Now that I’m traveling again, a lot of things are back… including monthly travel recaps! Wow, this past month. I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve really had the best time on Penang. I feel like my real solo-traveling journey started with Penang, which coincidentally was also the start of a new year of travel. After I realized I had to leave KL, I decided to finally come to Penang for a change of scenery. This decision was made mostly because Laia…
Three years of travel (in photos!) + a giveaway
Usually I don’t publish posts over the weekend, but today is a special date and I will not break the tradition of an April 1 post every year. Today is exactly 3 years since I first boarded a flight out of the US to seek adventures and make dreams come true. This 3rd year of travel has been a roller coaster. Though technically, it has been less travel and more staying in one place. The first year was all about exploring as…
Two years of travel (in photos!)
So wow. Two years. I remember when I was finding pictures and writing my anniversary post last year. Not to be all cliché, but I can’t believe how fast the time goes by. Looking back on my 2nd year of travel, though I visited a decent number of places (both new and old), this was undisputedly the year of family. If the first year was the year of exploration and finding our groove as nomadic travelers, this year, family definitely took…
February 2016 travel re-cap: change of plans
Where we left off at the end of the last month’s re-cap, I was just starting my solo stint in Malaysia. I had 6 weeks planned by myself: 2 in Kuala Lumpur and 4 in Penang. If you’ve been following along, you’ll already have known that things didn’t exactly pan out this way. I was a little bit nervous to be alone, but it made it better that D was with me in KL for the first two weeks, so…
January 2016 travel re-cap: saying bye to Taiwan and falling for Malaysia
Damn, I really wanted to starting getting these re-caps out on time now (that means the beginning of each month!), but I’m failing already. So let’s jump right into January! The 1st – Jan 15: Taipei As soon as the new year rolled around, I started to get sentimental about leaving Taipei. Time really flies by fast when you’re comfortable in a place. I still had a long list of things I never got around to doing, and I managed…
November & December 2015 travel re-cap: feeling like home in Taipei
I’m cheating a little with this one by combining the two months so I can be caught up with these already! And anyway, not too much has happened over these months to warrant separate recaps. It’s so true that the longer you’re at a place, the less you do. There’s just no need to bust your ass exploring somewhere new everyday when you’ve got three months to do it. But that just means that I’ve put off stuff for so…
Best (and Worst) of 2015: Travel Edition
I know I said “see you next year” in my last post, but then I realized that I don’t actually have holiday plans and these days are pretty much just like any other normal days for me, so I got the motivation to put together a “look back on 2015” type post. So here was my year in superlatives! (You’ve probably already seen most of these pictures in previous posts but it’s still nice to have all my most memorable…
October 2015 travel re-cap: aka. why I didn’t like Japan
Trying to somewhat catch up on these re-caps before the year’s over! October started off with me having finally arrived in Japan after a frustrating 48 hours in transit, and then promptly falling ill due to said journey, but it was all well and good because I was on the road with D again. The first thing I thought when D picked me up at the train station was “wow, he’s a lot smaller than I remember.” Even though we…
September 2015 travel re-cap: returning home
Let’s keep going with these re-caps… this one is a heavy one! September started off on a very high note. After a full month in the ICU department + recovery suite, my sister, Lena, was transferred out of the hospital and into a rehab center (on the very last day of August, I believe)! (Hello new readers! Read here if you have no idea what happened.) This put everyone in a good mood. Once in rehab, she progressed very fast – from…
August 2015 travel re-cap: postcards from Italy
I pride myself on writing about only what is true to me. However, August’s recap will be a little different… because for the first time ever on this blog, it contains pictures not taken by me and places not visited by me. As most of you know already, I flew back to Los Angeles in early August on family emergency. Meanwhile, D stayed on and continued with our travel plans through Italy. This was a slightly cruel twist of fate…