Wordless Wednesday :- Silent Reflection

Travel Tuesday :- Sagada, Philippines

Nature is an integral component to living a balanced life. The fresh air. The silence. The beauty.

Personally, I try my best to spend some time with nature during my travels as I live in a metropolitan city.

While I was traveling in the Philippines, I made sure to give myself time for hikes in nature. Coincidentally, prior to my arrival to the country of 7107 islands, I heard about a person’s wonderful experience from hiking in Sagada. So I did my best to include Sagada to my itinerary.

Macro Monday :- Spring Blossoms

Wordless Wednesday :- One of a Kind

Travel Tuesday :- Asia bound

Greetings! Apologies for the lack of written posts. I was neck deep with the Spiritual Travel Tours website – I still have a lot of work to do in the background but at least I have launched it and happy with the results! If you don’t know why another website… it is my business venture. I am combining travel with spirituality to help empower those interested to see the world with a different perspective and a greater level of awareness with stronger intuitions.

Within 48 hours of this post, I will have landed in Hong Kong, my birthplace. I took these night shots back in July of 2013 when I was there last.

View of Hong Kong harbour from the Peak after dark

Money Talk: How much did my 2013 Epic Journey cost!?!

Money, Budgets, Financial Talk

Whenever someone talks about going on a trip / vacation / holiday / escape / getaway / journey / pilgrimage – whatever it is labeled as, the BURNING question in the back of everyone’s mind… HOW do they afford it?! How much did it cost!?!

If you’ve been reading along on my blog, I tend to talk about anything but money. It’s a cliche thing for a Canadian or a Chinese descendent or in the general global society to be up front about financial matters.

Well today, I feel like sharing and talking numbers – as one of my intention for this blog is to motivate more people to travel – solo or not. So I do not want people to use $$ as an excuse or reason for them to deter from traveling and exploring this beautiful world of ours.

Weekly Photo Challenge: On Top (World)

With this week’s photo challenge, it is emphasizing and reminding me how much I enjoy hiking to the top of a mountain or a higher elevation. I do get affected by altitude sickness though, as realized on the Inca Trail. With this effort though, I have gained experiences along the way and am allowed to enjoy the view from a different perspective.

Here are some views from the 7 continents:

Antarctica

View of Neko Harbour, Antarctica

Fashion and Beauties of Vietnam

Long sleeved camera assistant in HCMC, Vietnam

On the first full day of my 20-day visit in Vietnam, I noticed something very obvious and conflicting, with my eyes while in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Everywhere I go. Everywhere I look. The thermometer read +35C (95F). The heat. The humidity – oh the humidity – it was about 95%. Luckily by this time, I had started to acclimatize to the crazy hot heat of Asia – this took 1.5 months. However, it still felt like a ginormous sauna / steam room to me, every time I leave the comfort of air conditioning.

Delicious Food in Laos – Bring it!

Prior to my arrival in Laos – I had never tasted or seen Lao cuisine. Or so I thought…

Little did I know, Northern Thai cuisine and Cambodian cuisine were developed from Lao cuisine! This explains why the names are similar if not the same and tastes similar as well. I was in for a treat… and HEAT! Spicy, hot, heat! Bring me a towel, sweat from the spicy food will be competing with sweat from the hot, humid weather.

Before embarking on this Epic journey, I figured I had to go into training – what type of training you ask…

Malaysian-Singaporean-Indonesian food tour in Toronto

Here is how I traveled to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia without getting on an airplane!

Toronto, Canada is a melting pot of cultures – heartland of immigrants from around the world. Over 140 languages and dialects are spoken by the citizens of Toronto – so it is no wonder, there is a vast variety of cuisine to be had in this city. No one wants to be homesick and food plays such an important role in all cultures and represent their heritage.

Since my return to Toronto from my 2013 Epic Journey to 14 different countries, various friends have commented on the photos of food I had posted on Facebook while traveling. They wanted to step out of their comfort zone and try other cuisine. However, they couldn’t just jet off to a far away land to get a taste of the Asian or South America cuisine. So a suggestion of a mini travel tour without a 15+ hour flight came about.