过年咯！🧧

先和大家拜个年：祝愿大家新年快乐，身体健康，万事如意！

这一次的回家过年看是简单不过对我来说意义还是很重大的。也不知道从几时开始，我都很珍惜每一次能跟家人一起过年的机会。年轻的时候，会很理所当然，不过随着年龄增长，我越来越觉得，一个家可以非常和谐，非常和睦的好好过年是一件很不容易的事情。

我这个家庭也经历了不少事情。这两年来在这个家里的某些成员也在他们的个个生命的领域经历不少的风风雨雨。我自己也不例外。不过，很多时候人就是要经过什么大风大雨才会学着坚强不屈，冒着风雨也要直奔到下一个避风港。如果生命里少了天摇地动，我们也不懂的体会风平浪静的境界。

这一两年来，在工作里认识了一位三十多岁的一位同事。起初认识他的时候，他人也不大爱说些什么，不过认识和工作久了，他也慢慢的跟我多说了他私人的事情。我也慢慢的比较了解他。但是，他这人啊，还是很年轻。虽然工作上得到上司的重用与信任，就常常得罪同事，同事们也常常误解他。我有时就常常劝他，做事情嘛，点到为止就好，有时我们做人不一定要是赢的那一位。他一直都无法体会和了解我跟他说的这番话，总觉得，我真的能这么cool的过生活吗？

后来，在工作上，他与上司和一些领导人发生了一些大问题，还开了个调解会议。我自己也在那会议里。经过了这些事后，他才领悟到了我一直跟他说的话。最近还非常感激我教会了他很多处事待人的道理。

其实嘛，我也不是什么达人，只是人生中经历不少事情也让我领悟到了一些小道理。如果我没有经历过我所经历过的事情，我也没有可能是现在的我。我现在对生活的要求简单得多了。我不需要 Marie Kondo 来教我要丢弃什么什么的。其实，过人生就是那么的简单。该来都会，该去的都会去。命里有时终须有，命里无时莫强求。我们都不是什么大人物。只要好好把基本做好来，让自己开心一点，给自己和心爱的人多一点欢乐，那就好咯！

好吧！再一次祝愿大家在新的一年里，天官赐福，欢欢喜喜，开开心心！

阿福

有时侯…Sometimes…

I decided to take a walk down Yaowarat this weekend. I was thinking that since Chinese New Year is around the corner, I should brave the heat and haze to feel the beats of the festivity. Though the Yaowarat does have some resemblance to the Chinatown back home in Singapore, I feel that the sight and sound of Chinatown Bangkok is more authentic than those in Singapore. I see area Chinese community thriving in this corner of a big city. Yaowarat has formed a unique feature in the heart of a city that is fast losing its flavour and smell.

Sometimes, the mess and the disorder add much flair to the place and diffuse a strong fragrant of human spirit and the will to survive in a kingdom that is predominantly Thai. Perhaps, as a foreigner in this land, that is the reason why coming to Yaowarat always allow me to connect with my root and my culture as an ethnic Chinese.

I guess this will be more so during a season of reunion and family celebration like the New Year. I am looking forward to head back to Singapore to usher in the Year of the golden boar together with my family!

阿福

Starting it again

Starting it all over again in 2019.

My personal blog has been dormant for a long period of time. This year, 2019, I have decided to start it over again: mainly to document my journey and to reflect on the last, perhaps, 10 to 20 years of my life. To be honest, I have been living rather peacefully and happily in Thailand. I have spent the past few years journeying through the less known corners of the Kingdom of Thailand. What I can do here is to make an attempt to document all these travel accounts here and at the same time to showcase the beauty of this Kingdom.

For now, it suffice me to start the year with this first post of the year 2019, announcing my return to this blog! I will have further updates in times to come and I pray that I will still have your support.

The picture I attached here with the post is taken during my recent trip to Chiangmai. I managed to traveled to the highest peak in Thailand, Doi Inthanon and this was one of the cafes I visited during my trip. News and music pretty much tell about certain dimension of our world. We are often connected with the news we received every day from the different social media platforms and music as well. A modern society is dead without arts and music. We need the arts and music to keep our souls alive.

I guess that’s all for now.

Have a nice weekend and see you soon!

Ah Hock

思乡

夕阳无限群鸟飞

挥之不散思乡绵

路上不见绿草青

只见异土遥不连

By Chang 

Its all about relationship

I recently chanced upon a video clip from Youtube and that kept me thinking for a while. The video is about a university lecturer addressing his students. It was a science lecture and he was telling them that the basis of everything, or to be more specific the basis of life is relationship. Everything on this planet earth is all about relationship; one thing links to another. The mysterious thing about life is how all these things are interconnected and how, to a large extend, can’t do without each other. He explained that when God created the universe, He first created the physical elements that support life, such as light and heat, water and the air. These elements are then interconnected and eventually giving breath to other life-forms, such as plants, vegetations, living creatures and finally humans. After He created man, He found that it is not good for him to be alone, therefore He created a companion for him, the woman. There, humans are again interconnected through various kinds of relationships. When the man and woman fell from grace, this first relationship and the whole interconnectedness of things in the world changed.

Although shared from a biblical perspective, I find this whole idea of interconnectedness very mesmerising. The fact is we are more connected than we are divided. We need each other more than the fact that we are separated. And perhaps, we are more similar than the differences we thought we have.

Some years ago, I went through a very dark period of my life and I decided to cut myself off from the people around me. I did not physically isolate myself from them, but what I was going through greatly affected my relationships with them. I felt disconnected and life was very miserable. I went away for a period of time and started traveling from Thailand to Vietnam, Malaysia and eventually to Bhutan. In Bhutan, I found a very different kind of connection. I was connected back to nature, back to the mountains and back to the valleys. I was connected back to the living streams that gave life to the trees in the forests and the creatures that inhabit the ground.

In Bhutan, I was surrounded everyday by the Himalayan mountains and everyday I walked through the woods and passed through the rivers and streams. Each step I took and each breath I breathed in, I was making renewed connection with creations and rediscovering the lost connection. It was when I reconnected myself with nature’s energy, I realised how small and tiny I was in all of these networks of life; this vast interconnectedness that we are all living in. My Bhutanese guide often told me that Bhutanese do not see themselves as superior to nature, neither do they see themselves as inferior. They see themselves as all part of nature: the trees in the forests, the rocks in the field, the fish in the streams,  the creatures roaming in the woods and the humans that inhabit the ground, all are part of this whole networks of life and breath. We all breathe in the same breath and received heat from the same Sun and enjoy the coolness of the same moon.

When I came back from my retreat in Bhutan, the first thing I wanted to do was to restore my relationships with my family and friends. With the renewed relationships, I set to make things in order, set the wrong right all over again and slowly build up my strength to face the challenges of life all over again. We never have to live in defeat and despondence if we understand how interconnected we are and how we can draw strength from one another.

Chang, from Bangkok

The Morning Breaks

The best thing about waking up

With you by my side

To continue the dream I dreamed 

Last night! 

The Meaning That Disappeared (Kwahm Mai Mee Hai Bpai)

I love this song by Nat Sadaktorn…. 

ลมหายใจ เคยมีความหมาย เพราะเธอ

Lom hai jai koey mee kwahm mai pror tur

My breath once had meaning because of you

ยิ้มของเธอ เคยเป็นเหตุผล ให้ฉันลืมตา

Yim kaung tur koey bpen het pon hai chun leum dtah

Your smile used to be the reason I opened my eyes
(*) แต่ว่าวันนี้ ตอนนี้ ความว่างเปล่ากำลังเคลื่อนไหว

Dtae wah wun nee dtaun nee kwahm wahng bplao gumlung kleuan wai

But today, now, empiness is moving in

ความอ้างว้าง เข้ามาปกคลุมหัวใจ

Kwahm ahng wahng kao mah bpok kloom hua jai

The loneliness enters and covers my heart
(**) คิดถึงทุกๆ สิ่ง คิดถึงทุกๆ อย่าง

Kit teung took took sing kit teung took took yahng

I miss everything, I miss everything

ความรักที่เลยผ่าน ความหมายที่หายไป

Kwahm ruk tee loey pahn kwahm mai tee hai bpai

The love that passed me by, the meaning that disappeared

คิดถึงทุกสัมผัส คิดถึงเวลากอด

Kit teung took sumput kit teung welah gaut

I miss every touch, I miss when we hugged

เมื่อฉันไม่มีเธอ ตรงนี้ ไม่รู้จะอยู่เพื่อใคร

Meua chun mai mee tur dtrong nee mai roo ja yoo peua krai

When I’m without you right now, I don’t know who I’ll live for

อยากหลับตาแล้วหาย…ไป

Yahk lup dtah laeo hai bpai

I want to close my eyes and disappear
ห้องของเรา เคยมีความฝัน สวยงาม

Haung kaung rao koey mee kwahm fun suay ngahm

Our room used to have beautiful dreams

รักของเธอ ยังคงเก็บไว้ ตรงที่เดิม

Ruk kaung tur yung kong gep wai dtrong tee derm

Our love is still kept in the same place
(*,**,**)
ลมหายใจ เคยมีความหมาย…เคยมีความหมาย

Lom hai jai koey mee kwahm mai koey mee kwahm mai

My breathe used to be meaningful, it used to be meaningful

人静

夜深人静

路上的车

逐渐的

逐渐的少

去。听着

吉他小曲

我一个人在厅里

等着

黑夜

歌剧

一场没有

台词只有

两个人的

戏。散场

后也不会

有任何

掌声

或续集

水月 | Moon in the Water

I would always buy this flower wreath from a mute girl selling them near my area. The flower always reminds me of how temporal our world is and how everything will pass away like the snow after winter would melt away. They will change their state of being and become water, flowing into the streams and rivers. Everything good or bad thing is just a for a moment…nothing is eternal and nothing is unchanging. 

我经常会向在我家附近买花的哑女买这种花圈。它们常提醒着我，这世界的所有事与故都是暂时的。所有的一切都会向冬天的雪，随着春暖的到来，溶化成液体。它们会流向河川，流向大海，以不同的形体存在着。一切好事或坏故都不会长久，永恒是虚幻的，一切万物都无常。

Forgetting | 忘

Growing up is not a problem…forgetting is! 

The Little Prince