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Now in as much as my wife and I have been
blessed with
the opportunity to travel in the last 20 plus years that we have been
together, there are some trips that stand out more than others. This
particular trip to the USA has become significant in our lives for a
very good reason. It was a trip that met our mental, spiritual and
emotional needs.
Now I frequent the US in my business trips and in the
past Geok Lee got to follow when the timing was right and if the trip
was a quick one. This time, all our kids were still at school and she
was even working in her Interior Design job and here I was planning a
trip that would include a jeep drive over a thousand miles in a trip
that would take us away for 3 weeks!
Korean Air had a good offer that provided a free
stopover to Hawaii where I know my wife would love to visit our two
daughters. Further more, we got a long lay over in Seoul to have the
opportunity to visit the city that we've heard so much about but had
never been. So after doing all the necessary arrangements for our
kids and work, getting help from quite a number of our friends for
rides and house sitting, we found ourselves off in the air for what
became the journey of journeys!
After a pleasant day in Korea visiting both the famous
palace and their street market area, we looked forward to meet our
daughters studying at Brigham Young University Hawaii (BYUH) in Laie.
Wow how much they've changed since
we've only missed them for about six months or more hahahha! Wow,
her hair is now blondish, ohh she's put on weight with the American
diet, geee... the sun can really give them a tan!!!! Hawaii is such an
ideal place for Asian students wanting the Western exposure yet has a
friendly familiar culture of the island people that makes it such a
conducive and seemingly safe place. Fei is doing her second year
in Psychology while Su is in her first year of a Theatre major in
preparation for a Performing Arts major later.
It was nice not only to meet our daughters but to meet
the other Malaysian
students that could share the Indian tit bits and
Malaysian packet food stuff when we opened up the large suitcase in the
students lounge area! Lets see, we met Kenny Lim, Jeremiah, Brian
Chan, Priya, Claire and several others. We even ran into an old friend
from Singapore named Wally Chew who is now married and living in
Hawaii.
It was a journey of journeys as we got to meet with many
old friends again. In Hawaii, we made a trip to Honolulu and managed to
meet a
Japanese couple who used to live in Kuala Lumpur, the Sawadas. Its so
nice to meet old friends again after so many years apart! Naotaka
Sawada had just finished 4 years in the University of Hawaii completing
a Phd in Economics. They took us out to a nice lunch and
brought us up to a peak where we could have a birds eye view of the
Honolulu side of the
island.
Besides old friends, we made new ones as well. We visited the home of
Linda and Dennis Kim, parents of a student Su had dated. When we got to
the mainland, we met with many more Friends.
It was also a journey of doing Family History and Temple Work
for Geok Lee's ancestors. The spiritual experience was as
exhilarating as the Sights and Sceneries
that we enjoyed.
We came home happy and fulfilled to continue life's journey with
enthusiasm and great joy!
Family update as at Dec 2003
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