This will be the final year of my 30’s. Time flies, and it seems to fade faster as one gets older. This post is a bit of recap of my adult life and some future plans.
Travel
Travel has always been my passion. Haven’t seen as many places as I had hoped but it’s been pretty good regardless. One of the main reasons I started this blog in 2007 was to share my travel and food stories.
I posted quite often about the trips at the beginning but got distracted by other stuff at some point. Currently organising my photos and will share some better stories and pictures in near future.
During this period I’ve been to United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Macau, South Korea and Thailand.
The highlight is the prolonged stay in Seoul from 2015 to 2017. My home country Malaysia is summer all year-long, and I’ve always wanted to stay in a place with four seasons for a year or two.
When I first had the idea I thought I would make the big trip before turning 30. Had to delay that for a few years for multiple reasons. But as the old saying goes, it’s better late than never.
I’ve started a Korea travel blog during the stay to share those memories. But as usual, procrastination kicked in and it will need a bit of revamp and updates. Should be worth checking in a few months time.
If you can read Chinese then check out Seoul Fun Time. It’s a blog by my friends, mostly about food and restaurants with some travel and fun stuff in between. I’ve contributed a few posts also.
Future trips
My favourite foreign country has always been Japan though. Didn’t choose that for the long stay because of complicated visa issues, South Korea is a lot more welcoming in that sense.
It’s ironic as I have never been to Japan at all. It’s a bit funny but there’s a sense of anxiety, that the future may become boring after achieving one of your biggest dreams, or visiting your favourite place in this case.
I may no longer be interested in travelling and live like a hermit instead LoL. Well, that’s one of my biggest problems, worrying too much at times… and most of those concerns never came true.
Anyhow, will be making a short trip to Japan in coming months. Hope I like the place, and if that’s the case will try to stay there for a year or two like in South Korea. Have to figure out the visa issues though.
I’ve also trimmed down my global destination list from over 200 locations to a couple of dozens. It’s mostly a change of travel preferences, but there’s also the realisation that it’s difficult to make all the journeys.
Besides Japan, a few other desired places in near future include Jiuzhaigou in China, the Egyptian pyramids, Norwegian coastlines, trekking in Nepal, and a revisit to London.
Chances are I will be visiting other locations instead because of family and friends, it happened often. In fact there’s a big possibility that my next trip will be to Berlin instead of Tokyo.
Career
My ideal career when I started working online was to become a travel and lifestyle blogger.
But because of my social shy nature (and a few other things) I missed out on some opportunities like becoming a full-time YouTuber or making money from social media etc. instead of just a blog.
The business nature has evolved in a rapid pace. When I started I thought I could have it easy as a full-time blogger for life but that only lasted a few years, and I have to continuously evolve myself too.
It turned out to be a very time-consuming career, but it does allow plenty of freedom location wise. I could have travelled a lot more if it’s not for other personal reasons.
I’ve also ventured into various online businesses and startups, but instead of creating another Facebook I failed rather miserably. Well, at least I tried and there’s no regrets about that.
Going to change my career model though. At this stage I don’t think working online is the way to go for the next 10-20 years. I already have plans in mind, some conventional stuff… a restaurant for example.
Before that I have to make my big Japan trip first. Travelling will no longer be as easy if I change my path, at least for the first few years. Besides, I may start the plan in Japan instead if I like the place that much.
Blog
This blog had been neglected in the past few years. Instead of sharing my travel stories it became a pop culture blog instead, mostly with pictures of girls because it’s easy to post and attract readers.
It started to change when Girls’ Generation became popular. I was one of the first to blog about them and many readers discover this site when searching for the Korean pop group.
I succumbed to demands and wrote a lot K-pop stuff instead of more balanced contents. And it became toxic when I gradually lost interest with Korean showbiz and found the blog in a very odd position.
I didn’t know how to take it forward and updated a lot less since then. And I should have interacted more with readers on social medias but I am not a fan of SNS. It’s a dilemma to be frank.
Anyhow, I am going to make this a more personified blog in future, for better or worse. I will still share entertainment and other stuff that interested me but it’s going to be more travel oriented.
Big thanks to everyone who have visited my blog in the past 11 years, especially a few that have been around for long period. There were ups and downs but overall a happy blogging experience.
