Empire Builder

I can't believe this is your third birthday that I missed, now that I'm currently in Malaysia and you are already back in Czech Republic.

I enjoy so much our travel to the hills of Laos earlier this month, although I carried that bag :) Thank you for the tweet memories and I am looking forward to be with you again. I love you.

It feels great to be back in South East Asia. I love the vibe, the food and the unabashed optimism for the future.

I am being graciously hosted by a couple from Argentina and a girl from Poland in a convenient location in the city.

The flight with Egypt Air was full but thankfully uneventful. I'm telling ya, Egypt Air has the best pilot in the business. The touch downs were example of perfection.

I manage to make friend of a Malaysian engineer currently working in Cairo, who still bewildered with the way of the Egyptians. Fear not, it will take only a century to understand them.

[4:57:15 PM] Dody Gunawinata says: how is pnom penh
[4:57:39 PM] Martina says: just ate a frog and saw mekong
[4:57:45 PM] Martina says: otherwise looks very provincial

I will be in Laos in a week's time spending time with Martina. She's been in the region crisscrossing Burma and Cambodia for work. International rescue work is a pretty grueling work, with lots of travels and mosquitoes. On the other hand, you get to see a lot of new places.

I'm looking forward to the break. It has been a tough 6 months at work, but it comes with the territory. Things are ups and downs, the critical part is to remain calm and steady.

Also I'm excited about the idea of spending more time in Czech Republic in the fall.

Marta in Nias, Indonesia. We spent 2 days in Surabaya for my Sister's graduation  - taking the advantage of her vicinity while being assigned to work in Aceh 2 months ago.

That was a long blog vacation (6 months). Yeah, I had to clear up my head and got excited about blogging again. I am now.

I was thinking yesterday about Obama's quote of The Untouchables' "bring a gun to a knife fight". I mean that's also known as Powell's doctrine ("only go with clear object and overwhelming use of force").

Obama's decision to forgo public financial funding is a sample of that doctrine. He will fight unfairly, raise unfuckingbelivable amount of money and defeat John McCain in the November election.

Wow, what a year.

It's been a year of up and down and up and down and up. The most important thing is that I have managed to go home to my family after 5 years of absence back in March.  I also still manage to be in my sweetie's good side for most of the year :)

This blog has been silent most of this year, in contrast of my prolific blogging in 2006.  I have been linking news and articles mainly on nomadlife.org. What I am alarmed about this year is that I start sensing a lack of original thinking of my side. So much time this year is spent on ducking down and putting the hours in to get more traction on the velocity of SilverKey in the Middle East. I don't mind the work but the lack of creative output is something to be worried about. I didn't manage to read that many books either. I think I read about 12 books in total this year. In contrast, I used to read 8 books a month back in  the heyday of Chicago.

I will have to get into the habit of pondering again.

Life in Egypt is quite tiring. Gone are the days when I spend the weekends traversing the desert on horseback. I only managed to crawl back to diving three weeks ago after a one year absent. I ended up bouncing up and down in a 10 meter depth like an untalented gymnast. Weekends and holidays are spent in the office.

I do enjoy my trip to Morocco, hanging out with Ziyad again chasing the dream of our youth. The trip was a mind opening and having a conversation with a chattier than usual Suzanne over delicious tagines  was something to cherish about.

Czech Republic is one beautiful place to spend one's time. The majestic old city and the lush green rolling hills of Central Europe come vividly better in real life than an imagined place  any writer can come up with. Marta's family has pretty much adopted me. Nothing beats the surreal experience being in the middle of family conversation in a language that I know nothing of.

We manage to get a pretty cool office (a two  floor penthouse on the 8th floor with a huge balcony) and set ourselves up for bigger things in 2008. I think next year is a tipping point of my dear little company in defining its contribution to the Internet life. There are huge challenges ahead but my eyes are filled with the images of stars and wonders.

Getting deported is harder than I described.

The process was quite straightforward and short but the after effect of the event still linger 3 days after and I still can't put my finger on it. 

So in the past four days I have had 4 flights, spent one night in jail, three nights in airport and got deported once. 

I am not good at following instruction.

I will be in Laos in a week's time spending time with Martina. She's been in the region crisscrossing Burma and Cambodia for work. International rescue work is a pretty grueling work, with lots of travels and mosquitoes. On the other hand, you get to see a lot of new places.

I'm looking forward to the break. It has been a tough 6 months at work, but it comes with the territory. Things are ups and downs, the critical part is to remain calm and steady.

Also I'm excited about the idea of spending more time in Czech Republic in the fall.