How to look after your mental health during long-term travel

Travelling alone for a long time has its ups and downs. The lows just come with the experience: the constant goodbyes, disappointments, exhaustion, sickness, injuries, lack of privacy, homesickness, missing a flight, getting lost, robbed or scammed. These lows are valuable in their own right, but you may find yourself so low and fed up …

Why we should feel grateful, not guilty, about the privilege of travel

There have been times when I’ve realised all of the privileges that have enabled me to be able to travel as much as I have. It’s easy to feel guilty about having an advantage in life due to the accident of being born in a first-world country to a middle class family. Just being able …

Awkward vegan travel: turning down hospitality

Travelling as a vegan can sometimes present a few challenges. There’s no doubt that in some countries it’s much easier to find vegan food than others. Yet, even if you’re in a small town without a single place that offers something vegan or ‘veganizable’, you shouldn’t have a problem buying fruits, veggies, grains and everything …

Highlights from travelling the world

The problem with being obsessed about travel

I’ve written before about how travelling can be addictive. I’ve also defended the millennial obsession with travelling. Obviously it’s better to be ‘addicted’ to travelling than, say, gambling. But if the urge to just ‘travel more’ and hoard travel experiences becomes the centre of one’s focus, then this kind of experientialism may lose meaning and value. …

How travelling can turn into a status game

I’m all for prioritising ‘experientialism’ over materialism; that is, looking for contentment in experiences, rather than material things. Travelling might make you less materialistic, if it solidifies the notion that you can find more meaning and fulfilment in having new experiences than with buying more stuff. But even so, sneering at 'materialistic people' who are pursuing …

Making a difference in developing countries: voluntourism vs. tourism

There has long been controversy about ‘voluntourism’: an industry which caters to (mostly) Westerners and places them on volunteering programmes in developing countries. The industry offers those on a ‘gap yah’ the promise of making a difference to the deprived lives of others. On the surface, if a volunteer is flying to the other side …

Why you should be mindful of always reaching for the camera

I have often found myself wishing I had more photos of places I’ve visited, even though I take a lot of photos. Maybe there was an area I walked around that I would like to remember more clearly (such as the bright, neon-lit area of Shinjuku in Tokyo). I have vague and hazy memories of …

Books that have changed my outlook on travel: Our Appointment With Life

Our Appointment With Life: Discourse on Living Happily in the Present Moment is a translation and commentary of the Sutra on Knowing the Better Way to Live Alone by Vietnamese Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. This sutra – or basic text of Buddhist scripture – is the earliest teaching of the Buddha on how to …

A response to Nomadic Matt’s post on animal abuse in the tourism industry

Famous travel blogger Nomadic Matt recently wrote a blog post on how to stop animal abuse in the tourism industry. As someone who’s deeply interested in the ethical dimension of travel, I was glad to see the post. He describes the scale of abuse, which depends on tourist money, and offers suggestions on ways to …