Travelling

Courtesy of: Travel Thoughts PH

 

I first traveled out of my home country at the age of 11. I was very lucky indeed being to travel in such a young age, not only to one, but 3 countries (Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan) and transit in Singapore (first time touching my feet there). But before that, I had been travelling all around the islands where I lived in car with my parents and siblings, and domestic plane or even boat to my father's hometown.

Then I studied overseas as young as eighteen and to further country when I was twenty. While on school holiday, I traveled mostly by trains to other cities and neighboring countries. Sometimes, it took me three flights and trip more than 24 hours to reach the other side of the world, to cut cost (the more you transits, the cheaper your flight is).

Since my late 20s, after diagnosed with SLE, I started to travel to countries I wanted to visit. First on the list, was Tibet. But sometimes, fate led me to countries I even had never heard before - so many of them - thanks to my parents who led me visiting them as they brought me along as their company. Countries like Bhutan and Nepal, Iceland, Baltic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia), Russia, and so on.

Fate brought me to explore India. My dream to meet Dalai Lama has not come true yet. It has been years since my failed attempt, and until now, I still have not made them realized yet. But the company had brought me to Buddha pilgrimage places - I had been dreamed visiting them since my middle school time. Not only that. I also managed to explore Sikkim, including Gangtok, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and visited many Tibetan temples.

Through good friend, I managed to visit Sri Lanka (never ever thought visiting the country before), Vietnam, Thailand (the Golden Triangle), Myanmar, West America (LA, Las Vegas, SF). Later on, I managed to make my dream came true by visiting UK, Central Europe (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech), back to my school in Switzerland, and second visit to Denmark and Sweden.

Later on, I started touring with group tour to places that were more convenient to go with the tour group, such as: Balkan countries (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Slovenia, plus Venice in Italy), Mongolia, Central Asia - the five -Tans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan), and recently to the East America and Canada.

I never count how many countries I ever visited but I think it should have been more than 50 countries. And it does not stop here. As long as my feet, body, mind, leave, and wallet allows, I will still travel and explore to visit other parts of the world. 

The job has made the travel slow, but it allows me to earn and save the money to travel. With the mercy of my Boss, it allowed me to spend time with family too apart from days taken for traveling. 

There are still a lot of country I have not visited yet. But I hope, one day, I will able to visit all of them, one at a time, slowly, but sure :D