From the editor

I've been travelling quite heavily this year, and people who know me had been asking me "where are you going this time?" when they meet me. I'm not just another typical girl who destress myself through shopping, watching movie, or yum-cha (hanging out with friends and chit-chatting). I love to spend my after-work hours reading travelogs and writing travelogs. This is how I find the ZEN in me. I believe if you're a blogger too you'd agree with me. The ZEN that leads to a balance in my life, doing things that I really have passion in. I love to travel, it's been a part of my lifestyle, so now I understand why people say "Travel & Living".

I blog since my 3rd year in uni, starting out with diaries during my internship days. I've forgotten what drove me to start blogging but I do agree with my counterparts who encouraged me much to continue writing my story and then one day in future it'll be a very great archive for my children or even grandchildren to know their grandma more. I've never thought of that!! He's right~ Not only about myself, but the world through my eyes...even when one day I'm no longer in this world, they can still feel me around.

As periodical travelling had filled up part of my life since 2003, I've set my goal to go places at least once in a year. Now that I've stepped into quite some places (thanks to my current job), I will never stop writing, might have some lagging of updates in between but it will never stop. Maybe you do not like my blog because I'm not funny and I don't make jokes all the while. No complicated thesaurus but I believe if I write with a very sincere heart one can feel the journey that I go through. Maybe I can publish a travelog of my own one day in future?

And now, my friends made me an assigned editor for their travel website. We as a bunch of travelholics cannot live without travelling. The idea of becoming travel planners struck our mind after a group of our friends insisted to travel by backpacking to Bangkok without wanting to get any ground tours during their trip. All on their own geared up with backpacks and maps, off they went flying to Bangkok, assuming a relaxing 5-day-getaway in Bangkok after working for a year. It's true that a lot of places in Bangkok are accessible by taking the Skytrain, but guess what... trip was ruined and they come back with complaints and blamings... A trip which was suppose to be a stress-free holiday became a nightmare.

I was puzzled too when I heard the complaints.. Lost in Bangkok??! Kidding?? But after listening to their story I realized that it did make sense. Every little single thing has its own aptitude if you wanna master it, same to travelling. Just like in a classroom, some people are born with the talent of singing, while some are very good in arts and craft, and some are born-to-be athletes. Agree? I travel, you travel, he travels, she travels, everyone goes travel but for sure all will come back with different level of satisfaction and achievable objectives.

One day in a drawing class in school, the teacher gave an assignment to draw a landscape, A finished it so easily in just 1 hour and happily starting to sketch another drawing; while B started flipping pages in books to search for easy-to-copy images and still able to finish in 2-3 hours but only to find that it's not what he really wants but still ok-lah; and C started scratching his head and run around the classroom trying to copy from B, erase again and again because a cottage doesn't look like a cottage, and what the heck -- is that a dog or a cow??! ...and when he's half way through he found out that A's drawing is what he prefers to refer to! 3 hours passed, A achieved the task with another 2 additional drawing of his own, B passed up the drawing with a frown, while C didn't even able to finish the drawing!!

Travelling is exactly like the scenario above - either you pass with flying colors, or you achieve some parts of it, or you fail. Or maybe let's turn a bit the scenario -- teacher gave a week to finish the drawing (and she doesn't care how you do it), now that you have the chance to change the outcome, what will you do? Of course A will not have any problem, while B can spend more time looking for reference and still stands a chance to produce the image he wants to draw, and C can ask for help to finish up his drawing.

Transforming the 2nd scenario into travelling: You spend 3 days in your trip, of course you aim to enjoy to the fullest. If you're A, then congratulations; if you're B or C you can still consume the time to plan your trip accordingly by referring to maps and get advice from websites or friends, or even buy a ready-made tour. How many people are the talented A's that you know of? If I'm B or C, for sure I'll want to travel like A - trip objective achieved with high satisfaction and within budget. So when the A's are willing to help, why reject?

I don't know about the others, but for me, I seldom consider long before I spend my money during travelling. Come on, you're about explore a whole new world, do you want to go home regret that you missed visiting or eating or buying something? I rather save a little more money in daily expenses and enjoy to the fullest during travelling. The art of travelling, I'll share my opinion and experience in my next post. Many people thought I'm rich, in fact, I'M NOT!! Wonder how I still able to enjoy life the way I want to? =P Neverending stories of the editor...must do it one at a time.

The passion in travelling drives us to start all these travel planner thingy. We promote customize tour for people who requested. Passion excelerates everything we do, and myself as the editor I believe we can transmit the excitement and satisfaction of travelling through our service. Do you know what is the satisfaction achieved in the things that we're driving through right now? I've never been happier when the clients come back from their trip with the fact that they could enjoy the way they like it. It's all about the heart and sincerity that we poured in, I believe people can feel it. Endless effort on-going, we do it by self-experience, exploring places to find the best we can provide.

the editor...Travelholic