4/11/2018 YES.. I safely arrived Sri Lanka the home of endemic

4/11/2018 @ 12:50am Bandaranaike International Airport Sri Lanka

I am doing solo back-packing birding holiday again. Ayubowan from the island country of Sri Lanka.

Photo taken from Internet

Hallelujah 哈利路亚称赞主！ This is my first time flying on Malindo Air. I safely arrived with OD185 Malindo air from KLIA. Malindo  sound very indonesia. Actually it is under the big umbrella parent company of Lion Air, however it is joint venture with a Malaysia company.  Malindo Air headquarters is in Petaling Jaya Selangor.  It is a premium airline company registered in Malaysia.

The recent Lion Air plane crashed into java sea shortly after departing from Jakarta on 29 October 2018 has set my heart very restless. For the past few days I keep google to read people reviews of Malindo Air.  How flight worthy are their planes?  It is up to the extend that I have nightmare of the scene that I was swimming and out of sudden I been suck down to the surface.  I was terrifying by this nightmares.  Am I ready to meet the Lord ?  Is my time on earth about to finish?

Anyway as usual I go holiday pack with the thought.
”The Lord went before me in a pillar of cloud and at night He send a pillar of fire.  This is so that I could travel by night and day”

This is how I rate Malindo Air and the reasons why I choose to fly with Malindo Air.

Malindo’s fare is slightly higher by Rm50 - Rm100 than AirAsia which is branded as Malaysia low cost carrier. Things that stand out for Malindo Air are it has in-flight entertainment, free meal, free 25kg check-in baggage allowance, no need the trouble of doing web check-in hunting for printer to do so. Most of all it has large room leg space for even economy seats. With larger room leg space will have lesser risk factor for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.  Passenger are also give a pillow and in-flight blankets to keep warm for nights flights.  This are all the perks of Malindo Air. With that it is indeed good value for monies using Malindo Air.

*** I hope that I can slowly successfully transfer our my journal backpacking holiday at Sri Lanka that I did from 3/11/2018 - 20/11/2018

Never underestimates how strong and our bravery ...

We are connected because of Scoliosis. Is already 2 years when we first met. This photo was taken on 27/10/2018

I first met her in the ward during one of my those patient hospital visitation. She was only 10  years old then. She was admitted due to the needs to undergone hemivertebrae resection (scoliosis surgery) cause by her congenital scoliosis.  Even was just  only 10 years old  that time, she never shows any sign off anxiety eve she need to entered the OT room the next day.  In fact she walks around at the pediatric ward with the most cheerful, happy child looks.

I always remember this statement she told me with a big smile on her face..'Aunty saya tak takut'..  (Aunty I am not afraid).
She is very brave and Strong.  That particular statement of 'I am not afraid'  I believe  when her  mum  heard that from her 10 years old kid, she must be very impressed and could not believe her ears that it comes from her 10yrs old child.

We are both scoliosis warrior.
I have idiopathic scoliosis and she has congenital scoliosis. Due to our scoliosis are severe, we undergone scoliosis surgery. We both are grateful for today spine medical technologies.

The outcome of this scoliosis surgery.
We both are standing taller, our deformed posture are corrected. We are more healthier.
Undergone this spinal surgery, it does not pose any limitations in our lives.
We both still able to run marathon and scales mountain. Continue our life journey with 'full colors'.

Life and Beyond

It has been a while since I last drop lines in this blog.  Local birding field trips has drifted further and further since my scoliosis post ops until to nil.  It is not the reasons that I have lost interest in bird watching/nature photography. However, I still have 1 yearly overseas birding cum holiday trip. I will blog on that Back-packing Sri Lanka soon.

Priority shifted as I need to place more effort to strengthen my core back muscles.   This is so that I can continue to enjoy quality life and health. I wish that whatever remaining vertebrae below the spinal implant are not stress up.  I  swim at least 3 times a week since 4^th post ops. Swimming is classified as non-contact sport and it is the safest sports. Swimming has lowest impact and little stress on bones and joints. Swimming also train our body's position upright and improves cardiopulmonary function besides helps to burns body fat and build some muscles.

NOT to SLIP And Fall - 

 This big statement is a big reminder from our loved one to those who are like me has undergone spinal surgery before. Well during initial recovery is very essential not to slip-and-fall. Accidentally slip-and-fall due to slippery surface,uneven pavement and also wrongly position of footstep on the edge of platform such as staircase and small bridge over a drain or stream do happen sometimes. On my 8^th month post ops I accidentally place my foot wrongly on the small plank bridge and felt nearly to a very deep forest ditch. None of my friends dare to touched nor give me a hand cause I am label “fragile”. Thank God I am not hurt and to my surprise none of my muscles feel pain/hurt from that accident fall.



Times pass, my daily lives continue until July 2017, I had another accidentally slip-and-fall while I was walking over a chain with my high heels shoes. It was a hard knock on the concrete pavement. It was so painful, it bruised my left knee. It took me a while to fell lesser pain gather all my things, get up from the ground . It was my swimming schedule day. I am a very strong willed person so even with bruised, slightly open scar, I still continue to do swimming. I remember that very night, I couldn't sleep well cause the pain level is more than what I experienced during the early hours of my scoliosis spinal surgery post ops. Have I fracture my knee that was the thought keep traveling in my mind?

I went to consult my office clinic doctor once I reached office. I have a big long lectures while she do dressing my my knee. I was asked to observe a few days, pain should reduced. Unfortunately after a few days I still feel the pain still persist.

 To clear my mind, I request a referral letter to consult a knee specialist. The knee specialist order xray to be done. It was such a relief that he broke the news that it is only soft tissue injury and my bones are intact- no fracture.

Times pass again until to the 1^st week of Jan 2018. On 1 particular morning I accidentally placed my foot wrongly on the edge of a drain bridge. It was very horrifying for me cause this drain is deep and I literately dropped my whole body into it. I screamed so loud with the thoughts of my spinal implant will it break and get loosen. But I just done my post ops clinical visit, full spinal xray was done last month... everything is intact but … but Now I felt into a drain.. Ooh no.. I don't want to end up a messy job for my spine doctors.
I calm myself down, gather all my things, stand up and get up from the drain. I am not in pain. To my surprise unlike those days that I never did any regular exercises just a simple slip-and-fall I will get a sudden intense pain. Then I have have prolong muscles pain, bruises in some part of the body.

I get back into the house to change my set of clothing and clean up to be ready for office. I msg my immediate superior that I will be late cause I had an minor accident.


Back into the office, my superior asked me how badly damage is my car from that accident. I replied it is not my car but is me I accidentally jatuh longkang. Everyone have a good laugh. Life as usual, I have no muscles pain and I still able to wear my high heels shoes.

It is most likely is my diligent swimming sessions and cobra superman exercise has build up my muscles to protect my bones therefore I have no problem even accidentally slip-and-fall into a drain.

This Xray was taken when I am about to touch 4yr post ops in next 2 months