From Manila to Borneo

It's funny how some distance,
makes everything seem small.
And the fears that once controlled me, can't get to me at all
It's time to see what I can do,
to test the limits and break through.
No right, no wrong, no rules for me.
I'm free!
ROBERT LOPEZ, KRISTEN ANDERSON-LOPEZ, EMANUEL KIRIAKOU

I have arrived early to the airport. I always say that it is much easier to sit and wait, than to chase the airplane down the runway screaming “WAIT!!!”.

I still have two hours and five minutes. I have checked in, gone through all the scanners, finally had my little can of spray shampoo thrown away after being allowed to take it on six flights, including one from this airport, already. It might be dangerous, you know.

I wasn't supposed to fly today. I was suppose to go to Las Piñas today, and stay there for five days, in a gated subdivision of Manila and plan my Borneo days and maybe go in and see the city and maybe some other things. But Greg had another idea this morning, and now, here I am at the airport, on an earlier flight to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, Borneo.

There is just so much to do in Borneo. There is: the largest caves in the world, one of the world’s best diving locations, one of the last places you can see Orang-utans in the wild. I can go to north west to Brunei, and in the south, I can cross over into Indonesia, both trips would be by ferry, I can traverse jungle rivers and walk in the canopies, I can climb a mountain and go to hot springs, I can see proboscis monkeys, and if I want to, I can ride one of the oldest still running steam trains.

The time is almost gone and I have forgotten to get bored waiting.

I really home that Aodhan’s worker tells me again that none of their other clients take their kids on two week vacations. I have the right answer for her now. I will say “None of your other parents just got back from spending two weeks alone in the Jungles of Borneo, and none of your other parents just did a 600 nautical mile yacht race, and none of your other parents have sailed a small boat all the way across the Atlantic Ocean… twice, and none of your other parents and kids have climbed a volcano and melted their soles of their shoes while roasting marshmallows over the open flowing lava. I am not your other parents.