Writing this belatedly given I forgot to do this in the rush before the trip and now going from memory post trip. but yes, I did jot down pointers on my phone while en route.

“ I forgot to do my Month 7 review!

• felt busy

• caught up with lovely people

• spent 2 weeks obsessively planning LATAM

• took off to Japan with a day’s notice to prove to myself that I could travel with no planning as well

• finished Corporate Finance Institute course

• leaving for travels felt though again, but we finally made it ”

  —> and on that note I flew off on 14 Aug for LATAM trip which is exactly the last day of Month 7 aha. The 14th of Jan was actually the last day of my work, and I’ve been flying off on the 14th of xx month for every big trip so far (14th Feb for Africa, 14th April for China Mongolia Kazakhstan and 14th August for LATAM).

Flying to Japan with a day’s notice

On a Thursday my brother suddenly let me know he had 2 nights of free hotel stay over the weekend to offer me in Osaka if I wanted it. I semi wanted to chill at home but at the same time felt like I had to prove to myself I could be spontaneous while on sabbatical so OFF I WENT.

To everyone I have been judging for going to Japan every year, I get it now!! After my previous trips, Japan just felt so incredibly easy to travel. The signages were in English, and were clearly placed so it was easy to get around. Some restaurants had stuff that could speak, English, Chinese AND Korean as well, it was incredible. Distances to travel in Japan aren’t as huge and the train system is fantastic - from Osaka I could easily visit other towns like Kobe with just a half hour train ride. No planning was needed and I could just freely wander - a vast difference from my previous trips were I would be on 5h+ drives a day. Food was amazing at affordable prices, and I never realised how many products I use in Singapore are actually from Japan… Shopping just meant stocking up on things that I would usually buy in Singapore, but in Japan it was at a 30% discount. Osaka was also a city that never slept - arrived at past midnight to the hotel and yet there were plenty of stores open everywhere to get dinner.

Another plus of visiting Osaka was getting to visit the World Expo. It felt kind of like a Disneyland for people who like to travel?! The grounds were massive. I heard negative reviews about the event, with the heat and the long queues (it could take hours to queue to get into certain country pavilions) - but nonetheless I actually had a pretty good time wondering around. I ducked into a number of pavilions with shorter queues, taking advantage of the shorter queues during lunch break especially to do so. I managed to visit the pavilions for instance of Peru, Spain, Colombia, Indonesia and Singapore of course. I also went to take a look at the smaller booths in the Common Grounds area, where many LATAM countries were featured. One of the booths that caught my eye was that of Panama - which ended up partially inspiring me to visit the country.

BDAY CELEBRATIONS

Thought about whether to travel on my bday to do some landmark milestone activity to celebrate, but was instead happy to celebrate my birthday with my fav people at home! It was indeed a lovely one, TQ to all my frens for making time even as we get older.

• Hotpot at home with the family

• Awfully chocolate brunch with the BF

• Visit to Rainforest Asia on my bday itself with Nat (Tq Nat!!)

• Meeting many friends and constants over meals and brunches ya’ll know who you are :>

Planning and packing felt like it almost became a full time task!

After looking at multiple different variations of tours in different parts of LATAM, I finally decided to visit Peru - it seemed to be the more common starter destination with a bit more established tourism infrastructure + since I was going all the way to LATAM I did want to make sure I covered some key locations and thought it would be a good opportunity to cover the Amazon rainforest and Machu Picchu would. After much back and forth I decided on a 15 day Intrepid tour from Lima to La Paz that would cover both of these + lake Titicaca. Booked on the 24th of July for the tour starting 1 Sep!

I still wanted to start my trip with Spanish lessons, so after a LOT of research and back and forth on different countries and tours, I finally made a decision to start with learning Spanish and salsa in Guatemala. This had initially been my plan for June, but I had had to cancel the flight due to coming down with pneumonia. September onwards was meant to be rainy season for Guatemala, but I decided it would still be worth going for the latter two weeks of August. Furthermore, Antigua is meant to be a more touristy town (aka more english speakers), so I thought it might be a more comfortable first stop for LATAM. Turned out to be a great decision! and after EVEN MORE deliberation I booked my flight to leave Singapore on the 4th of August, for the 14th of August (the 14th again! and also to get me to Guatemala by Saturday to have a weekend before the start of school). 

I took out all bags I had and spent so long packing and repacking and packing again in preparation for the trip. And of course freaked out the days leading up to the trip as per usual BUT MADE IT!!