Showing all posts in Adventure of a Lifetime

In Adventure of a Lifetime, Impulsive Writing, Overcasted Mind

Update 1.0 on what might have a shot at making it to Periplus someday

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Update 1.0 on what might have a shot at making it to Periplus someday

So I did try to write the roughest initial drafts of this piece. Regardless of whether or not these chapters will eventually morph into a well-structured creation, or if they would even finish being written at all in the first place, I see it as an appropriate moment for some early reflection.

A difficult part was to sort through all faces, names or the lack thereof, and happenstances. Do I decide on being completely honest, or do I prioritize “variety” – assuming this is the way to be a bit more reader-centric rather than exclusively putting my own agenda in the spotlight? Since it is practically a (semi-)autobiography, how do I balance the rawness and authenticity of it all with how much I want to protect certain parties? How would the real individuals feel about and react to the bluntness of it all, and should it matter? Even though they were all obviously PG-rated, but still, how explicit do I need to be about the emotions, messages, factual details, and such? Does the promised freedom outweigh the risk, i.e., will it interfere with my current relationships with some people?

But also, I looked back at all my solo travels and was made in awe with how many individuals I had met, connected with, or rekindled dormant friendships with – that inspired the making of this work. The experience spans years, though not yet a decade, and countless places that are dispersed around the globe. To think how far I have come since my first solo journey in 2017. Of all organic encounters, at least two were nameless. Some had a name but no trails to make use of it nonetheless. Some were buried deep in unanswered texts – mostly from my end. These interactions were flawed, broken, maybe insignificant now – but they were once real and most importantly, I lived them.

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In Adventure of a Lifetime, Impulsive Writing, Life on the Equator, Overcasted Mind, Wanderlogue

Letters from Post-Vacation Blues

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Letters from Post-Vacation Blues

London, June 4th, 2022

As I typed these, I was sitting at a very unusually quiet corner at London Gatwick Airport, waiting for the first leg of a series of long-haul flights that would bring me home. After 32 days of being away from home for my “ultimate solo bachelorette pilgrimage,” a.k.a. post-pandemic solo revenge travel, my reality slowly brought me back to Earth.

That day felt much quieter than the previous 31 days. My eyes were still a little damp from all the sobs that lasted for hours last night. I was definitely sleep-deprived, and also felt bizarre – in a couple of hours, I would be leaving all the faces and places that have provided me not only a shelter to sleep at night in the past month, but also to build my own temporary nest among the foreign and unknown.

The past month had got me high on life and love – and it had been way too long since the last time I recognized those feelings of appreciation of what life could serve and offer. I forgot how much joy one can absorb and digest. I did not remember that there were a few better parts of me which had been asleep for quite long that I barely recalled even existing – and they had awakened again in the past month. There was a spectrum of emotions and feelings I hadn’t experienced in a while, and it was such a lovely pleasure to welcome those rainbows, butterflies, and even thunderstorms again. It was everything but numbness, unlike the preceding two years of surviving the strangest years of everyone’ life.

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In Adventure of a Lifetime, Thoughtful Enlightenment, Wanderlogue

UK & Ireland, 2022: A Month of Serendipitous Occurrences

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UK & Ireland, 2022: A Month of Serendipitous Occurrences

Came for the places and the chance for a month-long quality time with myself, but stayed for all the serendipitous encounters and happenstances that I never anticipated to happen.

That is perhaps how my recent travels to the UK, Ireland, and other British Crown dependencies in-between in May 2022 were best summarized.

It was the first time I solo travelled after a long-overdue five-year, also the first in my late twenties. Perhaps the title that is most fitting to label the trip was an “ultimate bachelorette solo pilgrimage,” considering this might have been the all-in journey that uplifted me emotionally and spiritually in a way, almost like a personal pilgrimage, and also possibly the peak of travels I’d be able to do in my unmarried years considering my hectic daily 8-to-5 job in that would most likely stay so in the next few years.

I remember that my younger self used to consider solo travelling as an outlet to be fully alone with myself – a time where I would allow my introverted side to shine unabashedly.

However, it was a much different one this year. Being 28, I had approached the chance to wander around a foreign territory all by myself differently, without even realizing it in the first place.

To start, I met and connected with dozens of interesting souls that I’d definitely lose count of had I not jotted their names down a list in my private notes. I witnessed how my best personality I had forgotten to possess bloomed and lingered given the right circumstances. I experienced a handful of surprising, even to some extent life-altering occurrences that I hadn’t even thought about ever coming about. I also had a few moments of deep ponders and contemplations about life that led me to revisit my childhood dreams, ask myself about what rings the truest to my heart, and notice all the different spectrums of emotions I could be immersed in had I just allowed myself to sense and absorb them mindfully.

It is perhaps impossible to include all those stories about rewarding and meaningful occurrences within a blog post. A whole book is what would be needed to elaborate all the intricate details – the tiny bits that led to the bigger picture of recalibrating my north star, redefining my core, and rediscovering joy and love. And I certainly did not expect a month trip to lead to this much of serendipitous encounters and findings.

But this post will be the start – the prequel that perhaps serves as an epitome to the thirty-day journey, which to me meant way so much more than just visiting and seeing new places halfway across the globe after years of deferral. To me, it’s the people, and the compassion from them and the universe that had made all the differences.

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In (Perhaps) Fiction, Adventure of a Lifetime, Wanderlogue

That Heathrow Morning Scene; May the Fifth

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That Heathrow Morning Scene; May the Fifth

It followed a seven-and-a-half-hour flight across the terrain, where the last one-third of a night slowly shifted into a dazzling sunrise from above the clouds, followed by a sunny, lukewarm morning on a different continent.

The woman could particularly recall a pair of hazel eyes and coiffured, well-groomed hair of a similar shade from that morning. Fair skin in contrast to her tan. Sharp-edged nose underneath a black-coloured face covering. An approximately six-foot tall man in his white tees and beige sweatpants. A black carry-on duffle bag. A two-hour conversation and shared chuckles, that led to zero names, let alone trails of any sort.

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In Adventure of a Lifetime, Wanderlogue

10 tips from my solo travel as a non-Spanish speaking hijabi in Peru

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10 tips from my solo travel as a non-Spanish speaking hijabi in Peru

This would be my last piece for #PeruMarathonSeries🇵🇪 that I wrote in the spirit of Peru’s upcoming 99th independence day, by refurbishing some draft posts that I made back in 2017 but never really got the chance to finish and share.

I first came up with this article because, at that time, I had been receiving quite a few questions from my friends regarding how I managed to dare myself to travel solo to South America, and also how I actually execute the travel. Most of these questions seemed to have stemmed from the fact that I am merely a brown hijabi female who does not even speak Spanish, and probably doesn’t even look as “adult” as I actually am (which truthfully does not imply that I don’t look as aged, it’s just that my 155 cm or *nearly* 5’1″ height is way below the average height of most 20-something-year-old females, lol).

Also, South America isn’t typically a common tourist destination for most Indonesians, and I guess for a large proportion of the Asian community as well. Even to some extent, for the western population too.

Therefore, I thought I should perhaps compile some tips on how I dealt with any uncertainty that might arise before and during the travel. Even though I realize that there are many way more experienced women who can talk about this topic better than I do, I think it just doesn’t hurt to share my experience. In particular, because I always felt that at least for Muslim communities, we only have a few hijabi solo travellers slash influencers whom we could look up to in reference to this topic.

Without further ado, here are some tips I’d recommend for your seamless solo travel!

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In Adventure of a Lifetime, Wanderlogue

How to do a full day of Machu Picchu (with tips for solo travellers)

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How to do a full day of Machu Picchu (with tips for solo travellers)

Most of us are probably familiar with that one specific photograph of Machu Picchu overlooking the rustic Inca ruins with the majestic mountain in the background. But did you know that the picture actually only represents perhaps 5%, at best, of what Machu Picchu site truly comprises?

Did you know that you could come down to and observe every single one of those ruins closely, hike the mountain in the background and also another mountain nearby, get 360 degrees panoramic view comprising that picture and all other amazing landscape from a short hike, and on top of that, chill with llamas on a green prairie overlooking the highlands?

In this post, I would like to share my experience that helped me to get the best out of Machu Picchu using the standard entrance ticket only – even as a solo traveller who does not have much experience in hiking.

My entire mountain-roaming journey is basically just hiking once in Indonesia’s Mt. Cikuray, then a couple more in Jasper, Banff, and Chéticamp of Canada, and that’s it. If you’re more experienced than what I seem to be, then you could also try out some other hiking opportunities in the Machu Picchu site that I will talk about as well, that I wished I had tried too. But you’re very welcome to simply follow my itinerary because I think what I did was already more than just sufficient to carry this as a wonderful once in a lifetime experience!

(This post is written as the second part of my three-piece articles on #PeruMarathonSeries🇵🇪 in the spirit of upcoming Peru’s 99th independence day this 28th of July. Read the previous post on my affordable 6-day full itinerary here.)

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