YQrtw: Why Italy

Old Timey Florence, vintage, florence, commons

[I’m stealing my mom’s mobile broadband to post these posts. Thanks mama! Let’s get back to our regular program.]

After floating about at sea for 15 nights for my round-the-world (RTW), I will be in Italy–the land of gelato, cappucino and pizza. Buon appetito.

Photo credit: Library of Congress

I must confess. Italy was not in my “MUST VISIT” list when I was first making plans. [By now, I know most of you will be like: YQ! Stop telling us you didn’t want to go to a country but ended up going anyway.]

Hear me out! I didn’t want to go to Italy because I felt that it was too touristy and would be more expensive than the other countries.

Besides higher-cost, I felt that since I was headed to Greece, I could skip Italy. My theory was that the Roman Empire followed the Greek Empire so I can see even more ancient stuff if I head to Greece. Of course, I did not take into consideration my lack of knowledge in ancient European grography and history.

In the end, Italy fell into my lap because it was the last stop of the cruise I will be going on.

Turns out, Italy is more exciting than I thought it would be.

I have 10 days in Italy (to divide my 30 days equally among the three European country I am visiting). As I like to travel slow, I plan to base myself in Florence for most of the time. If I get too bored in Florence, I’ll take a day trip elsewhere.

I’m not too keen on Venice because of the flock of tourists that will be there. Plus, I heard that Venice is not the cheapest Italian city to be in.

Travel plans for Italy

My travel plans for Italy is the most concrete among my other plans (including Sri Lanka which I will be heading in about a week’s time.) I’ve booked two 19 euro tickets, which is kind of a bargain.

My cruise will land at Civitavecchia. After a night there, I will head to Pisa before taking the train to Florence.

I plan to spend most of my time in Florence to look at the beautiful things they have there. My only regret about Florence is that I didn’t manage to finish Assassin’s Creed 2 which had a walking map of old Florence. I blame my old computer for that.

For the last three days of my trip, I will head to Italy’s capital Rome. I am not very sure what I want to do in Rome but I’m sure I’ll be able to pack all three days to the brim.

In Italy, I want to eat a lot of pasta, gelato and pizza. My stomach is hungry just thinking about these three food.

Have you been to Italy? What do you recommend doing there?

YQrtw: Why Dubai

[It’s supposed to be a week full of posts about my round-the-world but I do not have fixed internet connection at home so I will update a little sparsely.]

Today, we are talking about Dubai which I didn’t plan to visit but ended up on my list anyway.

Photo credit: Eugene Kaspersky (The Kaspersky!)

Dubai wasn’t originally on my list of places to visit. From descriptions of the place, I imagined it to be like a faster growing Singapore with the occasional sand storm.

However, I suspected that I might have a layover there since it’s a transit hub.

In the end, I did get a few days in Dubai but not for flight transit as I first thought. Instead, my cruise leaves from Dubai.

When buying my ticket to Dubai from Colombo, I gave myself 3 full days in the city which stretches out into 4 days if you look at the calendar. Now I’m kind of regretting having such a long layover there.

However, Stephanie from Pearlsnpassport.com who was in Dubai recently loved the place and would consider working there. I met up with her just this afternoon for a lunch of ayam penyet. She helped with a lot of questions

[Stephanie is now on her RTW and her first two stops were Dubai and Sri Lanka. She helped me with a lot of questions about travelling in Dubai and Sri Lanka. It’s my first time seeing an actual RTW-er and a fellow travel blogger.]

I’ll give Dubai a chance and won’t judge the place until I’ve been there. If things aren’t as fun (meaning I only visit shopping malls), I might head over to Oman since I do not need a visa there.

Do you have any travel tips for Dubai? Share them in the comments below.

My round-the-world 2013 route

It’s rather strange being at home on a Wednesday afternoon, typing at my computer…

Oh ya, I am unemployed now. Anyway, I have a whole lot of things to pack in my room and should spend less time on the computer. (I’m only getting started with “things on the floor”. I’ve only managed 15 tiles and it seems that I’ve dug out more things than I’ve tossed.)

Anyway, not to bore you with my packing, I’ll share with you the route of my round-the-world trip (while I procrastinate packing).

My concrete route for now is:

Malaysia -> Sri Lanka -> Dubai-> [Stopping by Jordan and Egypt on a cruise ship] -> Italy -> Greece -> Turkey -> South America (most likely Argentina, Bolivia, Peru) -> El Salvador -> Hong Kong

While there are other places in the world which I want to go, not all of them are on the list. The reasons why they are not in the list are: money, time and out-of-wayness.

The plans that you see now have been distilled from a murky “These are the places I want to go if I am rich” to something that’s more possible.

What my previous goal was

When I was planning the trip, I had big dreams. I wanted to see India, Egypt, Greece, UK (for flight transfer), USA, Hawaii (and by budget airline to) Australia.

I wanted to cross the Atlantic or Pacific oceans on a cargo ship. Even though this might sound like a good and cheap option to cross the sea, turns out it’s rather expensive and very time consuming.

I wanted to do so much but I knew my budget was limited. In the end, I narrowed down my destinations to a few continents while keeping to a few important places: Greece and South America.

Destinations such as Egypt and Hawaii were crossed out because it would be rather expensive to go solo (especially for only a few days). Since Hawaii was out, there was no point going by budget airlines to Australia which I’ve not found the wish to visit yet.

Where I’m going

I will be heading home to Sabah next Tuesday and spend about 2 weeks there. Then I’m heading to Sri Lanka for seven days which will coincide with the the local new year celebration. [Catch the Sri Lanka updates here.]

After Sri Lanka, I will be in Dubai for a few days before my cruise leaves for Italy. [Dubai posts here.] Yes, that’s right, I’m going on a cruise despite being on a backpacking trip. I’ve never been on a cruise but two people who have been on cruises told me it’s dead boring. Will I be bored to death? Stay tuned.

The cruise covers Jordan and three sites in Egypt so I might go on an excursion at those places.

While in Europe, I will only visit Italy, Greece and Turkey because I only have a month there. Mom will join me in Turkey! Yeah! We’ll be checking out exotic locations in Turkey.

After Turkey, I’m heading to South America for TWO MONTHS. Holy macarena! Two whole months in South America in winter. Actually, two months is not much if you consider how gigantic the continent is.

After SA, it’s a week in El Salvador. I know it’s a bit weird but I had a flight connection there and for an extra US$60, I could stop over for as long as I like. Great!

After El Salvador, I’m heading to Los Angeles for a transit to Hong Kong. I am not staying in the US because living expenses there is crazy compared to the other places I have on my plan. But I still need to pay US$160 for visa, even though it’s only a 4-hour transit. Boo hoo.

Finally, I will be heading to Hong Kong. I’ve only been to Macau so I look forward to the many dimsum feasts which I will have.

After Hong Kong, it’s back to Malaysia. I’ll take a mini break before I figure out the next step.

What will happen during RTW?

Of course my RTW isn’t a long vacation which some think it is.

I will continue blogging and share travel tips for the locations I go to. I will also jot notes for the book that I want to write after the trip.

During my journey, I also want to find “the next place I want to stay semi-permanently”.

I’ve been in Singapore for 7 years, which is about one-quarter of my life. I am not sure if I want to be in Singapore for the rest of my life so I want to find the next best place. What better way than to go to places and check out the place? (By the way, this doesn’t mean that I want to settle down in a place with “that special someone”.)

Do you have any recommendations for the countries I’m visiting? Share them in the comment!

Big news: You’ll never guess where I’m going!

If you’ve guessed that I’m going to Terengganu, you are right. But I’m not talking about my Malaysia trip this time.

Ahem. I’ve been keeping this a secret for a long while and now I am finally able to announce this. DRUM ROLL.

I’m going around the world!

Yes, it’s too early for April’s Fools so this is the real deal. I will embark on a career break to do a round-the-world (RTW) trip.

It took me about two years before I got to this stage. I had the idea that I wanted to go on a RTW after reading Round the World with NT$100K and now, I am (sort of ready).

Why an RTW now?

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sdasmarchives/8091775774/

You might be wondering why I choose to go now and not when I’m happily retired or more financially stable.

It’s for many reasons:

I’m young. OK, I’m not 18 like the gap-yearers from the UK. I mean I am still able to carry a backpack and walk for a long stretch without feeling weak in the knees.
I do not have serious commitments. I do not have a house mortgage, kids, husband/fiancé, ailing parents (choi!) or younger sibling still studying.
I want to do this. I know it will cause me more heart pain 50 years down the road if I do not do it now.
I know I can do it. I’ve read NT100,000 around the world and I now that it is possible to travel the world cheap.

I’ll share the my RTW route in a follow up post as well as detailed posts about why I choose the locations.

FAQ of my RTW

When I first announced RTW trip to my inner circle of friends, they had many questions. I’ve gathered them all into a Frequently Asked Questions segment.

Are you going with your mom/friend/bodyguard?

No, this will be a solo trip. I can’t find someone with the time/budget/travel agenda as I do.

Isn’t it dangerous for a woman to travel alone?

That’s a trick question, isn’t it? Yes, I understand that bad things can happen. But more good things will happen than bad especially when I know I can take care of myself.

How much are you prepared to spend? Who’s sponsoring you?

To be honest, I am not sure how much I will spend but I am budgeting S$10,000 for this trip (not including prepaid expenses such as air tickets).

Which countries are you going?

I’ll have a separate post for that soon. Short answer: one part of South Asia, very small bit of Middle East and Africa, some Europe and lots of South America.

What, you’re not going to Australia or most of Africa? That doesn’t count as a RTW, does it?

Yes, it’s still a RTW if I circle the globe. Plus, I don’t have the money to go to literally every country.

Aren’t you scared?

A friend once said, “YQ’s not brave, she’s just not afraid of dying.” (Well, it sounded better in Chinese.) Yes, there have been times during the trip planning which I doubted myself but I know I must do it.

Wait, what about your job?

Well, I’ve left my 3.5 year job as a tech journalist. Hopefully, I can find a new position when I come back or discover a new career path.

In the next posts, I’ll be talking about the countries I will be visiting on my RTW.

What other questions do you have about RTW travel? Write them down in the comments!

Book review: Adventures of 2 Girls

Let me start off this book review with the back cover of Adventures of 2 Girls so I do not need to summarize what happens in the book.

Just kidding, my photo’s too small to be read anyway.

Adventures of 2 Girls is the travel memoir of Singaporean women Pam and Ning who took a career break (and family break) to travel for 9 months.

To put things in context, the two ladies are not ordinary people who decided that they want to cross off many items from their bucket list. They were already famous even before their trip: Pam is a journalist (which she does not stop reminding us of in the book) and Ning is a professional magician.

Still it’s rather rare for people from the region to take career breaks. Legitimate career breaks are things such as furthering your studies so you can climb higher up the career ladder or marrying into a rich family that only requires you to have male babies for them.

As you can see, taking time off to travel is not one of the legitimate options for a career break but Pam and Ning did it (which I applaud). The two ladies put together S$100,000 (the heck, I can’t even save $50,000 if I starve myself for 20 months) and went on a journey to many places, including a stop in Paris where Ning did a Cordon Bleu course.

“Fun read”

The book’s layout is different from the other travel memoirs. Instead of a long continuous story about their journey, the book is divided into independent chapters with standalone stories–similar to how Indonesian blogger/traveller Trinity organizes her The Naked Traveler series).

While the book spices things up by including perspectives from both ladies, I couldn’t really tell who’s who without points of reference, such as “I looked at Pam”, because the editor seem to have turned the two voices into one tone.

Overall, the book is a fun read. It’s fun to see how the two BFFs put up with each other through thick and thin. (I’m pretty sure BFF meant “best female friend” and not “best friend forever” as it seems to be commonly known these days.)

There were a few laugh out loud moments and I give credit to the authors for not lazily stuffing the book full of photos to pass off as a travel memoir.

However, the short chapters weren’t satisfying. Perhaps I am too used to long rambling travel memoirs where the author describes fellow passengers in detail and brings us along every turn of the street.

Another part of Adventures of 2 Girls which I’m not a big fan of are the areas where religion is pushed into my face–it’s a little like how I wished the section about seeking spirituality in India would finish quickly when I read Eat, Pray, Love.

I would recommend borrowing the book from the library because I believe that most of the content are available on their blog.

Checkout reviews of other travel reads:

Have you read Adventures of 2 Girls? How do you find the book?

Read: Round the world with NT$100,000

rtwwithnt100000 — Great book: Round the World with NT$100,000

This was the book that inspired my round-the-world trip dreams. By inspired, I mean “to really make plans” instead of just jotting it down in my mental bucket list. I actually borrowed it twice from the library.

Long story short, Taiwanese indie traveller 943 shares how she went on a RTW in 80 days by only spending slightly more than NT$100,000 (US$3,340). She used point-to-point flights instead of a RTW ticket.

She flew from Taipei to Singapore to Europe (overnight at Bahrain) where she hopped around a bit. Then she flew to the US then to Central and South America where she took long distance buses. She then flew back to US where she flew home to Taipei.

I think it’s absoluteley brilliant that anyone can do a RTW with less than US$10,000! Speaking of which, here are a few examples of how much other people spent on a RTW.

From what I’ve read, she mostly saves money on lodging (which is a killer!) by bunking with Couchsurfers. She also does her research to make sure that she’s using the cheapest transportation. It’s chock full of indie travel gems if you read Chinese. Besides being full of tips, her book is quite humorous. I laughed at many parts.

During her Central and South America trip, she deliberately not learn Spanish beyond numbers 1 to 10 and the word for toilet (baño–pronounced ban-nyo, if you are interested). Instead, she experimenting if she could get by with body language. Apparently, it worked.

Other travel related tips that I really like from her book are her sample Word and Excel files for pre-trip flight/accomodation/transport comparison, during-trip schedule. I’ll be testing out both tips for my trip to Yogyakarta in April and share how that tip helps me.

I’d totally buy this book if I see it on offer. Yes, I am that cheapskate.

Read: Eat, Pray, Love

I admit. I was one of the nasty people who scoffed at the premise of Eat, Pray, Love when I first heard about it.

What? Rich lady travels the world to eat, pray and love? I immediately filed it under Stuff Other People Read, right next to Twilight.

Guess what, I read Twilight last month and I just finished Eat, Pray, Love (one hour ago, to be exact).

First off, I should have never put Eat, Pray, Love next to Twilight in my mind. Twilight needs to be thrown in a fire, along with the movie franchise and shirtless boys. Continue reading “Read: Eat, Pray, Love” →