The final chapter of my spiritual journey begins

I'm back from Kuala Lumpur, and the purpose of these past 4 years of my life is coming to me. I started off four years ago for Hong Kong because something was missing in my heart. Ancestral roots? Cantonese? Losing my virginity? Living independently? I looked far and wide through wind and rain, night and day, through the most amazing of foods and through the worst burning-liquidy diarrhea squatting in the dirtiest outhouses you could imagine, and through it all I didn't even know exactly what I was looking for...although for some reason the question of spirituality began to burn inside me, at first ever so lightly, but then with growing intensity that tired me so...but still drove me back to this hemisphere.

It'll all culminate at its apex at the end of this month when I finish teaching here in Bangkok, when I go at the end of this month to India for a pilgrimage to the sacred Bodhi tree where Siddhartha Gautama first attained enlightenment. The sight is the most important pilgrimage sight for Buddhists around the world. There I will take a 10-day meditation course amidst a backdrop of several monasteries from different sects of Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana, and representing nationalities such as Tibetan, Burmese, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc. I'm also going to Darjeeling, known for its tea leaves, and famously sits at the bottom of 4 of the world's 5 highest peaks. Something about meditating at the base of the top of the world seems fitting for this final leg of my journey (final in a spiritual sense...I'm still going to travel a little afterwards in Thailand and a final stopover in Hk before going back to the US). More details to come later about this trip. I'm already pretty excited for it. For now, to keep up with picture posts, here are some pics:

1. Me and my girlfriend on our way to Pi Pi island.
2. So many fish there!
3. Bowling for Bangkok
4. Multi-culti Kuala Lumpur. "Pharmacy" spelt in Malay, Chinese signs, and a Muslim restaurant.
5. Air Asia is the only airlines that likes to put their stewardess's faces on their planes. Speaking of "Amazing," 2 Malaysians were the winners of the first Amazing Race Asia, not to mention the first all-female team to win ever.