From A Travel Bug To A Travel Bugged

 Dear Audrey Chong,

From your travel post at Youth.sg Facebook Page, I wonder if you ever thought how lucky you are for being able to travel to a foreign country via airplane, sans the hassle of organising the travel.

I agree with you that organising the trip can be a hassle and a pain, but this is nowhere compared to what you need to do when you are at work doing almost something similar.

You wrote, "I faced all sorts of problems, from convincing worried parents and gathering enough money to finding friends who will not bail out before the trip." You shouldn't look at this as a negative but a prelude to what you can expect when you start working.

When you start working, you might want to start on a project. You will need approval, not just from your direct superior, but from a team from upper management. You would need to source budget and get approval. Trust me, convincing them could be as painful, if not more, as trying to convince your parents.

If you plan to be the entrepreneur, the pain can be 10x as worst to get investors, customers and even employees.

"In a country like Japan, where a bus that comes at 5.01pm is gone by 5.02pm, being just a minute late would require us to change a whole day of plans," you wrote.

I wondered what stopped you from reaching the bus stop at 4.45pm to be waiting for the bus instead. If you had to attend an interview at 5.00pm, would you want to be arriving at 5.01pm at the office's lobby?

Speaking of how lucky you are to be able to travel, I met people who have not traveled outside of their country, let alone sitting an aeroplane. Even with budget airlines roaming the sky, travel to them is a luxury they can ill afford to spend whatever money they have.

As you wrote, "But the most challenging thing for a non-early riser like me was being on-time", it reminded me of people I have met have stayed in inner lands and have never seen the beach their entire life.

Though a travel to the nearest shoreline required to wake up earlier than their usual rooster's crow and at least a day's travel, you should have seen their eyes brighten when hear the waves hit the shore and their feet touch the white sandy beach for the first time.

Never did I hear any complains about waking early or enduring a 24 hour bus ride both ways.

You shared Google Maps messed up your trip and how you had to share Wifi leading to arguments. You do know that there was a time when a map was a big piece of paper with no in-built GPS, you had to make will guesses to where you are and to find out which path to take.

Even if you get lost, enjoy getting lost. Maybe you will find something new that is off the beaten track?

Or ask locals for directions. If there is a language barrier, use hand gestures to ask for directions.

The worst case scenario is that you might have to take a cab to the nearest train station.

The whole point of travel is to experience something new. You paid for a trip to leave Singapore so as you can experience something different from Singapore. Why you pay for something, spend the whole time planning and lots of cash, only to expect your destination to be similar to Singapore?

I was giving a chance to spend time in Koh Samui, one of the other resort islands of Thailand, for about six months. It was an opportunity to be an entrepreneur in the resort holiday industry. I took it and roughed it out alone.

I once had to spend weeks showering in a small wooden hut and you could see all kind of creepy crawlers in the corner of the hut. It was that or no shower for an entire week.

From the experience, I found a coral reef near where I stayed where even the locals had no idea existed. I visited mainland Southern Thailand where the locals admitted this was the first time they met a Singaporean. I attended a local wedding and live to tell the difference between a Singapore and a local Thai wedding dinner.

My current job requires me to travel within Southeast Asia and Europe itself. The trips have opened my eyes to many different cultures and appreciative of what we have or do not have in Singapore.

Yes, the travelling can be tiring, but it is definitely worth it as I get to meet people and exchange views and ideas.

As they say, "it is about the journey, not the destination". Yes, the journey to your destination maybe tough, but it is through the experience that makes you a better person.

Your Sincerely,

Aaron, Not Koch, Koh