Going backwards in time

Travel used to be so alluring to me. My childhood ambition was to be a Singapore girl and/or travel writer. I even applied to work for Singapore airlines but was not successful.

When I was small, holidays were once-yearly affairs to be looked forward to with bated breath. Oh the anticipation when my mother brought out the huge old suitcases (from my dad's old uni days) and made us empty our drawers to pack! The calling of the taxi that would bring us to the airport (we hardly took taxis anywhere then)! The deliciously adventurous smell I came to associate Changi with (probably just the musty carpet)!

These past couple of years, I have been fortunate enough to have had so much travel, I never even realised.

With familiarity, the excitement of travel had slowly been replaced with blase thoughts of  "oh no, the airport again" and an impatience with how slow fellow travellers and airport staff were in clearing customs, checking in, baggage checks etc.

Even when I was actually on holiday, I couldn't quite shake off the feeling of deja vu regardless of which city, town or country I was visiting-- everything seemed old and samey. So young yet so jaded. (joking!)

Slow as I am, on my latest holiday, I came to realise that, as with everything, one never appreciates what one has, especially if you get it too easily (a little like men, really)

So its time to walk down (fading) memory lane and celebrate each and every trip I have been lucky enough to have gone on.

This is my inspiration:

A little book of memories, kept by JAAM Guesthouse owner Arum, a young Korean hipster girl (stayed here during a recent trip to Seoul)-- ticket stubs and little notes she collected over 10 years of travelling.

Obviously I didn't have the foresight (or space) to keep these momentos. But I do have these:

Phone and hard disks of photos (printed even!), passport stamps. Yes baby, we gonna go a long way back in time.

Looking forward to reliving those memories!

RachQ