Jan. 1, 2011-Asia: An Ocean Away
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
Thailand Memento
We spent six years in Asia and it kind of crept up on us; once it was strange and exotic, next it was familiar and comfortable; our home.
Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Bangkok and Phuket,Thailand; how we miss those places where we sailed and traveled so often. How we miss the friends we made there, the places there where we used to eat, the stores there where we used to shop. Asia was like an old coat that you wanted to keep wearing forever.
It doesn’t seem real that it is as far away as it is. It seems like just yesterday that we were there and that we could easily return to those old haunts if we wanted to. It seems like the eighteen day passage across the Indian Ocean wasn’t real, just a dream. The ocean crossing is compressed in my mind into just an instant, a single image of huge waves and the white wake of our boat stretching out behind us across vast, open, ocean. It does not seem like the three week passage from one world to another which it actually was.
But then we realize that Asia really is an ocean away. We really came a long distance in those eighteen days and it might as well be to another planet. We are not in Asia any more.
We are in Africa.
Because, just as the Philippines was our first taste of Asia, Mauritius is our first touch of Africa and we now will look forward, not back.
Forward to another new world; one that already seems strange and, if not exotic, is certainly different.
But it is our future. Asia is our past.
Today is the first day of a new year and as I tear off the last page of my Chinese calendar I realize that just as there are no more pages on my Chinese calendar, there is no more Asia for us.
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
December 2010-Chinese Version
There is Africa.
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius
Thailand Memento
We spent six years in Asia and it kind of crept up on us; once it was strange and exotic, next it was familiar and comfortable; our home.
Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Bangkok and Phuket,Thailand; how we miss those places where we sailed and traveled so often. How we miss the friends we made there, the places there where we used to eat, the stores there where we used to shop. Asia was like an old coat that you wanted to keep wearing forever.
It doesn’t seem real that it is as far away as it is. It seems like just yesterday that we were there and that we could easily return to those old haunts if we wanted to. It seems like the eighteen day passage across the Indian Ocean wasn’t real, just a dream. The ocean crossing is compressed in my mind into just an instant, a single image of huge waves and the white wake of our boat stretching out behind us across vast, open, ocean. It does not seem like the three week passage from one world to another which it actually was.
But then we realize that Asia really is an ocean away. We really came a long distance in those eighteen days and it might as well be to another planet. We are not in Asia any more.
We are in Africa.
Because, just as the Philippines was our first taste of Asia, Mauritius is our first touch of Africa and we now will look forward, not back.
Forward to another new world; one that already seems strange and, if not exotic, is certainly different.
But it is our future. Asia is our past.
Today is the first day of a new year and as I tear off the last page of my Chinese calendar I realize that just as there are no more pages on my Chinese calendar, there is no more Asia for us.
wingssail images-fredrick roswold
December 2010-Chinese Version
There is Africa.
Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Mauritius
posted by wingssail at 11:12 AM
.jpg)
1 Comments:
Memories. Sometimes, when I sleep, the memories seem reality. They aren't better then today, but they make us what we are. We can't go back, but tomorrow is only a day away from being our next memory. You two have a lot of really special memories and will make a lot more. I can't wait to read about them.
Gosh, love Jan
Post a Comment
<< Home