Maggie and Sasha reporting from Goa, India June 29, a particularly wet Wednesday
Today marks 3 months since we've been away from Hong Kong.
We spent April in Maggie's hometown Kota Kinabalu (KK) in Malaysia, where we reconnected with family and friends and just good ol' KK small town goodness. Amazing food and company, beautiful nature where the sea and mountains are tied together like brothers and sisters.
While we were in KK, Maggie found Pac Yoga studio through her friend Belinda, where she went to practice yoga a few times per week. The studio is Belinda's mom Pat's brainchild and it has a large and airy space that feels welcoming. We came up with an idea to collaborate with Pac Yoga where Sasha and Maggie could provide an Extended Shavasana session at the end of a yoga class playing handpans.
The turn out was great and everybody loved their extended shavasana!
That was a super nice wrap to the end of our stay in KK. Once we bade goodbye to this beloved city, we headed towards Europe. First stop on our European tour was the north of Spain where we trekked for 5 days along the Camino de Santiago, from Lugo to Santiago de Compostela, with Maggie's family.
The most gruesome day was on our second last day, where we walked for almost 30km! But we were rewarded by delicious Galician food and wine, where pulpos and Albarino wine reigned. What a bargain to eat in this part of the world! You can have the most scrumptious 3-course meal for 15 euros.
Our final destination on this walk was Santiago de Compostela.
Sasha missed playing his handpan so much that the first thing he did when we arrived was busking on the streets! We saw some familiar faces from the walk and some even came especially to support his music.
We are now considering to come back next year around Easter and stay in this city for at least a few weeks. Let's see what 2023 brings...
Next stop: Paris.
We boarded on a Flixbus and 24 hours later, we arrived in Gare de Bercy, Paris. Our friend Maxim hosted us for a few days and we reconnected with our band Tarboosh's pianist, Samer, while we were in town. What an excellent time to be in the city of love, everybody was out and enjoying life post-Covid, no one gave a damn about the pandemic anymore.
During one of our walks, we visited this world percussive instruments shop where they sell all things related to percussion, including handpans!
All of the instruments within the shop are good quality, Fropan recommends dropping in there if you're ever passing through the 3rd arrondisement: https://percussiondumonde.fr/ I thoroughly enjoyed Paris, with our daily morning croissant/baguette runs, and evening Kir for aperitif and plenty of live music. I know that this city is not everyone's cup of tea, but once you've picked up the right French vocab and mentality, this city is truly a mad playground.
Stay tuned for Part Two of Chronicles of Fropan's Travels 2022...
