Five Foot Traveller: June 2011

This week's photo- Sunset over Halong Bay

This was taken on a cool evening in September. Strangely enough, there weren't very many mosquitoes that night so we slept on the top deck of the boat, under the stars. Nothing quite like sleeping outdoors!

Labels: photos, Vietnam

Escape route

Someone I know has just done something I've been wanting to do for the longest time. She's just quit her job to travel.

My friends, especially those who know me well, will know that I've been wanting to drop everything and run away for ages. My dream is pretty straightforward- I want to stop working, then travel and write. Pretty simple, right? :)

It's been difficult to leave, though. It's not exactly the 'Asian' thing to leave a stable job to see the world. To quit to study for a year, maybe two years? That's fine. But *just* to travel? Not that easy.

Neither does taking a year out constitute responsible behaviour where I come from, especially if you happen to be female. You're supposed to stay at home and be a good girl, not go gallivanting around the world just to -what was that again- 'find' yourself?

This time, I think, I'm going to approach things differently. Just like how you prepare for a trip, you've got to be ready for big decisions. You've got to get the preliminary stuff out of the way. When you sort out the logistics, your mind will be better prepared to go ahead with whatever you've decided, and stick to it.

So from this month onwards, I'm going to be setting aside an equivalent of US$700 of my salary towards an 'escape route' fund. That's not much, but in one or two years I should have quite a bit of money, enough for me to do what I need to do.

Sound like a good idea?

Labels: notes to self

This week's photo- Jayavarman and me, Cambodia

This was taken in Bayon, one of the temples in Angkor. The big guy is the Khmer king Jayavarman VII (1125-1215), whose face can be seen on towers and pillars throughout the temple. (There are apparently 216 of these faces in Bayon). I'm actually standing at just one side of the tower- the temple was designed so that the king's face looked out in all four directions- north, south, east and west. Seeing all those faces around you may seem a bit unnerving in the beginning, but you'll get used to it.

Labels: Cambodia, photos

The year of being nice to myself

This is pretty late for a new year's resolution but it needs to be made. This year I'm going to do things differently. My travelling style has always been to go for a major trip every year ranging from two to six weeks and to have smallish breaks here and there lasting anywhere from four to seven days.

This year I'm going to make sure that I have more of these smallish breaks, no matter what. I get weekends off now -I didn't use to before- and although it may not sound worth it because it's just too short, I think I may consider trips where I leave on Friday evening and come back on Sunday or Monday afternoon.

It sounds rushed, but I've decided that I'm going to be nice to myself this year and just take breaks whenever I can.

Imagine waking up on Saturday morning to this:

Gunung Agung, Bali

That's what I'm talking about.

Labels: notes to self

People at work

One of the best things about travelling is that we get to see how the rest of the world lives. People fascinate me; even when I'm at home, I love sitting in cafes just to check people out.

People-watching becomes even more interesting when you're travelling but after some time you realise one thing: that although you expect someone from the other side of the world to be different, the reality is that we're pretty much the same.

Trishaw driver in Hanoi, Vietnam. First thing I wondered was how old he was.

Fruit vendor in Hanoi. The dragon fruits look gorgeous

We met this guy, who calls himself RaRa Superstar, on Venice Beach, LA. He told us he divides his time between Italy and the US depending on the time of the year. What a life!