My heart has always bugged me to do something different but as I grew up my mind blocks also increased like fears, judgements from society, lack of confidence and many more. Solo travelling was ONE of them, I was like waiting someone to give permission for me to do that. I liked solitude and spending time with myself compared to being surrounded by many people unless I choose to be with.
It was in year 2019, I had an idea of travelling solo to any kind of place within Malaysia first before overseas. Then, pandemic struck in year 2020 and I just let Nature to take its course, patiently waiting for the right time to come. A year passed, then I made a decision I can’t be just thinking about solo travelling, I need to take the action. BOOMMM…..Malaysia Government allows domestic travelling.
If you ask me what is the first step I took before booking the hotel for my solo travelling is to follow and learn as many things as possible about solo travelling and places. Here are some of them who I follow to learn about solo travelling:
Never would I forget about clubhouse rooms (Download in App Store/Pay Store) where people discusses about solo travelling and earning while travelling. Isn’t it amazing to hear, so I get connected with these people and also jot down if there’s any tips I could apply for my own travelling.
It is vital when you are a woman travelling solo, as there are few important safety tips you want to just keep in your mind but don’t change your mindset that something bad will happen. Your end goal must be very strong as your holiday will go as per your thoughts, if FEAR is all you think of, then all the bad and unwanted things will happen to you. So, what I did also I watch my thoughts very closely when I’m travelling, what I think, feel and say. Because all that MATTERS a lot, trust me as I have experienced, certain places if I don’t feel like going, I don’t go even if I planned to go.
Some amazing safety tips I had when I was travelling:
Have own vehicle (if possible) Make sure you already do the check up for your car & petrol & toll
Have anything sharp /spray in your bag just incase (I didn’t have it because I had no FEARS) Highly recommended
Practice some kind of physical activity (for me is YOGA) – to make you stronger & alert with the surroundings
Feel more than think (Your intuition most times are CORRECT)
What I exactly did when decided to go for solo travelling?
Steps Taken….hahaha
Book the HOTEL once I pick the place (make sure that place is safe & you can get all you need within few kilometers away) I asked one of my friend who normally does solo travelling. She suggested this place Colmar Tropicale, Bukit Tinggi, Pahang, Malaysia. Such a beautiful gem!!
Only after I made the payment, I told my parents that I’m going for SOLO Travelling, guess what, they didn’t react as much as I thought in my mind. They were like when, how and make sure you send all the pictures on whever you are going and with whoever (mostly strangers).
Research on what are the activities I can do there, since I love adventures and stuff, that place has many like that, I always wanted to learn horse riding, and guess what I fall in love with the horse, BONITA and I liked the coach too…He was friendly and cute too!! Hope he doesn’t read this blog….hahaha
Set CLEAR END GOAL for your holiday. For me was doing NEW stuff, pick your purpose of holiday, some just want to go for eating purpose, just relaxing and some even doing work at different place.
Horse Riding Lesson at Bukit Tinggi, Pahang
Stay excited and connected with me. I will publishing my Part 2 – During Travelling and Part 3 – Lessons Learned from SOLO Travelling.
Happy Day dear readers, I’m back to blogging again after some time. It’s my heart wanted me to write this blog post, I’m just super excited to share my journey of gaining confidence in everything I do (be it performing tasks at my workplace, working with my freelance clients, conducting interview sessions with professionals & students, liaising with newer people for new projects, writing blog posts, uploading Youtube Videos in my channel and guiding students for their exams).
Dear beautiful readers, allow me to share a little flash back about myself who was this very unconfident teenager who never speaks what I feel since school time. Schooling period was something I enjoyed being accompanied myself, I’m the kind of teenager that doesn’t even speak to the person who is next to me unless they start the conversation with me. This was me for quite a number of years until I graduated from my secondary school.
I started to speak up when I was in tertiary education (college period), but that was also within my teammates and friends who I’m comfortable with. To increase my confidence, I joined some clubs in my college so that I will not be so awkward when talking to someone new. I made good friends, however, I was still lacking confidence in giving presentations or talk shows out there when all the eyes from the public is focusing on us.
One of the best part of my life was meeting these group of entrepreneurs in Malaysia (my home country) called ET Ideas. These people were crazy and happy people, I really like being around them, their vibes are extremely positive and happy all the time. Each of them pursue the goals their heart wants and be confident at whatever they do even it was something you will come across in life, for example doing Henna Art for Bridals as a full time job. Without me realizing, I was naturally becoming someone who I always wanted to be which means sharing my knowledge or experience which I have with outsiders, complete strangers and unknown people. I was super confident when I share about myself, I guess it’s just the vibes being around them. I continued to do every task as if I already knew how to do it.
Let me stop how I started my journey from being the not so confident person until a little confident person. To make this blog post more exciting, I’m going to share in the perspectives of students, fresh graduates, entrepreneur and employees based on my experience. But guys, I’m still learning to be better every single day, still long way to go.
Students
Since I’m also an ACCA Tutor guiding students for their exams in F8 – Audit and Assurance & P7 – Advanced Audit and Assurance, I wanted to focus on these type of students.
How are you going to gain confidence before sitting for the exam? I’m very sure many students are having this in your mind right now.
Trust me for any kind of exam you are sitting, it is all about how’s your mindset when you are doing your exams –> Were you confident or were you so scared during the entire exam?
Few things I did when I was sitting for exams, this might or might not help you, apply which suits you, maybe just pick one and apply directly at the moment.
Make sure I have done my full revision 3 days before the exam date.
One day before the exam, I will take a piece of clean white paper and write down whatever I can remember from the syllabus starting from the keywords, marking scheme and weaknesses of each topic I have.
Talk to someone who can boost your confidence up and share your feelings with regards of the exam.
Two days before the exam, grab some popcorn and watch your favorite movie (for me is always 3 Idiots), if you haven’t watched it, please go and watch it. There are so many lessons for you to learn.
My Graduation Picture with Mom
FRESH GRADUATES
I have been in your shoes too, let me share my experience when I was a fresh graduate looking for a job. Let me share my second job interview which I’m still working at currently but now as part time accountant.
I still can remember very clearly on the interview day, I told to my employer what I wanted to be in few years time. He shared about the expectations that he was looking from me and I also told what was my goal which was to be an entrepreneur in this field very soon. That was the first time he said, wowwww, that’s an awesome goal. Dear fresh graduates, remember even if you feel you are not there yet, putting yourself out there to your employer your bigger goals will give him some confidence in you that you will be able to do the tasks. Speak up based on heart, and that is what I always do at my workplace, if you feel this is not right, speak to your superior and let him/her know why are you viewing like this and ask for their opinions on why is this being done in such way.
EMPLOYEES
Work from heart guys…..hahahaha……Choose what you love having fun at, then choose that as your career, naturally you will be so confident in that field. If you haven’t figure it out like me initially, it’s okie keep doing whatever you are doing, by being patient also you can gain confidence in yourself.
Apart from doing my tasks at my work, I also view on how I can add value to the firm I’m working at, for example, I realised the firm I was working at doesn’t have a professional website, then I suggested to my employer to do a website for their firm and guess what he approved and I was so excited to work on that project from planning and getting the vendor to do the website. Trust me I’m not so good in all of this but I just wanted to add value to the company I was working at, I slowly started to be more confident in sharing my viewpoints with my employer. However, I was very fortunate to have such leader who patiently listen to my ideas. Slowly, he empowered me to do what I love apart from working in his firm.
Confidence always is within yourself guys, don’t find somewhere else. hahahaha…… I slowly begin to understand this.
Confident picture of mine!!!!
Entrepreneurs
Based on my opinion, I feel being entrepreneur means you are confident because taking the decision itself needs a lot of courage and guts because you are now under control of you own.
No more waiting for your monthly salary from your employers or orders from them anymore. You need to do it by your own. Not everyone can also be an entrepreneur.
The first mindset that needs to build is the confidence. I’m able to do what I love to do confidently.
Maybe I can share what I do every morning the first thing I wake up which is repeating my goals and reading my goal card. Doing that itself helps me to get the boost for myself.
I’m currently in this stage as I always wanted to be one, but I only have read and listen to other entrepreneur. Now, it’s time for me to apply what I have learned so far. One of the most important thing that I’m being confident at is sharing about my services to others. So how this happened is I always occupied myself with people who are confident and watch videos about being confident (& apply on the spot) if not I’m just accumulating more theory in myself.
I will share about my journey of being an entrepreneur in coming blog posts.
Thank you for reading this far. Hope this helped you in some ways.
It’s so difficult to describe depression to someone who’s never been there, because it’s not sadness. I know sadness. Sadness is to cry and to feel. But it’s that cold absence of feeling — that really hollowed-out feeling.”
J.K. Rowling
Depression can affect the quality of life and satisfaction of the people living with depression and life alteration. It’s also a fairly common condition. Every year, approximately 15 million Americans are affected by anxiety and depression, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Even if you’ve had a previous episode of depression, it may be possible to prevent it in some cases. To prevent or avoid depression, you can implement a variety of lifestyle changes and stress management techniques. Certain triggers can cause us to go through depressive episodes. While everyone’s triggers are different, these are some of the best techniques for preventing or avoiding depression relapse.
If you don’t make time for exercise, you’ll probably have to make time for illness.”
Robin Sharma
First, we should regularly exercise. Regular exercise is one of the best things for your mental health you can do. According to the Mayo Clinic, exercise can be used in several key ways to treat and prevent depression because it has many benefits such as it increases the temperature of your body, which can calm the central nervous system, it releases products that can boost mood, such as endorphins and it reduces chemicals that can exacerbate depression in the immune system.
Every kind of physical practice can contribute to the treatment of depression, but exercise regularly is best. Join a sports team or a study (such as yoga or kickboxing), where you are active as well as part of a community. Instead of the lift, take the stairs. Make it a habit and this is the best way to maintain the fitness level that prevents depression most effectively.
If any of the great avatars – Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Mohammed – were present in human form on this planet today, what would they be doing? I doubt they would be posting selfies
Anthon St. Maarten
Next, reducing the time spending on social media. Research has shown that Trusted Source can cause or contribute to depression and low self esteem through increased use of the social media. Social media can be addictive and it is important to keep in touch with family, friends and even coworkers. This is how we plan to invite and share big news. Limiting time in social media can help prevent depression.
You can do this by removing some social applications from your phone using web blocking extensions which allow you to use specific sites only for a predetermined time and only to social media to prevent depression and by avoiding logging on a few occasions a day. For example, I feel more peaceful and relaxing when I am away from social media which will make us to compare our lives with others.
My mother used to tell me that when push comes to shove, you always know who to turn to. That being a family isn’t a social construct but an instinct.
Jodi Picoult
Thirdly, establish strong links with trustworthy close circles. It is important for our mental health to have a strong support and active social life. Research has shown that trustworthy sources can protect them from depression by even “sufficient” social support.
Make sure you connect with your friends and family regularly, even though your lives are busy. You can all help to build new relationships by attending social events and by finding new hobbies to meet new people. When u limit your social circle and surround yourself with those who will lift up you in life, your self esteem and confidence will boost . These will lead u to a successful pathway.
When people have no choice, life is almost unbearable … But as the number of choices keeps growing, negative aspects of having a multitude of options begin to appear … the negatives escalate until we become overloaded. At this point, choice no longer liberates, but debilitates.
Barry Schwartz in Paradox of Choices
Next, Make daily choices minimized. Have you ever entered a theme park and been overwhelmed by the first thing you want to do? Researchers believe that too many options can actually lead to major stress, which can lead to depression. The author of the book “The Paradox of Choice,” the psychologist Barry Schwartz describes research that shows that those who seek the best option — “maximisers,” face greater depression rates when faced with too many choices. All of us have a lot of options in our lives. What should we wear for breakfast, and should we buy yogurt, cheese, bagels, English muffins, or sausage? The stress of making the right or wrong decision has been linked to depression. Simplify stuff if making decisions stresses you out.
Learn to make decisions more efficiently, will the number of decisions you’ll have to make during the week, schedule your clothes, and have your meals prepared and ready to go, for example.
“Early to rise, early to bed, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and dead.”
James Thurber, American Cartoonist
“When the going gets tough, the tough take a nap.”
Tom Hodgkinson, British Writer
Furthermore, get plenty of rest is the key. Both mental and physical wellbeing require enough high-quality sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, people who suffer from insomnia are ten times more likely to experience depression than those who sleep well. You can’t look at any screens for two hours before bed (including your phone!) if you want to sleep better. Aside from that, meditate before going to bed, sleep on a supportive mattress, and avoid caffeine after 12 p.m. Sleep will help people with their issues, and a good night’s sleep can make you feel better. Deep slumber provides u deep solution when u wake up the next morning.
“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.”
Dhirubhai Ambani, founder, Reliance Industries
Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming.” – Richard Branson
Last but not least, stress and depression can be overcome by engaging yourself in a business field. These will give you courage to succeed in life and avoid all the negativities that brings u down. From my perceptive, I would say business lifestyle will give you an extraordinary exposure where you will get to meet new people and this will make you come out of the small minded which lead to depression. You will get witness how successful people are living in this world with beautiful goals and dreams . Therefore, find a right business opportunity and start commencing it.
To sum up the point, business opportunities will give you great turning point in your life which will change the way you speak, the way you think and the way you see this world. From here, your social circle will be surrounded by only quality circle of people which is a sign that positivity is surrounded in form of people and you can feel the vibes.
How can you be an amazing friend? One of the most important and formative types of relationship you will experience in a lifetime is friendship. I’m sure everyone of us lucky enough to experience the feeling of joy and happiness that comes from bonding with a real friend also being one either way.
Friendship is one of the best gift’s life has to offer. There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship
Thomas Aquinas
I’ve decided to blog on the beauty of being a friend and having a good friend which evolve a strong friendship in two-way street. The fact of the matter is we are all wired for meaningful relationships. Studies show if you have good friends throughout your life, you will live longer. There is a lot of truth behind the common saying, “In order to have a great friend, you must first be one.” So how can you learn to be a great friend? What does it take? Here are some qualities I’ll share to you readers which I’m applying as a friend. In turn, you’ll be teaching your friends how to become better ones.
Being a great friend to someone and having friends support your back is good for your wellbeing. But what, exactly makes a good friend? Check on them. How often you do that? As a friend, I’ve made sure they’re (friends) alright. It’s easy to go overboard, but when tactful it can mean the world to them when you show you’re concerned. Send them a text, a phone call (even better) or surprise them by showing up at their front door. Who doesn’t like surprises? If it’s me I would be jumping in joy *giggles*. Probably, that’s how I’ll turn up to my friends. It just means showing you want them to be ok. I’m pretty sure all of us done this at some points yet don’t just stop there. You can just text or call them right now, never know they needed you at this moment. I used to put on a brave face when I was going through rough times. It sucked but having good friends around who knew when I wasn’t really ok helped a lot. Just the matter of effort and the amount of care and concern you have for your friends.
Besides, always put in your best efforts. When they ask your opinion or help on something that means the most to them. It means they value what you think. Show them you’re as invested as they are. The best I could do as a friend to help them out, ask them what they really in need. So that I can offer them support in a way that’s genuinely helpful. It is good to be there for a friend rescuing them like the Superman during their tough times. Since young we’ve grown up watching the cartoons of our favorite that has always convey us to be a helping hand for someone right especially the SUPERHEROES been doing that in the concept for the loved ones. So why not? best childhood I had by learning to be a helping mind and surely you too. Friends are always a shoulder to cry on, am I right? No doubt about it. I believe friendship require a combination of trust, respect, love and emotional support.
“The strong bond of friendship is not always about giving and taking in equal shares. Instead, friendship is grounded in a feeling that you know exactly who will be there for you when in need something, no matter what or when”
Simon Sinek
“Don’t wait for people to be friendly. Show them how.” We need meaningful connections with other people. Not everyone has to be a close friend, but it’s integral to our happiness that we show people who we truly are, allow ourselves to know them in return, and then remind each other through actions, small or large that we care. After all, understand and respect boundaries. Know that you don’t have to be together 24/7. I need my space to recharge and I don’t always feel like hanging out with others. That doesn’t mean I don’t like them. Can you feel me? Anyone being in the same shoe? Good friends aren’t pushy and don’t get upset because of an occasional “no”. In fact, good friends know how to pick up right where they left off no matter how long it’s been since they last saw each other.
Personally, honesty hits a different perspective in every individual when it comes to any relationship especially in friendship. Being honest and constructive, speaking out keeping the promises and do what you say you’re going to do. Particularly, be reliable. Nobody wants to be friends with someone who lies. And lies always have a way of coming to the light, in me believe as well. Also, friends will say the truth to one another, even when it’s hard. The wisest man in the Bible: King Solomon, said – Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Prove yourself to be a trustworthy person who will guard all the sharing’s with your life. Friends come and go, but true friend sticks by you like family – King Solomon. Are you willing to be a friend like that? Of course.
Most of all, friendship entails reciprocity and respect. Without these two qualities, the relationship will be limited and fizzle over time. I don’t entitle myself as a great friend yet trying and still learning to be the best I could for my dearest friends whoever been there for me and being one too. Glad to have a bunch of them around me. How grateful are you to have great friends around? Appreciate them whenever its possible. It will definitely mean a lot to them as it is for us being one for them.
True Friends Helping Each Other to Grow
It takes a lot of work and commitment to be a great friend. TRUST ME!! That’s not easy to earn such long-term friendship within a night. But it is worth if your continuous efforts are there while building one with your friends. Keep in mind there are people all around you who are looking for friends. So, continue developing good friends if you have them in your life. And your life will be far better for it. True friends are like diamonds, precious but rare, false friends are like autumn leaves, found everywhere. Stick to the right one and build and friendship empire for yourself.
The exact definition of a goal, according to Wikipedia, is a desired outcome that an entity or system envisions, plans and commits to achieving a desired personal or organizational endpoint in some form of assumed growth. By setting deadlines, several individuals aim to accomplish targets within a limited time. In other words, whatever you intend for the future, no matter what it is, is a target. But the next time you plan to do the weekly chores or decide to watch that very cool action movie after work, always bear in mind that these tiny tasks count as goals and you are setting goals while obviously insignificant. Therefore, are you setting targets for yourself? What are your priorities for 1 year to come? How about in 10 years? In life, what are your aspirations? The first stage of successful objective achievement is the setting of goals. This marks the first step towards achievement. It’s when you move from a passive state to being involved in life.
FIRSTLY, YOUR LIFE WILL BE UNDER YOUR CONTROL. A lot of people are sleepwalking through life today. They don’t feel like they are getting what they want, even if they work hard. That’s because where they want to go, what they want to do, they have no path. Students graduate and they’re not sure what to do with their lives; when they hit their 40s, adults work for years and are surprised and they don’t know what to do next. You break out of your autopilot mode and begin to live a life of your conscious creation when you start setting goals and dream about what you want. Instead of letting others tell you what to do, you take the lead proactively and think about what you want for yourself. As Bill Copeland says, you can spend your entire life running up and down and not accomplishing something when you don’t set objectives. You’re really only following the purposes of others, not yours.
“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.” – Bill Copeland
NEXT, YOU WILL KNOW WHICH SCOPE TO FOCUS IN YOUR LIFE. Objectives give you emphasis. Although you are given a general guide by a life objective, your objectives give you laser focus as to exactly what to spend your time and energy on. As the input, think of your energy and the outcomes as the output. You create a focal point when you have a target, where your energy can be channeled to create the full reward. Here you prioritise and define the key action measures to get top grades, such as choosing the best class combination for optimum grades, reviewing examination papers from last year, consulting your teachers, and making a study schedule, while eliminating time consuming tasks such as excessive use of social media and binge-watching TV shows. As I said, setting goals helps you reflect on what’s important to you, what you want to do, and where you want to be in the future. In decision making, this viewpoint helps. You are in a stronger place to make choices that will impact your path in life if you know where you want to go. If you know what is important to you and what you really want to achieve, you can make a better decision about how you want to proceed.
“You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal.” – Zig Ziglar
BESIDES THAT, IT WILL KEEPS YOUR LIFE JOURNEY MOTIVATING. You align yourself with your innermost desires when you set goals. They help empower you and provide you with something to aspire for. If you’re not in a good place in life at the moment, this is particularly powerful. Your goals help remind you of the things you love, redirect your focus away from the negative obstacles, and reconnect you with your innermost desires. “Obstacles are those frightening things you see when you take your eyes off your target, to quote Henry Ford.” When you feel pessimistic and down, it’s mostly because you feel like you have little worth looking forward to. The rainbow to aim for, to drive you out of the storm, are your goals. I will meditate and reflect on some of the most important goals in my life, such as all the people I wish to reach out to and support in the world, if I ever lost motivation. I can imagine with total clarity the situation, as if it were happening now. This instantly links me with my inner self as I recall my WHY (my deepest motivation), after which I will immediately feel energized.
“The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
FURTHERMORE, SEATING GOALS GIVES YOU PERSONAL SATISFACTION AND PURPOSE OF LIFE WILL BE REALIZED. Goals make your life more complicated, but they give you a sense of personal fulfilment at the same time. Setting your personal goals and achieving them makes you understand your talents and gives you an idea of your full potential. The key strategy for helping you achieve your full potential is setting goals. Each effective step towards achieving your short-term and long-term goals creates confidence and gives you a sense of personal pride. The more you do, the better you will feel about yourself. In their lives, people need a sense of purpose, and goals will give you that feeling of purpose. Your ambitions give you reasons to get up in the morning, a purpose act, and a reason to live the life you wanted, instead of only going through the motions and living from day to day. The process of setting goals helps you determine your purpose in life. You discover your intent by taking the time to reflect on who you are and what you want to do in your life. If you focus your priorities on that target, your life becomes more important.
“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable. Winners can tell you where they are going, what they plan to do along the way, and who will be sharing the adventure with them.” – Denis Watley
IN ADDITION, YOUR LIFE MOMENTUM WILL BE BOOST UP NO MATTER HOW HARD SITUATION TURNS. Objectives provide you with optimism and something to aspire to. In itself, it can be really motivating to have a big target to think about and imagine achieving. You are able to reach some short-term targets when you start with your long-term goals. Your long-term target becomes more achievable with those achievements. The more you are able to meet short-term goals, the more you believe you can achieve your ultimate target. Your motivation is fueled by the feeling of success and continues to inspire you to accomplish even more. In addition, that encouragement and optimistic feelings can help you get through several challenges along the way that you can encounter. Your mind tends to reflect more on how to fulfil those objectives until you have specific written objectives. You start to make regular strides towards your objectives instead of only dreaming that you can do something someday. And the smallest acts on a regular basis, over the course of a year, add up to big results.
“Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.” – Les Brown
NEVERTHELESS, PROCRASTINATION ALSO CAN BE AVOIDED BY SETTING GOALS AND OUR LARGEST GOALS TURNS INTO MANAGEABLE ONES. You make yourself responsible for finishing the assignment when you set a goal for yourself. This is in complete contrast to when you do things based on a whim and whether or not you complete them doesn’t matter. Goals tend to stick in your mind, and they give you a reminder to complete and accomplish it. Lots of us have big dreams and hopes. It’s one of the things that makes life exciting for us! But a lot of us never take the time to figure out how we can get from point A to point B effectively. So, unfortunately, we have never entirely accomplished those targets. We look at our dreams and convince ourselves that they are ever accomplished by only a select few people, so we write off ourselves as individuals not meant to achieve that level of success. It can be intimidating, daunting, and discourage us from even pursuing them to look at the final product of a target. Fortunately, setting goals allows us to split big, daunting goals into smaller ones. These small measures and more realistic milestones will help us build momentum and motivate us to continue moving towards the next level of our target. The foundation from which we can start to create the life we really want to have for ourselves, our families, and maybe even for our societies, depending on how large your goals are! Whenever I get talking about this aspect of goal setting, I can’t help but think about the mountain climbing analogy, and that the best way to climb a mountain is simply step by step.
“Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.” -Louisa May Alcott
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, always remember this, ” Ideas are great. Goals are great. Thinking is great ……But always remember EXECUTION is Much much better. It’s time to stop thinking and start doing…… “If you have a goal in life that takes a lot of energy, that requires a lot of work, that incurs a great deal of interest and that is a challenge to you, you will always look forward to waking up to see what the new day brings.” Susan Polis Schultz
Be there like a shadow even you are at thousand miles away,
To guide you, to support you in discovering your greatest self.
And still loving you even at your worst and weird part.
IJA GHAZALI
Back then, when I was a kid (for your information: I’m a girl here), I learn to be friends with boys first than only girls because I grew up with my brothers around. So, when I started to learn to be friends with the girls, I saw some differences. Girls I knew choose priorities of appearance and the popularity to be friend with rather than boys don’t give a damn about how you look or how popular you’re, for them if you can be your true self you can be the best buddies. When I’m in primary school, to be honest, I think I just found one friend that choose to be with me even at the hardest part. She’s kind but she like to conquer to follow her way sometimes.
In addition to that, she’s with a group of people that loves to be beautiful or have popularity with. So, I choose to take a step back, with my low self-confidence it made me feel I’m not that worthy anymore in the group. There was a time I’ve been bullied by a girl that’s beautiful by using her own face to make people sympathy towards her and defame me. But when I’m crying alone in the toilet, she pulls my hair and show smirk face at me. I even didn’t have good friends in my class. When there’s a boy bullying me by throwing his socks at my face and I cried but no one defends me. That encouraged me to be brave.
When I’m in secondary school, at first, I have a friend that I thought could be my good friend, but she’s a “friends with benefits type”. She is close with me only if she doesn’t have any friends. That’s when I learn to make many friends because you wouldn’t know which one of them give suits you as friend. Then, I met my first ever true friend. For the first time ever in my life, I felt the truest of friendship that I treasure it till 13 years now and still counting. After that, one by one I got to make real friends but in the meantime of that of course I met to the fake ones. There are people I do be friends with but because of jealousy, they dropped me away. Once, I had a time where I decided not friends anymore with someone even our friendship about 8 years already, because I trusted her and shared my secret and it turns out she shared my story in my social media. However, the story in it was from her perspective, however let’s see how I have overcome this in a positive way.
I didn’t fight back with her because I learned how to be professional and to be kind to people, instead of reacting, I was responding. I tend to do it in a very calm way even though my emotions were very disturbed. Just stand strong and eventually people will see the truth.
My best friend never left me behind, they remember my birthday, do silly things to make me laugh, they helped me see the truth when I’m doing something in a wrong way, support me to follow my dreams even though it is quite impossible to get but they believe I could. Even when I’m in broken parts, they were there for me, even if their bodies are far away from me. They take me for short trips to get me away from my sadness or problem. They always remembered my favorites part. They are so generous that wouldn’t hesitate help me as much they could. Even when some of them is dating with their boyfriend, they didn’t ignore my presence. Yes, there’s of course had a time where we will quarrel, but we will be honest on what we are felt, asked forgiveness and be forgiven, learn to understand each other instead of being self-centered. We find out solutions so that the earlier experience would not happen again. Moreover, we will share any knowledgeable things in helping each other growth. Those make me to keep want to treasure our moments.
The resolution
So dear, from the lesson I had, love is not enough by the heart but how you act too and where did you put your love ones in your life. Discover the right way to have a great communication and know how and when the time should be discussed. Be loyal even it challenged your heart because it’s beautiful and when you are loyal, it shows that you are being true to yourself. Being loyal, it led you to accept your friends’ weakness and use it to help them fill those gaps and make them know they always have your back. Be honest and open about everything, even it will hurt because if not, you couldn’t find how to get through those problem and at same time will build trust in each other. If you want to be respectful, be respect to others first.
When you are respecting them, you will get to listen in a proper way and you will respect their privacy, their own way, their dreams or goals and others. Be patience, instead just judging, help them! Because not all will discover a way as fast or great as you might be. That’s why we need each other. Not all will result same so keep encouraging each other to overcome not battling each other. Last but not least, value your relationship smartly, know when to stay and when to leave and how to appreciate it.
That’s all from us. 😊 Wishing you the best in discovering friends that help build healthy relationship.
“Unlocking Bliss in Nature’s Embrace: My Inspiring Journey with ‘JOY Hiking’ 🌿☀️
Discover my rejuvenating Sunday mornings amidst nature’s beauty, immersing in the ‘JOY Hiking’ experience. Even after enduring long work hours, I mustered the energy to join this adventurous hike with a group of vibrant and enthusiastic individuals.
Embarking on a 50-minute drive from Kuala Lumpur to Seremban, the anticipation of being with nature heightened my spirits. Meeting Sifu Nathanji and his delightful wife infused the morning with laughter and camaraderie.
As we set out on a different trail towards Kepayang Hill, the excitement soared. Touching leaves, embracing trees, and absorbing the greenery, I felt an inner joy long concealed. The forest’s allure was magnetic, invigorating my being with every step.
Engaging in light-hearted banter while hiking, I not only enjoyed the company but also honed my hiking skills. The journey led us to a serene temple at the peak, allowing us to embrace the profound silence and marvel at nature’s splendor.
Sifu’s wisdom on meditation struck a chord—connecting with the universe in our unique way is the essence. During a peaceful 15-minute meditation, we received messages from the universe, adding a spiritual dimension to the hike.
Continuing our hike, we stumbled upon a family-run coffee and juice spot, savoring the delicious offerings amidst the breathtaking scenery. ‘JOY Hiking’ epitomizes reconnecting with nature and, more importantly, discovering the happiness and love within oneself.
It’s a revelation—our natural state is one of love, joy, and boundless happiness. Join me in this enchanting journey of self-discovery and blissful connection with nature. 🌳✨ #JOYHiking #NatureLovers #InnerJoy”
I was very eager to go to another place which is apart from Malaysia.
Then I asked few of my solo travels I met during the Sabah Travel, they mentioned they are heading to EL Nido for their next adventure.
I realized that that’s an amazing place to visit as I started googling about it and it was one of the amazing places in the world.
It is called Beauty of Island , El Nido. The place is truly magical and I feel everyone should visit this place at least once in their lifetime.
Let me break into pieces from Kuala Lumpur Airport to El Nido.
I booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur Airport to Puerto Princesa International Airport. Just a heads up guys, one of the underground river is at Puerto Princesa, however my focus for the travel was El Nido.
The travel was completely different for me as it was my first time travelling alone to another country. After I reached Puerto Princesa, I had to take a minivan which will take another 6 hours to reach El Nido. I would say the drive were crazyyyyyy because the drivers will drive really fast, be ready for a roller coaster ride….hahahaha
You may want to take a look at there. I stayed there for a couple of days there. To be very honest, I didn’t really plan that much to travel at El Nido because my heart says go with the flow for this travel.
Only one was a confirmed plan which is to experience Tour A and C at El Nido. It was very easy as well for me to book that as well, I just booked at the same hostel itself.
The tour will take an entire day to experience, I went with a group of people I never have met before, all of them mostly from Europe countries and guess what all of them looked so amazing, cute and handsome men. Yes, it was amazinggg to hang around with a bunch of unknown people and just start the conversations.
I loved Tour C more than A because it was more challenging, most importantly I don’t know how to swim at all, however, I did swim there at the ocean with the safety jacket and there was one of the member from the Frendz Hostel who was helping me for the swimming and also diving all day for the entire tour.
The famous food at Philipines is pork, and yes I did try. I loved their food and I tried many other foods there as well.
I would that was one of the amazing life I had just waking up to the island and having fun. I would say the water were just very beautiful.
Apart from going to tour, I did tried something else for example: Rock Climbing and Canopy Walk
I never knew I love my own company so much, I also went for a dance competition done by the locals as well. They were just having fun about their life and spending quality time with their friends and family.
That’s when I realised that people in Philipines take life very easy and happy unlike oppps those in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
I was shocked when one of the locals I spoke to said that he seldom use his phone.
During my last day of my journey, I decided to visit caves as I also love caves, therefore I went to Tour B as well to visit caves.
The whole entire travel was just go with the flow and follow your heart!!
I was thinking of going for a countdown for the new year eve celebration but it didn’t really happen, probably Nature wants me to spend time with myself, therefore, I decided to write the lessons I learned over the year 2022.
I wanted to focus on the TOP 5 Lessons I Learned from the Year 2022:
Life is very simple, don’t take so serious
This year was one of the years where I didn’t pressure myself and do my tasks but surprisingly I got more things done and achieved a lot more than any other year. I learned the more I flow with Nature, the more I attract whatever I desire in my life.
Follow your heart, don’t entertain your mind
“Your heart has the blueprint of your life”: said my mentor a long time ago. The journey of following your heart is really a long way but this year I focus on doing it more regardless of what other people tell me to do. There’s a slight line between ego and following heart, I do fall into the trap of EGO as well then nature gives me the lesson back to be on track.
Spend valuable time with family and close friends
I came out of my comfort zone to meet different types of friends and open my mind with the conversations. I always have this thought in myself that people see me weird and I can’t mingle with any conversations. Yes, all these thoughts are just in my head only. I slowly removed judgment from friends I spoke to, slowly it became a beautiful journey because whenever they speak to me they feel like reflecting on themselves and I stopped giving advice to them instead just listening without being emotionally involved in their conversations.
Travel more, be wild and adventurous
I just realized that I traveled five times in a year. Out of that, two were solo traveling to a place further than what I used to do. One of the decisions that makes me feel myself, even now when typing I’m smiling widely, being happy just thinking about all the experiences I had and the places I went there. I learned so much about myself and how closed-minded I was. I also realized that my programming of certain things is right and wrong is very strong in me. After all we all are from the source which means we are all connected with each other.
Take the leap of faith and start something new
I learned over the years that I don’t have to figure things out even before I start doing something, along the journey, it will fall into places. The most important thing is for me to do it (means put the actions) not just thinking or talking only. I made quite a number of decisions in my life which at first made me very uncomfortable but I took the actions, and was so happy I made a choice.
I hope my lessons have made you go down your memory lane and see the bright side of your life in the year 2022. Cheers for amazing growth in 2023.
Beautiful human beings are reading this!! Welcome to my space.
This blog post is a continuation of last blog post on Solo Traveling to Sabah, Malaysia Part 1, if you haven’t read it, please go on and read the blog for yourself before proceeding with this one.
Day 3
Checked out Nulu View Cabin
Went for ATV Adventure
Went to Paragliding Site
Drove back to Kota Kinabalu Airport
My morning starts very beautifully with the mountain view and chill air breeze. I just took a stool out at the Nulu View Cabin, there was some amazing infrastructure which was built a long time ago. I spent some time taking pictures there and just living in the present moment.
View at Nulu View Cabin
After that I headed for the check out at the Nulu View Cabin, for staying there you need to pay RM 100 for a refundable deposit, then I took it back. I also tortured the host to take pictures for me and he took all the places I asked to and he gave me suggestions as well.
I drove my car back to ATV Adventure, now a little smarter, took the correct turn then drove to the place. I was super early for the activity. So I just took some time relaxing in the car while gazing at the mountains. Also I used that time to call my mom and update her on what happened so far. She was so excited for my adventure, then it made me realize that it was one of her characters which I portray so much which is being adventurous.
After a while, I saw 3 young ladies dropped off from a car. All 3 of them looked very fun, and I assumed surely they came for the ATV Adventure. So I also got out of my car and had my opening conversation with them. It turns out they came all the way from Singapore for a holiday at Sabah.
These Malay ladies were awesome, they started chatting with me as if they had known me for a long time. So I was having amazing conversations with them learning about their country and all.
After like 20 minutes, the ATV Adventure coach came by and we all started to wear our safety equipment before we started riding.
I was super excited as this is my first ATV Adventure and the coach told me that this adventure will be quite different because there will be alot of holes and the surface is muddy. I was YESSSSS, adventure stuff, then the coach called me and asked me if this is the first time you want someone to ride for you and you sit at the back, I told no no I will do it on my own.
I would say that was one of the amazing experiences of my life. So we drove the ATV for almost an hour altogether then we had a pit stop where we had to hike up to SOSODIKAN HILL. It was so surreal up there and I was already very excited and at the same time as scary as it was uphill. I took some time to take some of the beautiful pictures with the help of new friends I met.
ATV Adventure at Sosodikon Hill
Right after this ride, I drove my car to the Paragliding Site which was one of the most awaited activities I wanted to experience as well. Driving into the site itself was very adventurous and finally I arrived. I registered and was eagerly waiting for my paragliding instructor, we had to drive a little higher to reach the site.
Kring, kringggggg…..the phone buzzed. It was the instructor’s phone, he was speaking in Malay Language, I can hear words like “weather” “cloudy” “not safe” Then he hang up the phone and turn around and said “I’m sorry we can’t paraglide today because the weather is not promising, either we will have trouble in landing down or we might get lost if we still persist to perform paraglide. At that moment, I felt awwwww I was so excited but I also accepted the circumstances, maybe I’m yet to be ready for that. The time will come one day, maybe it just is not this day.
So we took a picture together at the paragliding site without really paragliding….hahahaha
Me with my Paragliding Coach
Then I drove back to Kota Kinabalu Airport to catch my flight at 5.30pm. I went there a bit early and had lunch over McDonalds after returning the car back to the owner. After having a good meal, I queued up to enter the checkpoint. Another funny thing happened during that period which is I forgot to keep a small receipt the police officer asked me to hold during my arrival at Kota Kinabalu in my handbag. I kept that in my luggage instead, by now it would have been at the cargo.
The police officer looked at me and gave me the stare “How ridiculous you can be, young lady?” Then he told me quickly go and do a police report and bring back the letter to me, after that only you are allowed to get into the plane. I was like after my sadness about paragliding, this took place as well.
I literally ran as fast as I could from one corner to another corner, luckily the police station was inside the airport, so I made the report. The police officer who took the complaint was having time to make jokes and ask if I’m all alone here and all. Then I ran back and finally got into the plane.
I sat beside a cute guy probably in his late 30’s. We were having some conversations while waiting for the plane to take off. Normally the plane takes off after a few minutes, however, this plane was not taking off. Then all the passengers started being uncomfortable. For the first time I heard the captain speaking on the plane’s speaker stating that we are having some technical problem to take off, so heading back to the main airport site. After like 30 minutes, then we went back to take off, again we had problems taking off, so went back to the airport. But among all this, I had a great time talking to this guy, we didn’t ask our names but the moment was very nice, he was a consultant. He shared with me a lot of amazing experiences of his travelling and his friends’ travel experience. We became good friends.
Then we all went back to the airport waiting for the next flight, it was delayed and they gave me few options. I took the next day 11.35am so it shows how Sabah loved me so much and made me stay another day there. The best part was all the food, transportation and accommodations, all of them were taken care of by the airline industry. I made friends with the driver again and he sent me back to the hotel safely.
The next day I also got the voucher for the morning breakfast buffet. I had breakfast with a group of people who were a bit older, I was just with them as well. Then one of them in the group started to have a conversation with me, only to find out that all of them were retired principals from secondary school. I learned alot from them, it was indeed an amazing conversation.
I went back home safely on the way back home. If I want to sum up Sabah, it is unconditional love.
It has been really quite some time sharing my experiences. My heart wanted me to share my recent solo traveling with everyone out there.
This year’s trip was very close to my heart because it is one of my bucket list holidays to Sabah on my own. Every year as my birthday gift, I bring myself out to experience a different country or state. Today I’m sharing each and everything that happens during my SOLO TRAVELING TO SABAH, specifically to Kundasang.
I’m sharing my itinerary for my 3 days and 2 nights which then become 4 days and 3 nights, I will let you all know why that happened.
DAY 1
Depart from Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Reached Kota Kinabalu Airport
Checked in FALOE HOSTEL
Watch sunset at Tanjung Aru Beach
I was very thrilled to take the flight after 10 years, YES, after so many years. My heart was literally screaming when I saw the flight coming towards me, I book Malaysia Airlines as the price was slightly cheaper than AirAsia…hehehe
Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Then I sat in between 2 Chinese Old Men. I was very happy actually sitting in the plane and the 2 hrs 30 minutes journey was quite fast for me, I enjoyed the meal as well. It was a smooth journey by the way and one funny thing was I couldn’t unlock it with my safety belt, how funny right? Then the guy beside me helped me and he laughed at me as well.
Once I reached KK Airport, I was waiting for the driver I book few months ago from https://www.economybookings.com/, it is an international website for car rental, however, no one came, I was quite pissed off when no one contacted and picked even after I paid the booking amount, till date it is not refunded, haiizzz.
Luckily KK was quite similar to KL, they had many other services, GRAB is available, so I booked immediately and went to my favourite hostel – Faloe Hostel https://faloehostel.business.site/ , if you are staying at KK, I would really recommend to stay there, it’s cheap and most importantly they are super friendly. I loved everyone there, we had an amazing chat and dinner given by the host. I was having one of the best days of my life. Since all of them were travellers as well, our conversations were all about that and I met an amazing young lady (solo female traveller), the moment I met her my heart wanted to talk to her more and learn from her. She went to quite a number of Asia countries, but what changed my mind is that she goes to that respective country for some part time/contract based work and travels there, once the money is all used up she applies for some other job, then continues travelling. I felt this “She’s living her life, man”.
Me and Ivy (Host of the Faloe Hostel)
A few weeks later, she came to Kuala Lumpur and I met her again. We went to an Indian Restaurant. I would say I have never done something like this in my life before but since my heart asked me to do so, I did. Our conversation was amazing and she told me that she’s going to bring me to her farm when I go back to England.
Me and Beccy (Female Solo Traveller), met her at Faloe Hostel
On the same day at KK, I went to visit Tanjung Aru Beach for sunset, it was a really beautiful view, you can just sit and watch it all day long. And again I met amazing people there, a lady saw me struggling to take pictures alone, she and her daughters helped me to take a video of me and pictures. She was so kind until she texted me from her daughters’ phone and literally continued to text me every day making sure I’m okie, such a beautiful soul.
Sunset at Tanjung Aru BeachMe in my beautiful dress
Oops I forgot to mention how I went from the hostel to the beach. I rented a car on the spot the moment the previous rental services were not provided, luckily he said I got a car, then I took Almera, the price was quite reasonable and was fast too.
Day 1 was just starting and it was already going amazing. I met so many beautiful souls and my heart melted when I saw mountains as I’m a mountain person.
DAY 2
Depart from Faloe Hostel
Drove to Kundasang
Visited Desa Dairy Farm
Visited Sabah Tea Garden
Checked in at Nulu View Cabin
My day started early in the morning at 5am driving from Kota Kinabalu to Kundasang. I woke up and I was looking for my phone charger because my phone was running out of battery. I panicked a little because without that I couldn’t drive to Kundasang, I must use WAZE some more.
I took some deep breaths and finally got my charger, and left my beautiful hostel around 5.30am. One of the most frightening experiences for me was also when I wanted to pay the parking ticket, I had to walk from one building to another, it was still dark and I saw one guy who was mentally ill was walking towards me and shouting. No matter how strong I was, at that moment I felt very scared but I have faith in Nature and told myself he’s also the same as me, a human being so I just acted normal and paid my parking ticket at the machine.
I drove for almost 2hrs 30 minutes on the road to Kundasang, but it didn’t feel like that at all because the scenery was so beautiful. That experience can’t be described through words, must only be experienced by each one of you. I had an amazing sunrise view as I was driving, I drove slowly as that place is not something I used to drive. I had so much fun by myself and reached another GEM place at Kundasang which is Desa Dairy Farm. It looks like a mini New Zealand to be honest. I just fell in love with the entire place because I love mountains and I felt like I just wanted to live there.
Desa Dairy Farm, Kundasang
The wind breeze was cold and the view of the mountains was mind blowing. At that moment I believed in love at first sight. In the farm you can be there until 4pm and take pictures wherever you want. Since I was traveling solo, I made plenty of friends there without knowing their names. I also ate their natural yogurt ice cream which was amazing. That place is where you can buy fresh milk and drink immediately. I also look at how the milks were processed in the large tunnel.
I would suggest if you are going to that place, do bring along a jacket to cover yourself as it is very cold there.
After spending a few hours there, I went to visit the Sabah Tea Garden. I love tea. It was quite huge but when I went there the factory was closed, so I couldn’t look at the process of making tea, so I just took some pictures and came back to a restaurant where there was tea and other food, I took my lunch and I would say drinking the natural tea was amazing. The taste was extremely good and I just felt like flying already.
Sabah Tea Garden
I head to another place of stay which is Nulu View Cabin. This place is really located uphill where your view will be like in front of the mountains. However, the road to reach there was extremely steep, since I love adventure, so I still drove and parked my car there. It was a very peaceful place to stay and have fun. I took a quick nap before heading to my next agenda which is ATV Adventure.
View from my staying place at Nulu View Cabin
I would say the experience that I’m about to share is one of the amazing experiences I had in this entire trip, almost it could have been a near death experience. Don’t be scared guys, I’m still fine and it was worthwhile to be really honest with you all. The drive from Nulu View Cabin to the ATV Adventure should only be 15 minutes away but my waze showed me an hour journey just because I took left instead of right at the first junction. I texted my ATV coach that I would be coming late, but the waze kept on increasing the time.
I actually went to the wrong place, it was showing me to the uphill of the mountain. I was so dumb to just follow the Waze without thinking twice, the road was super muddy and step, I would say if you are not brave enough you wouldn’t want to drive into that kind of road but I did…..I’m really crazy person. I was passing by some gardeners and some weird places where trucks are kept, reminds me of movies where they kidnap people and keep them there. My thoughts were quite negative but I still enjoyed the scenery until a point where my heart felt like something was not right, so I stopped the car.
I came out of the car to see what was in front, it was a CLIFF, yes a CLIFF, if only I didn’t stop the car I would have fallen into the cliff and could never have been found. I took deep breaths when I was at that place to calm myself down and think of a solution. I was almost in tears because no one was there, literally no human beings. However, I believe in Nature so I reversed the car and drove down the hill, then my car tire got stuck in the mud.
That was another challenge, I was hoping someone would come and help me because I couldn’t reverse at all. I really experienced that Nature was guiding me when a mid-age man came by motorcycle, I stopped him for help. He told me that he doesn’t know how to drive a car. We waited for sometime, a car arrived. I just felt another angel come and helped me. The other guy helped me to reverse the car from the mud and I got back on track. At that moment, I really experienced what humbling means and really being vulnerable to other human beings. The motorcycle guy showed me the way down the hill.
I safely landed on the road. I would say Sabah people are amazinggggg, they help people when someone is in trouble without thinking twice at all.
I was not ok after that incident and I decided not to go anywhere after that. I texted my brother about this incident and he asked me to be careful next time and be more alert with my own surroundings.
I rested at the Nulu View Cabin the entire day and enjoyed the view. I was meditating and also reflecting about myself at that moment. Actually I was happy I got to experience that lesson and view life very differently.
I hope you have enjoyed my experiences so far for DAY 1 and DAY 2, I will be continuing my solo traveling journey for the remaining two days in the next blog.
I have uploaded more amazing pictures in my instagram profile:
I love learning about myself in everything I do, be it my business, career, spending time with family and many more. One of the major activities that hits my self-awareness is traveling.
I have written two articles on solo traveling, this is a continuation of those articles, if you haven’t read it yet then you should start reading before heading to this article!!
I’m always excited about life as a whole because I observe many people’s lives since young, some are happy with their simple and happy life, some are extremely wealthy but no peace of mind and unhappy with life, some are in between, at times happy at time struggles, and I’m so grateful that I could observe all of this and create my own life with my own definition of fulfilling life.
Travel has always been my way of learning about myself at a deeper level and what would you say if it’s solo traveling, you even learn about it even further!!
Let’s dive into lessons I learned about myself:
My thoughts are extremely important
Being raised in a middle-class Indian Family, I was always told to be pessimistic in everything and it becomes even worse when you are a girl, take care of your safety at all times.
I thought I’m very brave living on my own, however the thoughts that I have planted since young, my older programming haunted me back when I was solo-traveling. I fear if something bad happens, also it was raining heavily, maybe a tsunami, all these funny thoughts came about, I had to keep calm and tell myself that I have set a very strong end goal. Everything will be fine!!
I attract people and events that have the same vibration as myself. And that totally happened. I attracted so many wonderful people who were willingly sharing their life experiences with me, for example, the guy at the Adventure Park.
I’m very afraid to talk to strangers
Could you ever imagine that I was staying still for 20 minutes just waiting for someone to take a picture of me at this beautiful place?
I was even at my own place eating and gazing at the beautiful scenery out there.
However, I took the courage to talk with them because I feel being an entrepreneur one of the characteristics you need to have is being a friendly and easy going person.
Take your life simple and easy
Oftentimes, I take things very seriously in my life like always racing for something and competing with someone. After the holiday, I realized there’s no need to race because in the end we are all going to live this place right.
Life is extremely beautiful and there’s so much for you to explore and learn, isn’t it and are we acting like one. Ask yourself?
When you know yourself better, you understand others better.
I tend to feel very understanding and compassionate to others when I know more about myself. My perceptions change when I see someone behave in a certain way because all this while I thought everyone needs to conform to what I think right, however, accepting them as who they are is the best.
I’m a very adventurous person
This solo trip has made me realize that I’m one of the crazy people who does some extreme activities such as bungee jumping. Yes, I did right after this solo trip. I was also equally excited to go into places like nature where there’s very limited people.
I’m truly grateful for each and everyone who is reading this piece of my journey of self-discovery. If you have not started solo traveling yet. You should do one very soon!!
With love,
Laavannya
Founder of Crazy Geek and Warrior Consultancy and Learning
Solo Travelling was one of the best decision I made in my life. I’m a travel freak however many times my own thoughts sabotage me and I live in fears. In December 2021, I took this bold decision to drive on my own and live on my own. I love spending time with myself alot, luckily I have an amazing relationship with myself!! So it wasn’t difficult for me to spend every seconds all by myself.
Just imagine that with yourself while listening to my story. You are with yourself in your favourite place with the favourite food and activities. Visualize that and soon share with me your solo travelling experience with me. Let’s dive into my SOLO TRAVELLING to Colmar Tropicale Bukit Tinggi Pahang, Malaysia. If you are in Malaysia, do take yourself to this trip on your own.
In this write-up, I’m going to share with you exactly how I felt and thoughts I had during the solo travelling.
Before reaching the Colmar Tropicale
I was driving my car bursting the loud sounds of my favourite songs, if you are Indian or if you like melody songs, check out this Oscar Award Winner, Mr. AR RAHMAN (my favourite music composer and singer). I’m also very intrigued with his way of living as he’s also a very spiritual person and fun fact: We share the same birth number 6. Here’s his Youtube Chanel:
It took almost 45 minutes from my place to the destination. It was fairly short trip but I loved every moment. The roads were not so easy because at that point of time was when Malaysia was badly affected by flood and as parents (both my mom and dad) were very concerned about my safety. I would say yes it was not very safe when I’m almost nearing the place as I could see trees and branches were on the road in which I had to de-tour and find my own way to get back to the place that I wanted.
Along the journey, a person like me who loves nature and green sceneries, I was falling in love while I was travelling. Living up in a city like Kuala Lumpur, I’m always surrounded with tall and high-tech buildings where seeing a Natural Tree is like so rare!! I could even feel how I felt at that time even though I’m tying this story after 2 months, that’s how surreal it was for me.
It is being inspired from the buildings in Colmar, France.
Me at Colmar Tropicale, Bukit Tinggi
I was so excited until I forgot to take the video or picture of entering the place. And since I’m staying at Colmar itself, the parking was FREE. I booked using AGODA website (travel booking website) but I paid for 2 persons because there’s no one person room there, yes you might feel it’s little expensive for ONE person but I’m the kind of person who values the experience more than the money. So I invested in my solo travelling to learn about myself. Isn’t it amazing!!
Once I’m in, I got my room and it was pretty interesting as the card was in French, I learned French when I was in college, now I realised how that knowledge can be applied now during my travel. I was very happy the moment I received the key. Also I saw a cute Indian guy working at the reception, hope he doesn’t read this blog….hahaha Once I got into my room, guess what I did. I slept off……YES, literally slept off but I put alarm so that I will wake up, I didn’t want to just waste my time sleeping coming to this beautiful place. I was there for 2 days 1 night. I rather prefer short trips then long trips!!
Once I took a quick nap, I head to one of the restaurant just below my room. The place is like all the food and other facilities are all just withing the building you are staying, so it was pretty safe as well. For most women, they fear safety, so for those who is travelling SOLO for first time, I would strongly suggest to go here first as it is very safe inside. Also watch your thoughts guys!! However, if you want to experience different activities like horse riding, adventure park, rabbit park and Japanese Village.
I made a mistake too, I thought I can go to Japanese Village and Rabbit Park without registering at the hotel. It is only after you have registered, you are given the complementary tickets for that 2 places.
Activities – Day 1
Horse Riding Lesson
I went for horse riding first as that needs to be paid separately not a complementary one. I always wanted to learn horse riding not just riding. I feel that’s a skill that needs to be learned and mastered. I paid RM 160 for 1 hour riding lesson, you may check out the price at the document I have attached for others.
Fees for Horse Riding
Some just prefer riding only not the lesson. Follow what your heart says!!
I would say I loved horse riding most importantly Bonita (Name of the horse), you need to sit straight and make sure you hold the rein correctly. I was struggling to hold the rein correctly but the instructor was so kind enough to teach me many times until I get it. So what I was learning during the 1 hour is mounting, seat balance on the horse, walking with the horse and learning how to hold the rein. Trust me just learning that you can actually sweat alot and the coach said horse riders must be fit and healthy. He also mentioned that he raised Bonita since it was born and until now. I could feel the bonding he has with Bonita. The pure love he has on it, it was unconditional and beautiful.
Adventure Park
There are few activities here, however when I went there due to heavy rain effect, flying fox was not allowed as one of the huge tree branch was stucked at the path. So I managed to only do Canopy walk, I didn’t do rock climbing because I still had fears to do that!! Canopy walk was testing my fears of height but I managed to go until the end of the bridge and when I came back, it was even more scary as the cars were driving below me. But I stayed very focused on the end goal and finished my activity. To add this, there were more activities as well such as archery and all. Do check out this website to know more!!
For me personally, my expectations were too high, I just saw like rabbits and birds and some other animals. It was not a very ful-filling visit but I enjoyed, I was having fun looking at young kids who were carrying the rabbits and padding it. I didn’t carry any but was busy taking pictures.
My favourite pose (Not sure what I was doing….hahaha)
Almost evening, I was spending time taking picture of my own and with the help of strangers. I was so amazed with the pictures taken by the strangers, they were having fun taking lovely and beautiful pictures of mine. I have been using that pictures for my social media posting. The place was very beautiful and I just took all the pictures with my android phone (Samsung), but it turned out to be amazing pictures.
Activities – Day 2
Japanese Village
I truly enjoyed this because it was a new experience for me. I experienced wearing Japanese Traditional Wear and I made good friend there, one of the girl I met was only in her Form 4 but her skills in photography was too good, she thought I’m in school too….hahaha….perks of being short and small……She was so excited to have amazing chat with me while taking pictures of me and her family. If I’m not mistaken, the price of renting the Japanese Attire was RM 20.00 and you can use for so many hours, the place was very beautiful. It was so green and there were beautiful waterfall as well a place where normally Japanese people will leave. If you had a chance going there, never miss to visit this!!
Me at the Japanese Village with the attire
However, the Botanical Garden and the Japanese Restaurant were closed. It’s okay we enjoy with what we have. I really enjoyed that place!!
Finally I had to leave this place to back home. It was full of love and amazing stuff I did, eventhough it was short I really enjoyed each and every moment there staying doing things along and connecting to myself at deeper levels. The thoughts and feelings I have without people around me. That’s far more important.
That’s all I have for this week!! Hope you enjoyed my writing. Will see you all soon with Lessons I Learned during Solo Travelling!
The almost two years of Covid lifestyle has been an eye opener and a world filled with variety of possibilities to be connected to Mother Earth once again like the olden days. With so many people isolated at home and the economy being wobbly, opting to the idea of growing their own food has been the greatest trend and still ongoing. Even during the Japanese and British occupation of Malaya, our forefathers grew crops for their daily meals. Have we ever thought to grow vegetables at home before? Most of us would always get in the car and drive to the nearest supermarkets to get our fruits and vegetables.
In the period of several lockdowns, gardening has become a self-soothing activity that decreases anxiety and helped with depression. The exposure to the outdoors in your own green space regulates the emotion and decrease the worrying nature in the brain. It has become a welcoming distraction in times of strife for my family and I.
Besides, gardening has been one of a physical exercise that helps with my mind. I’m sure you’re wondering how. Gardening is an activity that requires lots of energy to carry heavy pots around, bending down to for weeding, seeding, and etc. Adding on, since gardening is an activity mostly done on an outdoor space, you get to bask under the sun which has Vitamin D that is necessary for strengthening our bones and also regulates the mood.
Plants growth can always be compared to human life. It first sprouts, then followed by seedling, vegetative, budding, flowering and finally ripening. We too need to always form a foundation and work continuously to meet our end goals. These in fact requires focus, determination and grit. Gardening, in its complex way, delivers a balanced set of benefits. It’s at once a relaxing escape and a challenging obstacle to conquer.
Moreover, gardening has brought my family closer. It has created a sense of wholeness and a heart filled with happiness when you can share a common activity with each other. Every moment of this has been a precious one and I intend to keep it that way for a long time to come.
Gardening has been my family’s activity, what about yours? Feel free to share your stories.
“In the garden, nature goes on; it gets your mind off a lot of other things.”
Once again, I’m back to writing after such a long gap. It’s always the tendency to get over-busy with work, guiding students and every other tasks except for blogging, your favorite. Before me getting into the work for today, how y’all doing. I hope you are all at good health and working on your goals even though not every single day is going to be a good day but the hope and faith is always there. Just keep moving guys.
As always, I’m not going to nag or give some tips on how to gain followers or increase your exposure in social media but I’m going to share my own experience from no direction or goals being on social media to a person who is super active in social media to impact people’s life.
MY STORY
Three years back, I was this young teenager who were going to college and like every other so called “good student” only goal was to get good results in exams and hang out with friends whenever I have the time.
Fast forward 3 years, I have changed completely from the very shy to a very confident person with my own work and guiding others for their exams as well as being an entrepreneur. Social media wasn’t really a thing for me until the pandemic hits globally.
Apart from being a blogger, I also do have my own Youtube Channel, you may check out my cool channel.
Crazy Geek Youtube Channel
So, it all started when I have my goal on why do I want to be in this social media and having a very specific reason of being in each platform. I do set end goals for every feed post, story, video or audio. If you are not familiar with end goal, head to my other blog posts to know more about it.
Having a clear goal in each platform will really help you, like for me, since I’m an accountant, tutor, coach and also Youtuber, I do have specific goals in each of it.
Linkedin –> To connect with like-minded people and learn from them, getting leads for my ACCA Tutoring Classes
Instagram –> Share my own lifestyle and sometimes to just be the real me, crazy and fun me
Facebook –> For my ACCA Tutoring Marketing
Youtube –> To raise awareness on bridging the gap between what we study in college/school to what we apply at work
So do figure out first why you want to be in social media platform then put contents based on that. Trust the process and the journey even if no one really respond to your stories and feeds.
CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY
Never ever stop entirely from putting out your contents, it will definitely make your audiences to forget about you. Just keep doing, one of the lesson I learned in putting out contents are don’t attach yourself too much on the results. It will only drain you and give you negative energies. Instead focus on what type of value and content do you want to produce for your audiences.
VALUE YOUR FOLLOWERS
I have a huge respect for each and every follower regardless of what they need. I always try my level best to reply to all their messages and answer them as soon as possible when they need any kind of assistance. They are very important asset for each and every business you are creating or the brand you are raising.
HAVING A MENTOR
Talk to someone if you don’t feel good about your own self because the happiness within you will bring the success around you, so keep doing what you feel is good and letting all the negative thoughts and emotions panted up with you to someone so that you are feeling better and focus on your goals much better.
I guess that’s all for now. If you have any questions or just want to reach out to me. Just feel free to reach me, I would be so happy to be in your journey of achieving your goals.
Crazy Geek 
