Asian weddings, mountains and beaches in 2004
A few weeks before the Tsunami of 2004, we travel across Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka for weddings, mountains and white sand beaches.
This is a travel journal of our adventures in South East Asia. Trust a bunch of Newfoundlanders to find trouble no matter where they go! You can read the entries as we climb Mt. Kinabalu and explore some parts of Thailand. A month after we left, this entire region was devastated by the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004. We were very lucky to have witnessed life and adventure before that and our hearts go out to everyone in this journal who might have been affected. A gallery of photos from this trip is available on my photos site.
In July 2004, my family informed me that my eldest brother was getting hitched. And yes, I do sincerely mean hitched in the marital sense, not harnessed to a cart and dragged away—though, admittedly, that was the first image that came to mind when I thought about attending a family wedding. The ceremony was scheduled for December 2004 and, according to custom (as I understand now), I was to be the best man. Given my past history with my parents' attempts to marry me off in bizarre ways, I was a bit hesitant. Was I once again an unwitting pawn in one of my mum’s elaborate schemes to marry me off to a Sri Lankan girl? My brother assured me that it was actually his wedding, not mine. I was grateful for the clarification.
It's not down in any map; true places never are
- Herman Melville
I had originally planned a smaller, more budget-friendly trip in November—perhaps to South America—but with this new development, I was set to go to Asia. To heck with it, I thought—if I was traveling such a long distance, I was definitely going to do some exploring. So I reached out to my friends Mike Mannion (Montreal), Chris Myrick (Singapore), Keli Ryan (Singapore), and Andrew Draskoy (Newfoundland). The first three names might sound familiar to those who have followed my adventures over the past two years—Mike, Chris, and Keli were my companions during my Kilimanjaro expedition in 2003. Now, we were reuniting.
Our plan was simple: Mike and I had to climb a mountain. And what better choice than Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia at 4,092m, located in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo? I had last climbed it at age 15. Now, I would be 30. It seemed fitting. I also wanted some relaxation, so the white beaches of southern Thailand, particularly around Phuket, seemed like the perfect addition to our itinerary. Andrew went ahead and spent two months traveling Southeast Asia before meeting up with us at Mt. Kinabalu Park. With minimal preparation (we were pros now—wink, wink), our plan was to fly to Singapore and then hop around on AirAsia, a budget airline that would take us all over the region for just CDN $35 to $50 per flight—hardly breaking the bank.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving
- Lao Tzu
On November 19, 2004, a cold winter day in Edmonton, I boarded a flight bound for Vancouver, with further stops in Los Angeles and Taipei. My final destination: Singapore. Over the next two weeks, we crisscrossed Asia—from Johor Bahru, Malaysia, to Kota Kinabalu, to Bangkok, Thailand, to Phuket, and finally back to Singapore for my brother’s wedding in Sri Lanka.
This is the story of that journey, from start to finish. From hoisting a flag atop Mt. Kinabalu to snorkeling in Phuket, from being driven batty by Asian taxi drivers to witnessing the unique get-ups at Sri Lankan weddings. I hope you enjoy reading this travel journal, which I wrote as I went along.
A huge thank you to my traveling companions—once again, what an adventure it was to travel with you!
We took this trip in late November and early December. Then, on December 26, 2004, the tsunami struck, killing and injuring over 100,000 people. While my immediate family in Sri Lanka (mostly) escaped injury, my new sister-in-law’s relatives were not so lucky. As these countries rebuild and as you browse through the photos in this journal, I urge you to donate to the Canadian Red Cross, Oxfam, CARE International, or any of the many other relief organizations assisting in the region.
Thank you to all the friends who reached out with well wishes and concerns after the disaster. My thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost loved ones and with the survivors who now face the grim reality of rebuilding their lives.
December 28, 2004, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada