Places I’ve Been…

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
~ Robert Louis Stevenson ~

Coloured areas mark the few corners of this huge wide world that I’ve been blessed to visit or live in. 40 countries and counting, with some continents I’ve yet to ever set foot on! [Map courtesy of the Mark O’Travel iOS app]

I’ve been extremely lucky and blessed to have been traveling since I was young. One of the many things I respect about my parents was their belief in exposing their children -my two younger brothers and I-  to the wide world around us. They both came from humble backgrounds, and I imagine they must have worked and saved hard whilst working in their executive positions in the government sector during our early family years in order to take us on trips, local and overseas, whenever the opportunity arises. Aside from short holidays, we also moved a fair bit whilst growing up; we called Terengganu, Penang, and London ‘home’ for varying periods of time before settling down permanently in Shah Alam. They were always showing us new places, different people and cultures, recounting history, exploring environments, explaining geography. It was a means to ensure their children grow up understanding that there’s a massive and diverse world out there, to respect people of differing backgrounds, and to understand that we’re but small humble creatures living in a bigger universe.

When I left home to attend university, I started going on more independent trips – traveling alone or with friends to nearby destinations. And when I entered the working world and started earning my own money, I encountered pure travel freedom: I could now go wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted. The emergence of competitive budget airlines also made the world even smaller for me, enabling me to go to places I never would’ve been able to afford before due to flight costs alone. And now the only things holding me back from going to all the places I’ve dreamed of are time and cost; both of which can be easily managed given proper planning, savings, and determination 🙂

Click on the image of the map above, or visit my Listography page for a recap of the places I’ve been to throughout my life (40 countries and counting… so much more to visit!), and the list of top destinations I highly wish to visit and explore.

As for my travels and plans for 2017…

January

• All month : Dili, Timor Leste 

February

• All month : Dili, Timor Leste

March

• 1st – 7th : Dili, Timor Leste

• 8th – 13th : Bali, Indonesia

• 14th – 31st : Dili, Timor Leste

April

• All month : Dili, Timor Leste

May

• All month : Dili, Timor Leste

June

• All month : Dili, Timor Leste

July

• All month: Shah Alam, Malaysia

August

• All month: Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

September

• 1st – 10th : Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

• 11th – 18th : Shah Alam, Malaysia

• 19th – 30th : New Zealand

October

• TBC

November

• TBC

December

• Sweden/Iceland/Denmark (tentative)