It was a hard wait, kind of a labour of love when you reach this final point and you think back about the last 18 months and perhaps an inkling of the next 18 months ahead... then you just pause and shake some sense into your already fuddy head to regroup and focus.
Crash landing wasn't really as serious a case as many a backpacker would want to lead you to think. I personally think it's quite over-rated really. I suppose I can relate to the dire need to dig into a good old bowl of home-cooked ramen but to wear that bewildered mask for the next 14 days back home? You got to be kidding me.
Fact is today is Day 7 post-getting-all-emotional-watching-the-landing-strip-from-the-shaky-aeroplane-camera. The way I had been eating my way through was quite indecent. Last count read the list as:
Claypot chicken rice
Fried keow teow (big YUM)
Steamed chicken rice (with the beansprouts and chilli, the works basically)
Soya milk (kurang manis)
My MIL's home cooked curries and dahl
All the Deepavali's dishes and sweets
"Wat Kai" Kon Loh Meen
Pork ribs stewed in preserved yellow bean sauce and wanton noodles
Wantons (of course!)
And my herbal chicken soup is brewing in the kitchen while I plot my next move to hunt down the best Bak Kut Teh, pork ribs Penang prawn noodles (contrary to what you may think, it actually works!), some lemon prawns on the sides...
This is just the beginning. Fact is coming home was just a simple magical transition along the great long road of life. We made friends in a day that felt like sharing a lifetime, we had tasted all the honka tonka, ponky wonky, some pukka tukka but coming home was - this time - that tad more special in a sense that we began appreciating the finer details. From picking up nuances in faces, streets, traffic and home, it almost felt like we had to go everywhere with our cameras once again (and we intend to). Speaking with families and friends did feel a bit like a public conference to promote world peace and demystify ill-formed conceptions regarding some of the countries that we had visited and others that we planned to (e.g. said in shrilled befuddled voice "why would you want to visit Pakistan?!" and an incredulous "but those Afghans and Iranians deserve it, right?!"). It can be tiring to walk the balance tight rope of neutrality given your first response is to close off the breathing channel of the said person and other potential naysayers that poo-paaed on your 'great journey' and accused you of showing off (gasp!).
Fact is returning home comes with it its own basket of emotions, happiness and snakes and vipers. But it sure felt darn good to spread eagle on your own bed and admit it, you know that feeling! You probably will get sick repeating that same story but it's nothing beyond some clever organisation of time and place to ensure you don't drive yourself crazy first sharing your moments of glory to a different audience every time before they start to remind you that you actually had repeated that one... no, it's the other one they are demanding for this time, and before you know it, some will actually try to hijack YOUR story and tell it as it was in THEIR interpretation and heavens forbid, start to tell you how it's suppose to be.
Ah, the joys of homecoming.
In between mashing my tongue on the blissful muddy mix of peanut butter and Nutella on my home brand white bread, I sit here wishing you another happy day.
Because it's plenty of it ahead. Our adventure has just begun and I invite you to jump on because this wagon is just refuelling!
