There’s a spring back in my step

by Yeoh Siew Hoon

Today, I received the all-clear from my orthopaedic surgeon to travel. “Now you are free to fly,” he said, as he took a look at my calf and pressed and squeezed it.

“Oh, I just returned from Angkor Wat yesterday,” I said sheepishly.

“I didn’t know I was not supposed to travel,” I said, lying through my teeth.

“So you climbed Angkor Wat?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, preparing myself for a chastisement.

“Good, good. Tell me about it,” he says, more eager to hear about my travels than how my leg was after clambering up and down the ruins of Angkor.

I love my doctor. His name is James Lee, and he is a traveller after my own heart. He believes we are all made to travel and discover places that are off the beaten track and out of the ordinary.

He reads books by Lin Yutang, the Chinese philosopher, who believes in appreciating the moment and living the journey. He tells me I should read “Journey to the North”, a travel book in haiku by Basho.

He wants to go to Tibet next year, and I have offered to be his personal travel agent. I will put him in touch with the right people in the right places so that he will have a great experience. It’s the least I can do for the man who’s put my leg right so that I can once again set forth on new adventures.

“My wife and I, we like doing things that are different,” he says. He’s been to Lijiang, Yunnan, and he told me about an experience he had. He and his wife were out exploring one day when they met a young woman who invited them back to her house where she offered them plum wine and food.

“It was so spontaneous,” he said. “I love moments like that.”

His son is finishing O levels this year, which means he and his wife will have more time to travel. And they are busy planning more trips – skiing is on the cards, as is a safari in Kenya.

He then proceeds to show me a set of exercises I must do to get my leg back in shape for “all the travelling you want to do”.

I think he knows as much about the mind as he does about muscles and bones. From the moment he diagnosed my calf injury to the surgery and through the healing, I reckoned he sensed my restless spirit.

Of course, my books – which I gave him – could have given him a few clues but I think it takes one to know one. Travel addict, that is.

Siem Reap, my post-conference trip after WIT-Web In Travel, was my first travel since my leg injury. That’s been eight weeks of being on the ground.

I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to the flight, never mind that it was an early morning departure (6.40am) and I had just had two hours sleep and that it was a low cost flight on Jetstar.

I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was to fly.

And to then see the Angkor temples again, to soak in the history, to climb up and down the steps once trampled by ancient kings, graceful dancers and ugly ogres and then to visit the outer villages and feel the laughter and hope in the eyes of the children as they greeted strangers bearing gifts …

And then to experience the incredible warmth and hospitality of the Cambodians, especially the staff at Hotel de la Paix, who went beyond the call of duty to look after our group of 18.

And then to drink champagne under the stars of my rooftop suite while candles flickered and music played …

As I left my doctor’s office, after exchanging more travel stories, I shook his hand and said, “It’s been a pleasure.”

We both laughed. Yes, laughter, and travelling, is the best medicine.

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