Prologue – How it all started…

I am home sweet home after having travelled 38,029 km to 24 cities/towns in 6 countries by flights, buses, trains and cars over 886 hours. Now, I shall write my blog to share the stories of my epic adventure. First, let’s go back to the time to how this all started……..

6 months ago

Finally, the day has come for me to bid farewell to my dear colleagues and bosses and to the place that I have worked hard for the past five years and three months. I still remember how I surprised my friends and colleagues when I decided to tender my resignation. Many have expected that I would be one of the few to last in this line of service – AUDIT.

Yes, I am sure many of you know that audit working hours, especially in Asia are generally very tough and not many are able to survive through this. I was able to “tough it out” as I enjoyed the nature of the job and the connection with wonderful people that I worked with. However, over the years, the endless working hours and job nature have finally started to get to me so after careful consideration and deep thought, I decided to go on a break. Life has got to be more than just work, right? With mixed feelings, I chose to venture into a new journey.

On my last day, my colleagues asked , “So Shirlene, what is your plan now?” Ah, here comes THE question… “I am going to do whatever I want to do and fully enjoy my break”, I responded with a smile.…

5 months ago

It’s been so long since I was able to enjoy a good Chinese New Year with my family. This feeling is awesome. If I was still working, I would usually be crunching numbers, pulling my hair trying to reconcile the figures until late night while my family was asleep in order to meet the deadlines. Simply said, I would be in misery while the rest of the Chinese population celebrates this joyful season with their loved ones.

One night, I met my friends for dinner and one of them was sharing her stories of how she travelled to many places during her career break. After hearing her stories, I was inspired. Being brought up by conservative parents who taught us to save rather than spend, I did not plan to spend much during my career break too but I changed my mind. You can always earn and save money again but learning to treat yourself with your hard-earned money is important too. Of course, I am not encouraging everyone to spend it all. Instead of backpacking or luxurious travelling, I settled with budget travelling which I define it as travelling with a budget that I can afford. Also, what’s a career break without some good travelling right?

All right, let’s do this!

4 months ago

OK, initially, I wanted to go to Iceland with my friend but the plan fell through and all my other friends are busy working too. Feeling slightly dejected and let down , I thought to myself ,”There goes my travel plan… But, wait…..Why should I let this stop me from enjoying my career break?” That’s when the idea of SOLO TRAVEL popped into my mind ! Never in my life I would have imagined travelling solo until now. So, why don’t I just travel solo and visit my oversea friends instead? It sounds like a perfect plan to me at least.

Now, the question is how do I convince my parents that I want to travel solo? This is not surprising as being the youngest in my family and a huge age gap with my elder siblings have somewhat made me a “baby” forever in the eyes of my parents even though I am in my late twenties. Haha, I know right? Not that I am complaining … on the bright side, I will feel forever young with my family. =)

Here goes nothing…

3 months ago

After some decent convincing , my parents have given me a green light ! Yay!

Meanwhile, the travel plan is going on smoothly. It started with UK as I have many friends there and expanded to more and more countries when I slowly recalled where my old friends whom I haven’t met in ages are. Surprisingly, many of them are working in different parts of the world which made me feel so proud knowing they are accomplishing their goals and dreams. What’s better than solo travel and reunion with old friends? It’s like killing many birds with one stone.

Thanks to Facebook, I was able to get in touch with them easily even without having their current phone numbers so I started contacting them one by one. After plenty wonderful conservations made with a number of old friends, the countries that I would be visiting come down to Norway, USA, UK , Germany and Austria.

Time for lots of research and planning!

2 months ago

“OK, flight tickets, accommodations and US visa all checked.” I thought with a sigh of relief. Oh , by the way, a new destination – Dubai was also added to my plan since I would be flying with Emirates so I took advantage of a Dubai stopover.

Being an ex-auditor, it has definitely made me a very careful and detailed planner as I checked many times before I paid for the flight tickets and accommodations to avoid mixing up any dates and places. After all, travelling to so many places continuously requires careful and detailed planning. If I mess up even just one flight ticket, there goes the rest too.

My budgeting skills also came in very handy which I am glad of. Yes, like all auditors, I did my whole plan in an excel spreadsheet. Hahaha….This might be surprising to many but not to auditors. I guess we are just used to our ways. *wink*

All right, feeling really excited and counting down to the day I start travelling….

Weeks before

“Happy Birthday, my dear”, Ashley wished me. We were dining at a BBQ buffet restaurant in Publika. This is already the 6th year of celebrating my birthday with her. She is my ex-colleague-slash-one of my closest friends. We didn’t really have good impressions of each other when we first met during a company course sitting at the same table. In fact, we didn’t think we would ever be close friends. However, it turns out that we were both wrong, very wrong. =)

Anyway, she asked, “So, how’s your travelling plan getting on?”.

“All good, settled my flights and accommodations already, just need to fix my itinerary.” I said, nodding my head.

“You must be feeling excited, huh? Only few weeks left!”

I looked at her and sighed, “Actually, I am starting to feel anxious about travelling solo.”

“Why?” She startled.

“I don’t know…..While I was doing my research, I also read many tips and stories about travelling solo especially as a female. There are just a lot of things to be mindful of and my mom was also constantly warning me about safety issues while travelling. Of course, I am still excited about the trip but now the feeling is 50:50. Half excited and half anxious. OK, may be 40: 60.“

“Don’t worry too much, babe. You will be fine. Just be careful while you travel alone.”, she said.

I nodded and told myself that everything will be okay.

Then, we continued chatting about other topics and had a great night.

Days before

“OK, I am regretting big time now. Why didn’t I pack much earlier? Shirlene, why did you do this to yourself? ” I thought while looking at the mess I made in my room. Sigh. Clothes were everywhere and shoes were on the floor since I haven’t quite decided which to bring. You know…just a girl thing. My mom was standing at the door and giving me the “I told you so” look.  All right, whatever. Well, to be fair, it is not easy to pack light for 37 days when you have to travel to different countries with different weather. OK, so I need one thick jacket for Norway , jeans, …. looking at my list of things to bring which I have written. Oh crap, I forgot to write sun block. Damn, I will need to go out and buy later.

Let’s focus and make sure I don’t miss out anything important…

The night before

Tossing and turning in my bed, trying to fall asleep. Alas, tomorrow is the day. How do I feel? Well, I am still feeling anxious and excited. I just pray that my travel will go smoothly. This is going to be a memorable experience of a lifetime. I just know it. *fingers crossed*