The Greatest Happiness

The Greatest Happiness

I arrived yesterday morning in Jakarta on an AirAsia flight filled with home-going domestic maids. At the airport, the immigration officer asked me for ole-ole (gifts) but I simply gave him an ignorant smile. Luckily he did not give me any hassle after I showed him my return ticket.

I thought of trying out a different place to stay this time but finally decided to check into my usual hotel in Tanah Abang. It's a bit inconvenient when you are travelling on business and have to lug your computer notebook with you; you always have to worry about the safety of your valuables if you stay at the cheaper hotels. Petty thefts are unfortunately quite common here. Even in four or five-star hotels, you will still have to take the necessary precautions to secure your things.

We must always be prepared for the unfortunate event that our notebook gets stolen. Regular backups are very very important but make sure that you don't keep your backup CD in the same computer bag--or worse still in the CD slot! We must always adhere to the first rule of good disaster recovery planning: all backups must be stored "off-site".

Cyberspace is actually best place to store your data. I use my 1GB Gmail mailbox as a convenient Internet storage for backing up my most recent documents. It is especially convenient whenever I'm working from wireless hotspots across town back in KL--I just e-mail myself a copy.

Happiness is when you get to travel light: with nothing but a backpack filled with a change of clothes, basic toiletries and a paperback to keep you company. That was how I travelled earlier this year on my trips to Yogjakarta, Semarang and Solo. At every stop, you wash your clothes, and let it dry overnight.

The less we own, the happier we are. There's nothing wrong in striving for all the material wealth in the world and one should do one's utmost to succeed in life. But if after acquiring riches, we find that we cannot live life without them anymore, then we are nothing but handicapped people.

Acquiring material wealth is only half the battle in life; the real test of a person is whether he or she is equally capable of letting them go. He who succeeds in doing so earns the greatest happiness in life.