward to traveling to two new places in the month of August - first to Korea where I will be attending a conference. It will be nice as I will not be doing any teaching but will be a participant. The highlight will be the main speaker of the event - Marva Dawn! I like her writing very much and look forward to meeting her. Of course, there will also be the bonus of authentic Korean food - which I love.

Then, on the second week of the month, I will travel to Bacalod in the Philippines. This time it will be for work. I know little about this place and hope to learn more about it before I go. Unfortunately, this work trip will be another intense one where there won't be any time for leisure sightseeing. The Student Missionary Outreach there has invited my boss and I to conduct some training seminars for the Christian students there.

Lastly, I look forward to my weekend away to Penang island in Malaysia (where I was born!) end of August. Every year since we were married, Brian and I have had the privilege to celebrate our anniversary out of town. The first year, we were in Bali, Indonesia (we extended our stay after a work weekend). Last year, we were in Kuala Lumpur. My sister was so sweet in that she arranged for us to stay at a nice hotel at a good rate and booked a fancy restaurant for us to dine on one of the evenings. She informed the maitre d' of the occasion and he served us the bubbly on the house. It was good fun.




Pictures from our last year's visit to Penang:
Left: Brian next to Francis Light - the founder of Penang.
Right: At Fort Cornwallis in Penang.

This year, we plan to visit Penang again. We were there last year but we did not make it to the beach - one of the main features of Penang - as we were busy doing all the other touristy stuff in the city. So, this time we will stay exclusively by the beach. I look forward to seeing some old friends and visiting some of my relatives there. Brian, of course, has been dying to return to Penang as he LOVED the nasi kandar (a type of Indian-Muslim curry rice dish) there. For weeks after our last trip to Penang, he would always be looking out for "kandar" wherever we went in Malaysia. Ahhh... Penang will be fun.

Meanwhile, for now I must return from my fantasy of the holiday as it's a month away and there is much to do till then.