Monday May 30 and Sunday May 29 Twice Lived – Home to Canada

And this brings us to the end of our almost five months of travel.  We caught a flight out of Hong Kong departing at 0:30 a.m. Monday May 30, and then we got to live Sunday May 29 all over again!!! 

The flight was fairly bumpy all the way, but the approach coming into Vancouver was absolutely beautiful; flying low over the snow capped mountains and rivers, then the coast line, then we did a complete circuit over Vancouver, LionsGate Bridge, Stanley Park, Second Narrows, etc. Truly stunning. We arrived before nine pm so flight time was just over 11 hours. Pretty good going!! The fact that we sat in the airplane for about 30-45 mins waiting for the corridor to the deload platform to join to the plane (there was a functioning problem) made it that we disembarked at the estimated time for arrival!!

During the flight, apart from “snoozing”, I watched two movies and thoroughly enjoyed them both: Fathers and Daughters - a very moving film about a widowed father bringing up a daughter, and Brooklyn which was a great story written by Nick Hornby and based on Colm Toibin's novel "Brooklyn".

Alanna came to the airport to meet us, and it was the best feeling in the world to see her smiling face and hold her in my arms!! How I missed those hugs!!! Her Dad did too!!

And now, we are adjusting to the time difference, washing clothes, and, of course, finishing up my blog!! The best part about coming home? Sleeping in my own bed, not having to fiddle with adapters to get chargers, hairdryer and straightening irons working, and not having the atmosphere filled with exhaust fumes and smoke from burning the rice fields!!

It was an amazing trip. We saw a lot, learned a lot, and did a lot. There was no best part. It was all the best with a few major highlights such as: getting to be a “roomie” all over again with Sue and Jim; swimming with the sea lions and dolphins at Baird Bay; sand boarding on the dunes in Fowler’s Bay; sharing the beach in Cape la Grande with the kangaroos;  hiking up Mount Kinabalu in Borneo; seeing all the monkeys in Sabbah; the consistently beautiful weather in Bali; the amazing aesthetic pleasure of the temples, countryside, villages, art work, and rice fields in Bali; all the special moments we had connecting with friends from previous trips and Canada along the way; and finally Rumah Sawah Kita and the pleasure of sharing that with goods friends from Canada and Hong Kong.  Namaste!