travels

I've been a lot - mostly due to attending various MUN conferences. Nevertheless, it's a lot like Singapore with very cheap and good food. Also, Auntie Anne's is pretty widespread, tastes great, and isn't inhibitively pricey like their Singaporean outlets.

MUN trip turned into a week-long holiday in Seoul. Stayed in Songpa Hostel at $14/night and got 3 free nights at the Seoul Olympic Parktel (~$100/night). Amazingly, there was a day of snowfall (around 1 month before snow was expected). Had a snowball fight with a new Korean friend, ate incredible food, took the world's longest zipline (940m!!!!), had a North Korea border DMZ trip sadly cancelled on us. Addicted to Kimchi to this day, still have tantalising flashbacks of Sulbing's Bingsu.

2nd conference back-to-back, so was pretty tired. But had a free stay at the J.W. Marriott/Ritz Carlton, which were both chains I'd only vaguely heard of before (as being fancy hotels) - so randomly getting the chance to stay in them was pretty crazy. One bummer was that the hotel and conference locations were in a pretty rich enclave (China Central Place), meaning that I didn't really get to see any "real" Beijing (though I'd soon fix this at the end of the year). Did, however, get to visit the Forbidden City + Tiananmen Square and see the changing of the guards.

Found return tickets to the Maldives for <$200 and immediately snapped them up. Stayed a night in a sleeping pod in Malé, then stayed a couple days in Thulusdhoo, followed by Guraidhoo. Had an incredible time - packed clothes, a bar of detergent, and a second-hand snorkel + fins that cost a cumulative <$15 and just went. Kayaked, snorkeled, had a public transport ferry (dhoni) break down on me (made a friend out of the ferry attendant!). More expensive than I'd like (they only have resorts or guesthouses, no actual hostels) at ~$30-$40 per night, but the service and amenities were outstanding. They really know how to do tourism!

A graduation trip with my schoolmates. Slightly more expensive than normal, did slightly more cliché things - but cliché things are cliché for a (good) reason. Got to experience a bustling Ho Chi Minh, saw the Củ Chi tunnels and the Mekong River. For Japan, based in Osaka and had a bunch of day trips throughout the Kansai region (Himeji, Kobe, Nara, Kyoto). Ate incredible food, saw incredible things.

A trip for a conference in which, funnily enough, I was compensated enough to earn a profit from flying to Bali. First stayed in a chill $4/night hostel, then a fancy resort-hotel immediately after. Pretty funny dichotomy. Also, touched down in Singapore the morning of my high school convocation.

A relatively impromptu (and cheap!!) backpacking journey from Singapore to China with the following legs:

Singapore -🚌-> Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -🚌-> Padang Besar, Malaysia -🚶-> Hat Yai, Thailand -🚂-> Bangkok, Thailand -🚂-> Aranyaprathet, Thailand -🚶-> Poi Pet, Cambodia -🚚🚶-> Siem Reap, Cambodia -🚌🛻-> Ban Nakasong, Laos -🚣-> Don Det, Laos -🚣🚌-> Pakse, Laos -🚌-> Danang, Vietnam -✈️-> Hanoi, Vietnam -🚂-> Nanning, China

First trip since the onset of COVID-19 :)

Germany: Berlin, Füssen, Munich, Dresden
Finland: Lappeenranta, Porvoo, Helsinki

Athens, Santorini, Meteora, Delphi

Amsterdam, Den Haag, Leiden

Leiden, Rotterdam