Leaving familiarity is like a one way ticket to finding yourself.

I had the opportunity of clearing my annual leave and I really wanted to try travelling alone. Ok maybe not alone at first, but turns out that most army guys schedules are fucked-up as hell. Hence the decision to go alone.

Surprisingly, maybe not so since travelling has always been fun. But being alone was a whole new experience that changed me and I will always prefer to go alone instead from now on. There is often a stigma attached to doing things alone. Our first reaction to seeing someone eating at a restaurant or going to the movies alone is that he or she didn’t have anyone to go with. We feel sympathy for them, pity, even. So yeah, I had a first hand experience of being a subject of sympathy during my trip. Which didn’t really matter after all, because the experience I had was invaluable.

I got to do what I wanted. I woke up in the morning feeling, “Nah I don’t feel like going to taipei101 just because everyone says it is a tourist spot." and hence I went to climb Mt YangMingShan because I was feeling adventurous. I didn’t live with any expectations over there and having that feeling was good in contrast to Singapore. I didn’t feel obliged to look after people, worry if they would get lost, or if they wanted to visit a shop and should I wait a little bit. Fk that no. I was free to roam.

Travelling on my own also meant that I had to be more observant of my surroundings (I got lost more than the cans of beer I had drank and incidentally a can of beer was same price as a soft drink) and be independent in planning my own itinerary. Budgeting was an ass but still I kinda splurged on eating, shopping, all of which scaled down to $1.1k(inclusive of airfare, shopping, lodging, knocking people down on a bike and paying ransom) and I guess that was still considered comparatively cheap. I had the flexibility of changing my plans because I hobo-ed around with no lodging and no specific goals other than to explore the not — so — common sights of Taiwan.

More or less I clocked roughly a 1200km journey in that 12days (not by foot obviously) but from travelling from Taipei — Hualien — TaiTung — KenDing — KhaoHsiung — TaiChung — KhaoHsiung. While it is obvious that in 12 days I wouldn’t have been able to conquer every single corner or street but I completed what I came for. I saw enough seas and mountains that Singapore couldn’t provide. This ignited the wanderlust spirit I always had in me but salted away as I didn’t have the chance to travel till now.

I had my first riding experience, (crashing into someone’s bike as well), climbing a cliff and taking photos without the help of anyone but only the timer (I’m darn proud at myself for this), went to a TW night club(alcohol buffet is da best) and so many things I didn’t expect from the trip.

But more importantly, the sole purpose of this trip was to reflect on myself. There were many times when I found myself lingering at a certain place where I would just be thinking about life, where I was, and how lucky I was to be there. I don’t want to chase after the weekend and be competing against paper warriors. I think I changed (at least for the better) and I look forward to more and more solo bagpacking trips. I hope to be better man in future, someone who can tell my kids one day all about what the world has to offer and until then.. I will keep hopping round the globe.