Updated: That's me!

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While writing his Japanese tales, the author simply ran out of inspiration. He decided to test his memory by recalling the places he have been to for the past few years. What follows is what he could best recall (without constantly refering to his passport!)

The author is a true blue Singaporean who discovered the joy of travelling some 9 years ago in November 1998 when he followed his church buddy to Kuala Lumpur & Genting Highlands for a week long holiday. At a "ripe" 19 years of age, this was his first time taking a flight from the then old Subang Airport in Kuala Lumpur to Senai Airport in Johor Bahru.

"The trip simply inspired me to discover more and far!"

Unfortunately, his travel plans were put on hold while serving his National Service full time between August 1999 - February 2002. By June 2002, 2 weeks before his University started, he was on the air to Hong Kong. September the same year, he was back again to Kuala Lumpur. In 2003, he spent his Christmas in Bangkok with a group of 7 people. That was by far his largest travelling group size.

July 2004 was an eventful year for him as he reached his first ang-mohPerth, Australia for an 11 day vacation. "This was my most relaxed vacation!" During the same time, budget carriers started emerging in the region. He took an AirAsia flight from Johor to Penang that same year.

In December 2004 & July 2005, he did some community service work in Chiang Mai, Thailand together with his school friends.

"It helped to enriched his otherwise boring existence!"

Barely a week later, he was in Taiwan to spend his summer holidays. He loved the place so much that by December 2005, he was back again with his sister. There is a high probability of him going back for the 3rd time (very soon).

May 2006, he joined his friends for his graduation trip to Hong Kong & Macau and discovered that HK Disneyland is not as bad as what others made out to be.

July 2006, he worked as a holiday planner for 2 months and concluded that package tours were not meant for him. "It wasn't a nice feeling convincing customers to sign up for tour packages when I didn't believe it myself! In the end, I left the company along with some travel knowledge and experience which was very "informative."

November 2006, he visited Phuket 2 years after the Tsunami and discovered the joy of communicating with the locals with his limited Thai vocabulary. He closed the year with road trips to Melaka, Kuala Lumpur & Penang. Spring 2007, he visited the Land of Rising Sun with his friends and found that Japan was far more affordable than he thought previously.

The author is currently on his new job assignment and is not expected to travel out of Singapore until his probation ends in August 2007. His spare time is spent as a freelance tripadvisor advising his people and sharing his travel experiences. All these years, his travel motto has remained unchanged. "To travel around the world on a budget in order to stretch his travel dollars." And this has since been realised with the advent of budget carriers to take him far and high.

2007 and beyond

Before Tiger Airways flew for the last time to Udon Thani, he was there with his sister for a 4 Day trip in August 2007, 4 months after he started his new assignment.

"I'm not sure what made us chose Udon Thani really!" but it did occupied a sizable coverage in the 我报 paper which he proudly kept it till this day. By Christmas 2007, he was so desperate to fly out of Singapore that he spent $510 for a round-trip ticket to Bangkok, Thailand.

"It was eventful to ride on the Death Railway in Kanchanaburi and till this day, the tales of the hardships continued to haunt me!"

Moving on to 2008, he spent his first 6 days of 2008 in Cambodia where he stayed with his Khmer friend in Phnom Penh and made a trip to Siem Reap to visit the Temples of Angkor.

"These ancient wonders are simply awesome. Everybody should visit at least once in their life time!"

March 2008, taking advantage of SilkAir crazy sale, he went with his best friend of 16 years and his spouse to the resort island of Langkawi over the Good Friday long weekend. He was so inspired by the TV series, "简单就是美" that he decided to travel alone to Taiwan between 16-23rd August 2008.

This was his 3rd trip to the beautiful island of Formosa within 4 years. He was happy of his achievement and had to agrree that the Taroko Gorge in Hualien was "absolutely stunning!"

He closed 2008 with a 12 day trip to Japan. While many others were flying direct to Hokkaido directly, Budokan and his travel kakis had a taste of shinkansen travel from Tokyo to Sapporo in a 10 hours rail journey.

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Comments

[gillian]

good credentials~!
good credentials lor~! can go b a travel-writer liao man~! hahahah