AFTER TWO STOPOVERS in Dubai airport over two separate trips to Europe, I made a pact to someday visit this Emirati city for real.  And so I did. Nazurah and I flew in to UAE this past December which also coincided with the week of her 25th birthday. Seated on the shores of the Arabian Gulf, this beautiful […]

AFTER A 4-DAY climb of Mt Rinjani, we took to Gili Trawangan to unwind ourselves. Gili Trawangan is the largest of 3 Gili islands off Lombok, and it felt like being on Bali’s Kuta beach just on a much smaller scale (the number of white tourists streaming in). The speedboat was a mere 15-minute ride from the […]

LOOK MA! I climbed an active volcano! My first time on an extended hiking trip. It was one that was planned 6 months prior, so we had time for lots of stairclimbing training. But no one can ever be truly prepared for what’s coming… the element of surprise! And that is what makes a trip so […]

AW-KHUN, or simply thank you in the Khmer language of Cambodia.   Earlier this week, I went on a short five-day trip to Siem Reap with my (other) best friend. On our first day, like most other tourists, Angkor Wat was on our itinerary. Woke up at 4.30am and took the Tuk Tuk to catch […]