panajibased motherdaughter duo cecelia and melinda viegas decided to document their family trip across four countries in a very unique way by hosting a special art and photography exhibition at kala academy to commemorate the first anniversary of their monthlong road trip from goa to kuala lumpur while cecilia has used watercolours to paint landscapes melinda has used the art of photography to tell stories through themthey talk to goa times about their trip of a lifetime capturing moods cultures adventureswhile they started out for myanmar thailand and malaysia they didnt plan to document it and showcase it to the public i wish we knew we were going to do this however mom came up with the idea when the anniversary drew closer says melinda who then selected the best photographs she had clicked in myanmar thailand and malaysia describing different moods cultures and adventures what makes the trip and the exhibition that came out of it so special was the fact that the family drove to all these places themselves melinda explains since we were driving we had the freedom to go to many places that we couldnt have gone as tourists a 6000 km trip by roadit wasnt a spontaneous trip at all we started planning it two years in advance says melinda the journey was planned by arthur cecelias husband and aaron her son and they shared the driving throughout the 6000odd km they traveled by road at the end of the vacation they shipped their car back to goawe had our rough itineraries planned since my son works in the hospitality industry he handled bookings at hotels says cecelia while they went to some popular tourist destinations like krabi phuket penang kuala lumpur and bangkokthey started the india leg from goa and reached imphal the capital of manipur after crossing karnataka andhra pradesh telangana odisha west bengal assam and nagaland after the 3750km drive they headed to moreh the border town and started their international leg by crossing the friendship bridge after passing by several locales in myanmar they crossed the tropic of cancer which was quite a memorable experience we even stopped by for a photograph says ceciliathe highlights we stopped by for local food in myanmar because our guide suggested a lot of food we even tried a buffet lunch with 25 local delicacies says melinda we visited another fascinating monument in myanmar the kyaiktiyo pagoda which is a golden rock pagoda located on a rock 3615 ft above sea level it is one of the wonders in south east asia it is a gilded boulder delicately balanced on the edge of a sloping surface of a separate rock table with the slope dropping perpendicularly into the valley below the boulder and balancing rock barely touch each other it is believed that theres a hair relic of buddha that holds it together says ceciliawhen we were in krabi we couldnt take the boat to explore because there was a storm there so instead