Remembering Suka Suka.

The itinerary read Kuala Kangsar, but where we ended up wasn't really anywhere.

Oh, it had a name: Suka Suka Lake Retreat. It was a series of cabins on an island in the middle of Malaysia's largest lake, a waterway created by a dam and populated with exotic flora and hundreds of nameless landmasses. Our hosts, a Malay couple with a newborn son, navigated the complicated maze from the visitor pickup spot on one edge of the lake to their island home, then the nearest village, via motorboat. The ripples the boat left in its wake were almost as tranquil as the motor was loud.

Out there, so far from anywhere I don't think I could even tell you where I was, there was such a different state of mind, it was amazing.

I often think of one evening, when I spent an hour in the hammock teetering just over the water. A thunderstorm was brewing behind me, but before the rain, I took a few moments to relax and enjoy the gray.

There was nothing like it in the world. Unless, of course, you were someone who also experienced it.