Highlights of The Dreamchasers 2014 Adventures

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The Continuing Adventures of The Dreamchasers 2014 followed the Dreamchasers Great Adventure of 2013, which we had agreed was amazing on a number of levels. It wasn't a major worry keeping us up at night, but it did give us a moment of pause when we began this adventure last January, as we wondered how we might follow up "amazing".

Our 2014 Adventure has now come to an end. We soon fly west into the never ending sunset, so it is time to once again reflect upon the fifteen highlights of this year's adventure. Then we can better access how we have followed up "amazing". The events are not listed in any order of preference, as that would be just too difficult. They are listed in reverse chronological order, beginning with the most recent experiences, as follows:

1. Biking daily to the Yoga Shala situated in a village 30 km outside of Ubud, Bali, through the rice paddies, coconut groves, and overall stunningly beautiful Balinese countryside. We had the overwhelming pleasure of repeating this activity twice a day, six times a week, for four weeks.

2. Meeting our exceptional yoga gurus, Prem and Radha, and taking Mysore class instruction from them six days a week, for four weeks, at their beautiful yoga Shala.

3. Living in Ubud, getting a sense of the culture and energy of this very special place, and learning how to navigate our way comfortably through its traffic and winding streets on motorbikes, while staying at the lovely Toko Toko studio and apartments in Ubud, enjoying coming home daily to its enchanting gardens, beautiful cascading pool, stunning rice paddy views, and welcoming staff.

4. Engaging with the two classes of teenage students at Campuhan College in Ubud, sharing music while helping them learn English as they in turn helped me practice my rudimentary Indonesian.

5. Completing a level one course in the study of the Indonesian language in three weeks, and being able to understand and carry on simple conversations in the new language.

6. Swimming with the turtles near Gilli Trawangan. This year's experience of swimming with the largest and most beautiful turtle, not once, but on three consecutive days - and on the third day swimming with three turtles at once - was a definite highlight and even better than last year's turtle encounter.

7. Performing a thirty minute set at the Acoustic Music Bar on Gilli Air, where I believe I put on possibly the best acoustic performance I have ever given, and consequently moved the bar up another notch.

8. Getting reintroduced to the motorbiking experience again, after a few decades of abstinence, driving to the many beautiful and laid back beaches around Kuta, Lombok.

9. Taking part in the fantastic five day boat excursion to meet the Komodo Dragons up close and personal.

10. Spending a week making friends and music with some stellar professional musicians on the remote and very beautiful Tip of Borneo.

11. Spending four days in the jungles of Borneo, at a Nature Lodge, where we took part in day and night excursions to look for amazing rare wildlife like the world's smallest primate; observing the behavior of hundreds of monkeys of various species in their natural habitat on two river cruises daily, and elsewhere in Borneo having an up close and personal encounter with possibly the world's largest primate, the Orang-utan.

12. Performing for several hours in the boat cafeteria with a musician from Germany during the twelve hour slow boat trip from Mandalay to Bagan, Myanmar, connecting with the international audience and sharing sing alongs in three languages.

13. Pedal and electric biking around the thousands of temples in the incredible Fields of Bagan, Myanmar.

14. Boating through beautiful Inle Lake, Myanmar, meeting the gentle people there, and seeing up close the lifestyle of the Inle Lake fishermen and local inhabitants, which took us back in time a hundred years.

15. Pedal biking through the city streets and the "lungs of Bangkok", the enormous jungle space in the centre of the city.

As I mentioned in the first entry for this trip, "what we seek in travel is to meet people from other cultures; to develop more understanding, patience, and compassion; to better appreciate the many choices we have had in our lives; and to continually seek ways to somehow give back.
Along the way, we have the privilege of seeing sights and sharing experiences that most people only dream of, as we are, after all, dreamchasers. It is exciting, it is amazing, and it is humbling, but it is not always easy."

When we reflect back on the range of multicultural experiences we have had on this adventure, we can see that some have required us to move outside of our comfort zones - like relearning how to ride a motorbike and then throwing ourselves into Asian traffic insanity. Others - like taking on a new language or pushing our physical limits practicing intense yoga routines - have required significant commitment. We have continued to find what we seek in this adventure, just as we had in the last. Both have been amazing, but rather than declaring one as better than the other, let's just use the Asian cliche "SAME SAME, BUT DIFFERENT".

We have already begun to formulate some plans for The Continuing Adventures of Dreamchasers 2015, and it is safe to assume that challenge and learning will continue to be guiding themes. We hope you will join us in our travels again next year.

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Photos

Flying Into The Never Ending Sunset
Homeward bound again. We leave Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, at this end of the world, at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 25th. We arrive in Vancouver, Canada, on the other side of the world, at 9 p.m. on Friday, April 25th.
The fact is, we are in transit for over thirty hours, thus flying into the never ending sunset.