Seeing is Believing, Believing is Seeing

I've always love to travel since young. Competitive swimming has given me the opportunities to travel places where not many would consider them as resorts and holidays while meeting new friends. I miss those carefree days whereby the routines were just eat, sleep, study and swim with nothing else to worry about. I would give 100% in training sessions just so I could qualify for some outstation competitions in order to travel as these were the only holidays I could have as a kid. There was no such thing as vacation where no swimming competitions involved.

Even then, I still got to learn so much from so "little". These exposures have made me more independent at a younger age and be more responsible for myself as well as others. Back then, staying in luxurious motels (not hotels) was a rare occasion. Dormitories with filthy restrooms, cockroaches, mosquitoes and bed-bugs were norms. I could recall once in Kota Kinabalu that I felt something crawling near my bed while trying to sleep in a humid night without a fan and only realised that it's a cockroach upon jumping off the upper bunk!

The interesting part would be the stories of one seeing "something" or felt something "weird". It didn't matter who he/she was as it could cause the sensations to both us as swimmers and the officials! I was fortunate not to have those experience by being more respectful of the surroundings....! Whew....

The urge to travel still exist in me but it's not easily fulfilled with limited leaves available as well as resources [think mortgages...!]! The urge has been further amplified since our first actual family holiday in Beijing back in 2004.

Having said that, I was and still am very excited when I received an Xmas gift (which is very rare) that has once again flamed the fire in me for more travel adventures. I'll certainly list out plenty of places I want to visit. A masterplan will be in the works soon but bring on the Kiwi land and Land of the Rising Sun, hopefully soon and with fellow adventure-seekers, esp the person who gave me the gift...

I stumbled upon this book collection while staying over at my aunt's place in Singapore and out came my camera. How befitting it is to have the photo of the gift taken alongside The World Book collection that belongs to my uncle.

Thank you so very much for the book that meant so much to me. So much with so little...