my favourite sentences...


You can hide memory, but you can't erase the history that produced them.

It was sad to see what used to be so fundamental to our lives fade away and disappear in front of our own eyes.

Words don't come out when you're deeply hurt. That's why people keep silent and give no explanation. Yet, Murakami once wrote in his novel, 1Q84, "If you can't understand without an explanation, you can't understand with an explanation." Sometimes, people tend to not wanting to understand things instead of wanting to understand things. In short, they tend to ignore the possibility of trying to understand things.

do you know what makes life interesting?
--> it's interesting because we don't know what the future holds for us. don't blame the fate. we decide our fate, it's our choice. we can't choose where to be born, but we can certainly choose the way we live our life...

the life is yours, why bother asking other people to paint it for you?...

when we're small our word has never been counted; when we're big every word has always been counted...

i may not be able to wait thirteen months for you, nor until you are twenty-five, but i can wait for you a lifetime -- Under the Hawthorn Tree by Ai Mi

waiting, though one minute, it's still unbearable...

death doesn't mean that we are no longer existing. death just means a move to another world...

why can parents wholeheartedly sacrifice everything for the happiness of their children, even their life? but why can't their children, whom they give birth to, do the same thing to them? what power is it that encourages them to do so?....

the thing i'm most afraid of is ME. of not knowing what i'm going to do. of not knowing what i'm doing right now.

people always meet new friends. but they should not forget their old friends. because without your old friends we don't have a chance to meet new friends. the memories with our friends will be there forever in our brain. we can't omit it though time passes.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Coffee with Love (Chapter 14: Does god really exist?) by Jet

As soon as she arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport, Lee took a night bus to Siem Reap province at 8 o’clock.
Siem Reap is where people enjoy the beauty of Khmer ancient empire. Cambodia is a kingdom. Khmer kings have built many priceless temples dating back as old as 1st century. There are thousands of temples scattering around the province and throughout the country.
The trip was not very well planned. It just occurred to her that she wanted to spend some times alone, and Siem Reap slipped in her mind. Without giving any further thought, she rang a bus company and checked for the schedule to the province.
It was her first time to take a night bus all by herself. At that time, night bus was not very common. Not many Cambodian people would travel somewhere during nighttime but foreign visitors to the kingdom. Most of them thought that it was not safe to travel at night, which should be time for sleeping. People could not concentrate at night, particularly when driving. Many cases of accidents had happened at night. Many news articles had reported about traffic accident almost every night.
While on the bus, Lee remembered one of her best friends who had a car accident during his trip to Sihanouk Ville, a coastal province. He hit a tree when he tried to avoid a fully loaded truck coming from different direction. Fortunately, he was not severely injured.
After almost six hours on the road, Lee reached Siem Reap safe and sound. It was two o'clock in the morning. The wind was chill. The moon was pale, surrounding by twinkling stars.
Lee put on a dark green sweater to keep herself warmer.
She then got off the bus and waited about five minutes at the station before her hotel pick-up arrived. Thanks to modern technologies that she could book a hotel room in the last minute while she was on the bus from Phnom Penh. The room was charged half price due to her late check-in.
Once she checked in the room, she took a bath and rest for an hour before she went to appreciate sunrise at Angkor Wat Temple.
The temple was about seven kilometers from the town. She hired a car from the hotel to take her there. The road to the temple cut through the jungle. With the car window open, the sound of cicadas singing on treetops was heard. Everything was pitch-black.
Lee rested her chin on the window. The wind messed her hair. She closed her eyes, thinking about something, but nothing in particular.
It was still very dark when she got there. Hand in hand, we walked through a stone bridge towards the temple, looking for a suitable spot awaiting the sun. Having waited there for a while, more and more people had arrived. Soon they filled the empty space in front of a pond inside the temple compound. They brought along camera, so they could capture the best view of sunrise.
I took nap while the sky was still dark.
Before long, the yellow light slowly appeared at the far east of the sky. The sun was rising. The scenery was breathtaking. Every visitor held their camera above their heads trying to capture the best shot. The sunrise was fast, only within a few minutes.
After enjoying scenic view of sunrise at Angkor Wat temple, Lee got back to her hotel, took bath and another few-hour sleep before she went for cycling around town.
She decided not to call her friends who were working in the province. She wanted to spend the time alone and enjoy the ancient city.
I would just give them a ring in the evening for a get together, Lee decided.

At ten o’clock, Lee got up, preparing to leave her room. While she was locking the door, somebody’s hand was tapping her shoulder.
Who could it be? I haven’t informed any friends of mine about my visiting the province. Lee asked herself. Lee paused and turned her head to look at the person, her hand still on the lock.
Lee was shocked, seeing the person behind her. Her breath was short. Her hands were shaking. Her eyes fixed to the person. Her nose almost touched the person’s chin as she tried to look up.
A smile formed on the lips of the person’s.
The world seemed to stop moving. Everything seemed to float. Lee was going to fall down on the floor in the corridor. Fortunately, the person was quick, grabbing Lee’s waist and helping her from falling.
For a very long minute, both of them stayed like as if posting for photo-shoot.
“Are you okay?” the person asked.
Lee woke up and thanked the person for helping her.
“I’m…,” Lee tried to answer, but she seemed to lose the power to talk. The next words did not come out. Her body was still shaking.
“Are you okay?” the person repeated the question.
“I’m fine. Thank you.” She hurried to respond. “Yong!”
“What?”
“No, nothing,” Lee said. “I did not anticipate you are right here.”
“I did not anticipate that I am here, either.”
“Then, why are you here?”
“I should ask you the same question? Why are you here?”
“I don’t know why I am here. It just occurs to me that I want to visit the place. How about you?”
“It’s a long story,” Yong paused, trying to form the right words. “It just occurs to me that I want to visit the place, too,”
“I…,” Lee murmured, and stopped.
“I saw you at the temple this early morning.”
“Why didn’t you call out to me?”
“I was not very sure if she were you. So I did not call out.”
“But you followed me here?”
“Yes. But it happened that we stay in the same hotel.”
“Really?”
“More interestingly, my room is just opposite your room?”
“Oh!” Lee ran out of words to respond.
Everything was too coincidental, as if god had planned!
“By the way, where are you heading?”
“I’m planning to have breakfast and to a bicycle shop?”
“A bicycle shop?”
“Yes, a bicycle shop for going-around.”
“Can I join you?”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, I am.”  Why am not sure about that? Yong did not spill these words out but to himself.
“Okay, let’s go then. But, can I lock my door first?” Lee returned to her door as she just remembered that she had not yet locked her door.
“Sure,” Yong followed her.

They grabbed a quick bite in the hotel lobby lounge and went to a bicycle shop to rent a bicycle each. Having decided on which bike to take, they rode down to a convenient store to get some water and snacks before setting off for a supposed-to-be-a-very-long ride.
First, they rode to Angkor Wat temple, for the second time. This time they could see the view along the street clearer. They were sandwiched by big trees. They were very big that two or three people together could not hold it. They rode at easy but steady speed so that they would not consume all of our energy at one temple. There were many more to visit, many more to explore. They inhaled a lungful of fresh air, and exhaled it. They let our worries go to the passing wind. They laughed and smiled. They looked very happy.
The cycling was fun, and they enjoyed it. They spent a few hours at Angkor Wat before they continued to Angkor Thom.
At Angkor Thom, they parked their bike and trekked along the temple gate into the jungle. They talked about this and that. When they were tired, they stopped to relax and drink water. They kept talking and moving forward. After almost six kilometer of quite a long walk, they went back to their bike, given that it was lunchtime. They needed to refuel their energy.
They had sour soup and beef Lok Lakk, a kind of stir-fried beef with egg and potatoes. It served with pepper, salt, and limejuice. The food was delicious or perhaps they were hungry. After that, they went to Srah Srong, and turned back to Angkor Wat temple to rest.
In front of Angkor Wat temple, they took their chocolate sweet and shared it with monkey who was playing near us. They gave it to a female monkey. She looked as if she was pregnant. Her belly grew.
First, the female monkey tasted their sweet. After a few bites, she asked for more. They gave her a few more. Then came another male monkey. He chased away the female one and took their snack. He was very mean. He screamed at us when they attempted to get theirs back. He was very hungry. He kept unpacking their snack. He finished half of their sweet. Then he walked away and left the leftover on the ground. They took the leftover and rode back to their hotel as evening was approaching.
They needed some rest, their legs groaned.

At night, they enjoyed a western-style dinner at the hotel lounge bar and listened to live music performed by a Filipino band. The evening was pleasant, awaiting tomorrow to come…

Does god really exist? Somebody said "God does exist, so does evil. Evil is god's plan. God creates evil so that people pray to god!"

(to be continued...)

No comments:

Post a Comment