Reflections
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How we loved – and lost – our child while travelling in South America
Trigger warning: Pregnancy loss Antarctica I first had an inkling that I might be pregnant while on board our cruise to Antarctica. I’ve always had a pretty regular period and was expecting to get it on the cruise, so when days passed and it didn’t come, the mounting excitement at seeing penguins was paralleled with that of the reality of having our own little cutie. When it was time to do the polar plunge, I hesitated. My gut feeling was that I was pregnant, but there was no way to verify this on the cruise without a pregnancy test kit, so I had to resist the urge to do the…
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The Art of Slow Travel (Or, How I Realised I’ve Been Travelling Wrong)
I’ll repeat that again: for the last 2 decades, I’ve been travelling wrong. But wait – you’ll ask – is there actually a right way to travel? Honestly, the answer is no. Travel is one of those things arguably more personal than your preferred type of lingerie. It is intensely dependent on how quickly you want to move, who you want to move with, and how much you want to move out of your comfort zone. Everyone has a different threshold for these things, and the truth is there is nothing wrong with that. But I’m talking about myself here. For the longest time, I’ve been a very … efficient traveller. I…
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Thank You Mr Lee Kuan Yew: How Singaporeans Say Goodbye
This post was initially written as a Facebook status after a night of queuing at the Padang. It has since been updated to include reflections on my experience at the State Funeral Procession. For the uninitiated, they would probably think that Singaporeans are an impractical lot. Thousands of people, at all times of the day, some choosing to endure the blazing sun (my full respect to you), others willingly sacrificing sleep, with their picnic mats and ponchos, portable chairs and chargers, trusty iPhones and iPads loaded with games and movies. Many simply had multi-functional pieces of cardboard. Legs tired? Sit on it. Too hot? Use to fan. Amidst warning after…
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Iceland: Where Mother Nature Knows Best
Things in Iceland didn’t quite go to plan. Our original itinerary involved us driving from Thingvellir National Park in the Southwest, across the South where the glacial lagoons were towards the east, up the East and to the Northern city of Akureyri where we could then catch a flight to see the Holuhraun eruption. It has been my dream to see live, flowing lava, and I could not think of a better opportunity to do this than with the Barbadunga volcano. We were met with winds of up to 100km/h on our first night, almost leaving us stranded with a trailer embedded in the snow and without accommodation. Thankfully our…
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Amsterdam: It’s Complicated.
To be honest, I’m not quite sure if I like Amsterdam yet. Relationship status: it’s complicated.
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Falling In Love with the City that Hates Rain
The plaintive notes of the busker’s voice fill the subway station, even after we’re one floor below her. “Barcelona is on fi-yahhhhhhh… This girl is on fi-yaaahhhhh” “I wonder if that’s a blessing or an omen?” I asked ET. But as I thought about it, and about the dreadful weather (by Barcelona standards) we’ve had for the past week, I realise she could very well be making a wish for the rain in Barcelona to be replaced with their accustomed sunshine. We’re in Barcelona, the city that hates rain so much they would rather be on fire.
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Forget the Bucket List [Reblogged]
This is an article I’m sharing from the blog of a wonderful couple, Brad & Mesi, whom I got to know while volunteering in Peru. It really resonated with me, because just a few weeks ago, I tried my hand at coming up with a bucket list, and I really wasn’t very happy with it because everything on my list seemed to either come from some Tripadvisor/Lonely Planet Top 10 compilation or was an aggregate of other people’s unfulfilled dreams and wishes. Most items involved oft-overhyped “must-see” tourist hotspots like “Have a picnic at the Eiffel Tower” that honestly proved to be rather uninspiring and underwhelming. So reading this was a really refreshing…
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How Travel has Defined My Life
On the eve of my 26th birthday, ET asked me what are the 25 most significant moments of my life. The question really caught me off-guard, and I paused for quite a while before answering, because really, how do you even begin answering a question like that?
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The Beauty of Disconnection
I honestly never thought I’d say this, but we just had one of our best holidays in Bintan. It wasn’t the accommodation – we stayed in one of the SAF Cempaka Villas at the Bintan Lagoon Resort that was comfy and had all the basic amenities but was honestly nothing to shout about. It wasn’t the food – our best meal was the BBQ we prepared on the first night that involved cooking copious amounts of meat, seafood and corn which proceeded to be our source of protein for the next two days. Carbs were mainly instant noodles and sweet potatoes and the one meal that we did eat…
