Over the last year I have spent a lot more time writing for The World Wanderers and M.B.Om than have for my personal site. And I have decided to turn this website into more than just a travel blog, it is my personal website – a space for not only my passion for travel, but also my passion for yoga, and life in general.
As Ryan and I travel through Asia, I have decided to write monthly updates on where we have been, what we are up to, and how things are going. Of course, for more detailed accounts of what we’ve been doing, you can follow along with our travel podcast, The World Wanderers or on social media.
Ryan and I flew from Penticton on Monday, October 3rd. After nearly 24 hours of travel with a long haul flight over night from San Francisco, we made it to Singapore. Our original plan was to spend the entire month of October in the Philippines because we had booked a conference in Manila for mid-October. Before booking flights we did some research, only to find out that the Internet is ridiculously slow in the Philippines. On any other trip, this would not have been an issue for us, but this trip is different. We are not simply traveling. We are working + traveling. Beginning a life as digital nomads. So, we did some research on other places in Asia that we could visit for our first week before the conference, and settled on Singapore.
Week 1: Singapore
We arrived in Singapore early in the morning, and after getting foreign SIM cards for our phones, we took an Uber to our hostel. We spent a total of 7 days in Singapore, one night in a hostel and 6 nights in a very mediocre AirBnb, both located in China Town. We both fell in love with Singapore almost immediately. English is a national language, tap water is drinkable, traffic is orderly, the city is clean and people are friendly. On top of that, the city is ultra modern. What’s not to love?!
The highlights for Singapore were exploring the Marina Bay Sands area and getting a drink on top of the hotel, overlooking the infinity pool and the bay; watching the sun set in the bay area and taking in the Singapore skyline at night; the magical supertrees in the Gardens by the Bay, and wandering through the botanical gardens.
Singapore is made up of 3 major ethnic groups: Malay, Chinese + Indian. So, we spent time in each of the respective areas of the city, trying some of the local food. We ate great Indian food, and also found a ton of awesome cafes for working + hanging out.
So what is life as a digital nomad like?
For us, it is a blend of days spent working and days spent exploring. While in Singapore we spent 2 full days exploring, 2 full days working, and 3 days doing some work and some exploration. I actually love the days where we do some work + some play, and that has come to be part of our regular routine throughout month 1 of our trip.
I am finding that working while on the road has its challenges (mostly Internet + time zone related), but it forces us to slow down, which is something I’ve never been good at. I get on the road and I want to see it all. Knowing that I have work that needs to get done makes me rethink my desire to see everything all the time, and that has definitely been good for me on this trip.
The beautiful thing about being able to work from anywhere in the world is that I can continue pursuing my love of exploring the world while making money. On past trips, we saved our butts off only to blow that entire savings in a couple of months. This time, we are in it for the long haul. We still live off of a tight-ish budget, but we have the comfort of knowing that money is coming in each month. It also gives us a sense of purpose. We struggled to find a sense of purpose on our first backpacking trip, and so while we were in South America, we dedicated time to learning Spanish. After spending so much time traveling, I have found that for me it is really important to have a purpose and not be simply roaming, lost at sea.
For those of you reading who are curious what we are up to, we are both doing advising for an educational start-up based out of the US called Praxis. Praxis is designed for 18-25 year olds who don’t feel like college is right for them. It’s a year long apprenticeship program that pairs them with a business partner, as well as a curriculum that pushes them to see the value they have to offer. Remember how we went to Atlanta in 2015? Ryan had a job that was through Praxis! Now we both consult for Praxis. Pretty cool, right!?
Ryan has also taken on podcast editing gigs for some extra cash flow, and I am continuing my job with the Yoga Lounge in Canmore. My job has always been digital so I can take it anywhere in the world, which is pretty damn cool.
Finally, we are working on monetizing our podcast. The monetizing stage has been slow, but it’s coming along. The podcast is growing tremendously and we are finding awesome sponsors that are aligned with our values. We are also on Patreon, which is a crowdsourcing platform that allows our listeners to help fund the show. If you’re interested in what that’s all about, you can check it out here.
So between all our combined “jobs”, we are both pretty busy, but we are making time to explore, see new things + get outside of our comfort zone each and everyday!
Week 2: Manila
After an amazing week in Singapore, we flew over to Manila to attend a travel bloggers conference called TBEX. We had heard terrible things about Manila, and it is certainly not my favorite city. It’s busy, dirty, loud, and the traffic is horrendous – the worst I’ve ever seen and I spent 9 months in Atlanta! We were able to find some good within the bad though. We explored the Mall of Asia, the old walled city of Intramuros, went to a 3D art museum, and tried our first escape room, all of which were super enjoyable!
For the rest of our days, we were attending the conference, and that was full on. The talks went from 9am-3pm, with networking after, and a party every night. It was great though. We learned a ton about the business of being a travel blogger, and we met a ton of cool people. Overall, it was the worth the trip to Manila, and next time around, we will be sure to check out more of the Philippines.
We encountered our first typhoon while in Manila. Being from the interior of Canada, neither of us was really sure what to do in a typhoon, so we stalked up on water and snacks and hoped for the best. Fortunately, the worst part hit quite a bit north of the city, and we only got some heavy rain and high winds.
A week was more than enough time in Manila, and by the time our flight to Kuala Lumpur came around, we were ready to go. Our route looks pretty silly on a map considering Singapore is only a couple hours by bus from KL. Going straight from Singapore to KL is definitely the more typical route – oh well! Who wants to be typical, anyway?
Week 3: Kuala Lumpur
We had an apartment booked through AirBnb for our first 10 days in KL and this was definitely a highlight of the trip so far. It was an awesome bachelor apartment with a small kitchen, 2 desks, and LOTS of space. We are able to spread out our yoga mats and do some yoga together, cook our own meals, and get a ton of work done. Not to mention, the apartment had a super badass rooftop infinity pool and a free gym.
One of the greatest luxuries while traveling is getting a sense of normalcy. Even after a couple of weeks, we craved it. And to be honest, I think it is necessary for productivity sake.
At the beginning of our time in KL we made a list of goals, and the first thing we did when we arrived was tape the goals up onto the fridge so that we had some direction with our time in Malaysia. We set a goal of going to a luxury movie if we ticked everything off the list: recording 6 podcast episodes, website updates, sponsorship requests, SEO work, and conference follow up emails, just to name a few.
One of the things I’ve learned over the last year of “working for myself” is that you have to set structure for yourself because you are accountable to no one but yourself. So that’s what we did.
We spent many of our days working from our apartment or the nearby Starbucks, taking advantage of the quiet space and super fast wifi. We also got out and explored KL though. We went to KLCC park and saw the Patronas Towers at all times of day (they are best at night). We got a drink on the roof of Traders Hotel to watch the sunset over the city. We made a trip up to the Batu Caves and walked the 200+ stairs past the golden goddess to a temple in a cave. We attempted to hike Mount Batur, only to find out that it is currently closed because someone died – yikes! Instead, we ended up at the Kanching Nature Reserve, where we hiked up waterfalls and hung out with monkeys.
We also went to 2 Escape rooms while in KL! After not quite escaping in Manila, we were determined to succeed in KL. Our first attempt was a mere miss. A couple more minutes and I think we would have had it. The next day we went back for our 3rd escape room and finally escaped! It felt so good to finally get out of one, and I think it’s safe to say that we’re slightly obsessed with Escape rooms now.
Because we had a kitchen in our apartment, we wanted to save as much money on food as we could, so we cooked all of our own breakfasts, and either lunch or dinner, allowing ourselves to only eat out once per day. We found a great vegetarian restaurant nearby that had all of the local Malay dishes veggie style. We also ate some great Indian food, and even found a Mexican restaurant.
One of the things that I don’t love about Malaysia is how hard it is to find avocado. Avocado is my favorite food and it is a staple in my diet. I finally splurged and spent $2 CDN on a delicious avocado because a week without avocado was turning me into an avocado-less monster. Long story short, I’ve decided that any place that it is difficult to find avocado is not my soul country.
Week 4: The Cameron Highlands + Ipoh
After spending 10 days at the apartment, we were a little sad to go. But, we had a weekend trip up to the Cameron Highlands planned, and we were excited to get out and explore.
The Cameron Highlands are known for their cooler temperatures and tea fields. Getting off the bus in Tanah Rata was hugely relieving, as it was in the low to mid 20’s, as opposed to mid-30’s, and the air was much less humid.
Tanah Rata is a small Malaysian town, popular with tourists. There is one main street with hotels located around the main road. There were a ton of restaurants and a couple of coffee shops, amongst the tour companies and massage parlors.
We had 3 nights and 2 days in the Cameron Highlands, and due to heavy rains we spent our first night relaxing. We had some curry and I got a massage before we headed off to bed.
Because the wifi was terrible in Tanah Rata, we didn’t spend much time doing work, although a few necessary hours were spent at Starbucks. Outside of that, we hiked the highest mountain in the Cameron Highlands, took in the lush beauty of the tea fields, and visited a strawberry farm. We also hitch hiked for the first time. Traffic is crazy in the Cameron Highlands and after a day of exploring the tea fields, we couldn’t get a taxi back down to Tanah Rata to save our souls. We had been walking for hours and both of us were exhausted, so we stood on the side of the road, stuck out our thumbs, and an old Malaysian man in a blue pick up truck picked us up and drove us back home. Thank goodness for kind people!
After 3 nights in Tanah Rata, we were ready to move on, so we took a bus a couple hours northwest to the city of Ipoh. Ipoh was much bigger than Tanah Rata, and we had the luxuries of working wifi and Uber at our side once again. We spent an afternoon exploring the old town, discovering the hidden street art and sipping white coffee (which isn’t actually white).
We only spent about 24 hours in Ipoh before making our way back to KL for one final day in the city before we made our way on wards to Macau.
We had a few items left on the check list that we got done before 5pm when we went to see Dr. Strange in a luxury theater. For those of you who haven’t been to a luxury movie theater, you sit in a recliner chair with a blanket, and you have someone who delivers your food to you. It’s worth every penny! Dr. Strange is also a great movie, and we left feeling inspired and excited for what lies ahead of us over the next month in the Macau area.
Adjusting to life on the road
It’s always an adjustment to be in foreign countries, living out of a backpack and regularly feeling anxious about if someone is going to try to steal your stuff. I think that I have finally adjusted to this, and am feeling much more comfortable with being treated differently because I’m foreign and feeling uncertain about most things that are around me.
I also feel like I have finally de-stressed from life at home – moving from Atlanta back to Canmore and being insanely busy over the summer. I have settled back into life of controlling my own schedule, and making time for myself. Over the 3 months that we were in Canmore, I started 3 books and only finished 1. Since arriving in Singapore, I have finished the other 2 plus read a 3rd book and am now onto my 4th book. Having time to do the things that I love is important to me, and I have reconnected with how much of a priority I need to make reading.
I have been practicing yoga through an online platform, doing self-practice, or teaching to my GoPro as regularly as possible, continuing to ensure that yoga (and exercise in general) is a daily part of my life. I swear, it keeps me sane.
Ryan and I have quickly settled back into life on the road together, and I am constantly grateful for his calm and easy going demeanor, and the fact that he always calls me out when I’m being hangry (it’s a work in progress).
As mentioned before, to hear more stories + see more photos, follow us along on social media.
Until next month!
You are an inspiration to me. Love your writing style, it is very much like a conversation. If that makes sense. Keep doing what you are doing. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Paul! I really appreciate that 🙂