Yee Peng Floating Lantern Festival : Prayers of Hope

“Do you believe that someday it wouldn’t feel like this anymore?” My good friend, Paul, asked me the other night as we were drinking in one of the reggae bars in Chiang Mai’s old town. 

“Honestly, I don’t know. I just hope, at the end of every single day that passes by, that tomorrow it will be better.” 

One day in Chiang Mai spent riding around the old town, we passed by places familiar and so nostalgic. Memories of the places we walked by, benches we sat on, and feelings from the last time I was here. I let my guard down, and just gave in to my emotions. 

It felt refreshing to talk to a good friend about this, someone who knows me well. And how, somehow, I felt understood because he’s also a traveller. 

I’m here again, back on the road, because I want to make new memories. Travel doesn’t necessarily fix anything, but I just hope to find myself again, or at least me at my best, doing what I love most. 

On Year 26 and Turning 27

The Big Trip
October 2011 - February 2012

My 26th year was a year of highs and lows. It was a year filled with travels, dreams fulfilled and humbling realities. 

Sunsets : Vivir Cada Minuto Intensamente

Mandalay, Burma

"Live life to the fullest. It's the best way. Live every moment intensely. Because life is too short, and the moment comes when we're going to die, and we'd have wished to do so many things we didn't. That's why we have to enjoy every moment. One must enjoy life. Try not to acquire so many things, but instead have experiences. Accomplish everything you want to do, no matter the effort that it deserves. Life is too short and one must relish it." – from departures. Season 2 : Chile episode 

And in Spanish, a language I’m slowly falling in love with. Especially the line “Vivir cada minuto intensamente.” or “Live every moment intensely.” Try saying it out loud. Don’t you just love the word intensamente? I do. :) (Thanks to my friend Paul for the text of the Spanish translation.) 

Viva la vida a concho. Es la mejor manera. Vivir cada minuto intensamente porque la vida es muy corta y de repente, llega el momento en que nos vamos a morir y habríamos deseado hacer las cosas que no las hicimos. Por eso, cada minuto hay que disfrutarlo. Hay que disfrutar de la vida. No tratar de tener tantas cosas, de adquirir tantas cosas sino que de tener vivencia. Lograr todo que queremos hacer. No importa la fuerza que esto se merezca pero vale la pena. La vida es muy corta y hay que gozarla.