This is a story about how my family became connected to a New Zealand family 54 years ago, and about my long-awaited visit to Auckland.
The Maiden Visit to Auckland
The Detour to Danau Seran
On our way to our planned weekend getaway of Kandangan from Loktabat Utara in Banjarbaru, we made a detour and stopped by a popular lake spot called Danau Seran, or Lake Seran in neighbouring Guntung Manggis district, just 10 minutes drive away. The water there is said to be a beautiful green-blue hue and I was curious to see it.
Searching for Bekantan in Banjarmasin
I created a 10-minute video documentary, showcasing my first encounter with the proboscis monkeys (bekantan) of South Kalimantan, and also my interview with the passionate lady who runs the bekantan rescue center in Banjarmasin. Watch the video then read my story.
Reviving myindo.com
It has been a long time since I left myindo.com, since 2008 to be exact. It was a personal travelogue website I ran in the 2000’s on my passion for Indonesia, a close yet different country to my native Malaysia (hence the chosen domain name).
Then I lost interest to write about my travels. My interests shifted (I took up running and started a blog on that). I entered my thirties, and got caught up in the rat race and life in general. The age of social media came, stayed and consumed my energy and attention, leaving me mentally fatigued.
But a recent humble yet eye-opening trip to South Kalimantan in January 2018 has inspired me to reboot this server and lease it a new life. I wanted to write about visiting new places again, share my personal anecdotes, stories and even videos (I enjoy making them). This inspirational quote by a Moroccan scholar particularly resonates with me:
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
Even if no one else reads or views this blog, at the very least, I would have left a digital footprint behind for my old age where I can read and recollect where I went, and what I did. I know we have Facebook for all that these days. But nothing beats owning your own personal website, and coming from someone who grew up as a teen coding HTML using Notepad in the mid ’90s, it’s still a novelty and something I treasure.
This time my scope will be broader. I’ll cover places and topics that fascinated and left an impression on me.
Here’s to a whole new edition of myindo.com – I hope you’ll have me again, old friend. Let’s do this.