Bangkok, April 30, 2012

We arrived to bangkok two nights ago. The hotel where we had reserved a room did not have anything for us and so we had to go to another one across the street.

400 bath (about 13 dollars) for both of us. no TV, no internet. It did include a fan and AC.

The heat is intense, i had never been to a city this hot. During the day is probably 36 degrees and the humidity is crazy.

(ok, now it Alma's turn cos Bane doesn't know what to say): so, we have been walking around and checking out different areas and seeing monuments. Yesterday we went to a beautiful temple called Wat pho which we both really liked. Serene quiet and with amazing sculptures and murals of religious subjects. Today we saw the grand palace which was impressive but wasn't too our likings as much as yesterday's temple. Again, the art is beautiful and the architecture is really breathtaking, but the combination of tourists and heat at the palace made it into a less enjoyable experience.

We both really like going up and down the river in the express boat to get from one spot to another. Today for dinner we went to an area that Arnika, my friend who specializes in Thai culture and spends long periods in Bangkok, recommended us. It was a long street on the opposite bank of the river with tons of food stalls, everything looks tastier than the other. I just go and say I want this and this and this and this. and then at the end we choose a couple of dishes and eat them. Really tasty, cooked in the street on the spot (and bane adds - inexpensive. So bane of him)

Tomorrow we are heading for the islands, to spend some time lying around relaxing and reading. oh and of course drinking juice. Bane really likes Thailand for all the fruit that is sold here: today we had banana shake, pineapple shake, cut pineapple, 3 or 4 cut mangos, sticky rice with mango, and dried mango. a bit repetitive I know but it's S favorite fruit...

that's it for now!

It is me again.

For Pablo:
Pablo, cuando estes aca, lo mejor es ir a los puesticos de la calle y comer alla. En donde los turistas consigues todo, pero es como estar en Berlin. Te metes por callecitas enanas y simplemente indicas con el dedo, alguinas cosas que uno ni se imagina, pero si hay cientos de personas comeindolas, es porque son buenisimas.

Mi pablo, nos vemos en tres meses por aca.

April 26,2012

Today is been a week since I arrived to Hong Kong.  I have so far met one colombian-candadian mining guy, and art dealer from Serbia, a hedge fund manager and a few of Alma's friends.

The city is really incredible, it breaths life and energy in a way that i had never experienced before. From Toronto  to Hong kong the difference  is striking. Quite and peace in Toronto compared to madness and fast pace in Hong Kong..what a wonderful feeling..I hope i get used to this.

Hong kong is very densely populated, a small island with hundreds of buildings everywhere, yet in the middle of the island  there is a very large green area, when i say large i mean it. I went for a 4 hours hike and only saw 4 people. Imagine this, you can be in the middle of the craziest street, and 20 minutes from there, you can be surrounded by birds, waterfalls and beautiful landscapes.

Alma gave me as a present a book with all the Hong Kong trails, about 200 kilometers of pristine and wild trails. My goal, to do all of them, starting in the border with China, going around the new territories and then arriving to our place.

I already enrolled in my Mandarin Classes. I will start in September. 5 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Tomorrow Saturday we are off to Thailand for two weeks, then off to Tel Aviv and then I will spend the next three months travelling through south East Asia  with Alma, then Juana and Ulf will come to join us and then Pablo and Andrea.

This is what i call my sabbatical- a few months before I start classes and looking for work.

Oh I forgot to mention that in Thailand we are meeting Sebastian and kristen, they are currently doing an intense yoga training around the world (15 months) and we decided to go and do some yoga ourselves.

Initially my plan was to do Muay Thai, what a better place to do some serious training with the real masters, however my back is forcing me to change my activity.

Testing 1...2....3...

My turn to write. It has been only a few days since my Sebastian finally joined me after this long long long time apart. There is something so natural about being together, even though everything around us is different: instead of a sleepy city, we live in a hustling-bustling city, instead of snow we are going to have typhoons, instead of a quiet park across our house we have a busy harbour with vultures flying above.

I can't wait to to all the adventures we are going to experience together, and never be apart for so long again.   

April 23,2012

Today I started being active. I went to the university to join the athletic Center, to find out about my Mandarin and executive education classes and then to the bank to open a bank account. I was not able to do any of them.

I need a letter from the immigration office stating my address and then I will be able to join the university and to open the account.

After the unsuccessful morning I went to Central and walked around. What a crazy city, people everywhere, the concept of personal space seems foreign here. I am currently reading a book about a guy who in 1986 travelled around China  in train and one of the things he says is that the Chinese need and flourish in crowed spaces..whether that is true or not, in Central you can see a lot, lots lots of people.

It is weird, my mind is still wired to think about business opportunities, is that a natural response from having worked in the corporate world for 6 years, or is this my normal state of mind?, I guess I will know in a few months, for now, I just have to try to let go and relax a bit, enjoy more of the experiences that this city has to offer and let things happen...

That is something I truly need  and want to work on.

Jet lag is kicking in so I need to go for a nap.

April 22, Hong Kong

After a 15.5 hours flight I am finally here. Its been 7 months since Alma left and now we are finally together.

 Alma was not able to come and pick me up as she was teaching, luckily for me the bus system in Hong Kong is very easy to use and so I got home  with no problems.

I did get the best reception I could have expected. It was raining, the type of rain that makes m remember the forests in Colombia.

I arrived to the house and Alma had prepared a beautiful surprise for me, balloons and notes. A typical Alma welcome. It is nice to be in our house together, to start this new chapter of our lives in Asia.

The next day we went for a very nice walk to Abeerden Park. A few minutes from the house and a place that makes you feel away from this crazy city. We walked for a couple of hours while planning our trip to Thailand.

I still can not believe I am with Alma. Wherever I am , here, there, as long as she is around, I am happy

Tinjaca, Sabado 10 de Abril.

Llegue a Tinjaca. La casa de mis papas, llena de cuadros, de Colores y de recuerdos de nuestros viajes. Guarapo y Tatu esperandome en la puerta. Cada vez que llego a Tinjaca siento una felicidad enorme, el campo, el verde,los animales, en Tinjaca me siento pleno.

Volver a la rutina de cuando vivimos en la reserva es algo que siempre extranio y Tinjaca me da eso.

Miercoles 7 de abril

Colombia

Como todos los anios cuando regreso, al acercarse el avion al Dorado siento algo en mi pecho.  Sera que esta vez me siento 100% de aca, o sera que como otras veces me siento mas y mas lejano…Solo ver a Eduardo esperando por mi en la salida internacional responde a esa duda en cuestion de segundos, ahi esta, Fergu, uno de mis grandes amigos, con esa sonrisa bonachona, con su sombrero y su bigotin de tres dias..ah mi fergu, que mejor  recepcion a Colombia. Son amigos como el que  me  atan  y me tendra atado a este pais por siempre.

Tomamos el taxi y a la casa, tratando de contarnos los ultimos eventos en cuestion de segundos como si supieramos que el tiempo que tenemos es limitado y por lo tanto que hay que aprovecharlo al maximo. Pocos minutos despues, como por arte de magia, caemos en esa naturalidad que solo anios de Amistad generan, ya no hay afan, solo dos amigos en un taxi charlando.

Esa noche vi a Cayo, Manu, Lorenza y Guadalupe. Guadalupe es la mas Chiquita, solo un mes de nacida (creo) y es preciosa. Ver a cayo de papa es algo que todavia no comprendo, creci con el desde que tenemos un anio y esta etapa nueva en su vida (los ultimos 3 anios) yo he estado afuera, ausente, por    eso es que todavia no me es facil entenderlo.

No conozco muchos papas jovenes la verdad, pero considero a Cayo y a manu, increibles, escucharlos hablar de como quieren que Lore y Guadalupe crezcan me llena de alegria, me recuerda en cierta forma a como nuestros papas nos criaron, Lore y Guadalupe tambien sonaran con submarinos en rios, asi vivan en un mundo de Wii y Google.

Tambien vi a Julio y como siempre hablamos de  temas que ponen a prueba mi capacidad de argumentacion, por alguna razon, con Julio, siempre uno termina en temas que requieren mas pensamiento y capacidad de analisis de la normal. El impacto de la tecnologia en los ninos, el Mercado del arte en Colombia y en el extranjero, todo eso combinado  con teorias del fin del mundo por explosions magneticas etc etc…una conversacion con Julio nunca sera aburrida y les aseguro, que requiere conocimiento previo mas alla de mera opinion empirica.

Al siguiente dia camine por Bogota..la verdad, se notan las oportunidades de negocios y la creciente riqueza, al mismo tiempo que el trafico, el desmadre y la agresividad de la ciudad.

El sabado me encontre con Juan y Juana, es la primera vez en muchos anios que los tres hermanos nos encontramos en Colombia. Fue genial verlos y compartir historias. Fuimos a tenjo, imaginamos negocios y como siempre, sin decirlo, cada uno se sintio feliz por la vida que cada uno escogio. Juan en Santa Marta, Juana en Alemania con Ulf y yo arrancando una nueva Aventura en el Asia.

Lunes 4 de Abril.

Hoy comenzo el viaje. Primera escala en Miami visitando a Gregorio y a Claudia

No lo veo hace 7 meses y hace falta la presencia de un buen amigo. En el tiempo que compartimos en Toronto desarrollamos una relacion fuerte, su partida fue una gran perdida para mi. Sin embargo y es algo que he aprendido y que todo inmigrante y viajero sabe, las amistades no se miden por el numero de dias que se estan con la persona, sino por la calidad de esos (tal vez es un contentillo, pero por el momento, quiero creer eso).

Al entrar a sus casa, fue como si nunca se hubiera ido, ahi estaban sus fotos, sus zapatos blancos, sus muebles, retomamos la conversacion como si nos hubiesemos visto el dia anterior. Mi siguiente dia en Miami camine por la ciudad, me encontre con mi Tia, mi tio y mi prima. Paula (mi prima) esta embarazada y esta preciosa, la he visto muy pocas veces en los ultimos anios, y me alegro cantidades el verla tan radiante. Me conto de su negocio de zapatos.

La segunda noche fuimos a caminar con Gregorio y terminamos jugando Ping Pong en un bar. Me gano 6 de los 7 juegos que tuvimos. En otras palabras, el Ping Pong no es lo mio.

La parada en Miami era una parade importante. Desde Hong Kong ver a amigos cercanos sera bastante mas dificil asi que el llenarme de energia y de memorias es algo importante.

Al mismo tiempo, re encontrarme con Claudia (mi tia) fue genial, charlar, conocerla, contarle de mi vida, de la vida de mis pas, mostrarle fotos de tinjaca, de las ovejas, de la vida tan distinta que hemos llevado y que sin embargo nos une como familia. Conocer a Alvaro Jose tambien fue increible , escuchar sus palabras de anoranza sobre Colombia, sobre el campo, sobre el olor de nuestra tierra me lleno de nostalgia y de alegria.

Miami fueron dos dias cortos, sin embargo me dieron energia para meses.

Who are we and why the flying Monkey

Alma is Israeli, I am Colombian, we both met in Toronto and now are living in Hong Kong. Alma is doing a post doctorate in Art History and I used to work for a bank.

Why Flying Monkey..well, many years ago while I was living in Costa Rica, monkeys were part of my daily life, their freedom, speed and apparently (from our human perspective) fun life made me always think of flying monkeys whenever a change was approaching to my life.

8 months ago Alma got an offer to continue her research in Asia, a unique opportunity and one that pushed us to change our comfortable and stable life in Toronto. We decided to leave our comfortable and brand new two bedroom apartment, our dog who now has the best life even in Tel Aviv, my job et etc etc.

Was it an easy decision, not at all, specially for me. After 6 years of working with a company that had been in many ways very generous and a positive influence  in my profesional  life , a team that truly challenged me and with whom I developed strong friendships , to say  bye to them was not easy.

I talked to a number of people, some told me it was the biggest mistake in my life, how could you leave, you have a promising career, look at the economy, to have a job now is a bless..others were, go, dont think about it, there is only one life, jobs, there will be many, opportunities like that...few...

I call it my ping pong period..every morning i woke up thinking..what am i doing..leaving all this..then a few hours later..of course i am doing the right thing..finally one day my dad told me something that made  me achieve the balance I needed for my decision.

Sebastian, tu no te acordaras de los 5,10,20 anios que trabajes para una compania, te acordaras del anio que viviste en Hong Kong con Alma.

And that was it, I realized and decided  that my life, now linked to Alma's was going to be an universe  of memories and that we had been given the chance to start building them in a place we never thought would be part of that universe; Asia.

And so, with the chance came the decision, lets leave the known for the unknown, lets do what we want to do, lets not wait for when we have moneyor our careers are fluorishing .lets just grab the moment and go.

One thing that is important to know if that we both in a way come from traveling families. My parents traveled for many years and always pushed us to explore and see the world, after my mom's third cancer (she is 100% ok now)  I realized that really, there is only one life and that it can be shorter than you can expect.  So in my short life I have lived in 7 countries, between working, studying etc. 

Alma so far has lived in 4 countries. So in a way we are used to move.

Once the decision was taken, the planning part followed. For the ones who know me..well..I am a planner, not the type of planner who wants to know where and how I am going to get to a place..really, in that part I am terrible...I am a long term  planner...how are we going to live once we come back? that is my specialty if you can call it this way.  So it took me 8 months to organize things, save money, rent the apartment,  define objectives for the trip and simply..be ready for a return.

So after all that, Alma Left last september and I left on March 31,2012.

This blog is to tell our family and friends about our trips and experiences. 

Sometimes I will write in spanish, others Alma will write in Hebrew.

The Monkey is flying now.