savouring the silence and serenity on top of borobudur temple

Yogyakarta, 17 January 2o12

just a little corner of the world,

where I can balance my mind, body and soul, in absolute gratefulness.

Wakatobi, 29 November 2011

So last July when a friend invited me to join a birdwatching competition, I said ‘yes!’ without giving it many thoughts. So this was where it took me to…

A savanna,

with thousands of butterflies,

and more than 150 species of birds,

and unforgetable sunset,

and wild deers!

We stayed there for 5 days, and it’s not exactly a non-stop party, especially when we had to make use of the, umm, “public” facilities.

But we slept under the gazillion stars, with cool savanna wind, and took looooong walks to the beach. And on one of those days, I spent more than 2hrs sitting alone on a watchtower, hearing nothing but calls of birds from a far, seeing nothing but lush tree tops.

A rookie birdwatcher that I am, I came back all sun-burnt but happy. Definitely an experience I will be more than willing to repeat.

Tontonan, Enrekang, South Sulawesi

On the last leg of the journey, @senjakala and I stopped by at the Tontonan in Enrekang, an ancient burial site perched on an unbelievably steep and high cliff, right above a torrential river…
There’s an eerie calmness blanketing the land where we stood, despite the sound of the rushing water from the river.

I can’t stop thinking how did those people managed to haul the coffins up there…

Toraja...

is all about life's abundance and...

death.

And of course, finger-lickin' good food!

Photos are also courtesy of @iskyd, @onengan, @yoshife and @senjakala.

But, wait! There’s more…