My way of travel
My way of travel
Terry
20/02/2023
Why travel?
Why do you like to travel so much? A question often asked by anybody who I’ve told about my traveling journey so far.
I have always wanted to travel since young. I remember during my primary school days when the teachers would ask us what we did during the break. Many of my classmates would raise their hands and shout out the countries they went to. A quiet me would act like I don’t care and I would rather stay home play my MMORPG. Truth to be told, I was filled with jealousy.
As I grew older, around my secondary school days, I gotten curious about the world. I would subscribe to the monthly National Geographic magazine to look at those amazing landscape photographs from around the world. I was also exposed to social media such as Facebook and Instagram. Seeing all those amazing landscape photographer photographs, I told myself one day I would travel alone to see the world and capture those breathtaking landscapes.
While a typical Singaporean after their national service or obtaining a bachelor’s degree would start looking for a job, have a stable income, be married, have babies and work for the rest of their life. I start to question myself, is this what I want? Of course, at some point in time, I want to have a family. However, I also want my life to be exciting and full of adventures. In 2018, after obtaining my bachelor’s degree, I decided so solo backpack around the world. The plan was to travel to 10 of the countries I’ve always wanted to visit within a year. However, a year turned into two years. I would love to continue my third year in Australia on a working holiday visa but unfortunately, covid hit and I was forced to return back to Singapore in 2022.
Being a Singaporean, it’s definitely not an easy decision to not work and travel for 2 years straight. Although I was late to enter the workforce and lost 2 years of my income, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The experience I had, the friends I made is something that cannot be bought. Getting lost in the highland of Scotland, hiking at 3800 altitude in Kyrgyzstan (yes it’s a big deal for me), dog sledding while seeing the northern light and lastly photographing breathtaking landscapes which I am passionate about.
In the future, I can look back and remember this amazing adventure I did. I love traveling and will never stop until the day that I am unable to walk.
How I travel
Before I started my solo backpacking trip, I came across a website called Workaway. It’s a platform that allows traveler to volunteer abroad. Basically, you find a host that is willing to accept you and you work for him/her in exchange for free food and accommodation. I rely heavily on volunteering to fund my travel. Not to mention, it’s also a very good way to experience living like the locals and make new friends who are also volunteers. For me, I had volunteered over 25 places from working in farms, teaching English, running tours, restaurants, dog sitting and even just living with a family without any work.
As you all know, I’am obsess with traveling and taking photographs. To me, travel photography is about capturing and documenting that distant place in a single frame, pulling the viewer into the shot and making them wish that they were there. That’s how I feel when I see those landscape photographer posts on Instagram. The world is far grander and more exquisite with beautiful differences than just Singapore.
There are essentially two main groups of people engaging in travel photography. One group consists of those who travel for the purpose of photography, and the other group consists of people who travel for the sake of travel and take photos to compliment their travels.
As a proactive photographer, there are lot’s of preparation involve. For example, scouting for good location, planning your composition, predicting the sun direction and knowing the timing for dramatic lighting. Unlike reactive photographers, this can be quite stressful and require a lot of hard work. Landscape photography is a great example of this, as the success of such photos can heavily depend on the preparation gone into the shoot. For those of you who are interested, I rely on PhotoPills to plan my shots.
My travel journey
Norway is the first country to visit on my list. The goal was to witness the amazing phenomenon of the northern light which had always been on my bucket list. I volunteered at three different places in Norway. Bodo, Sorreisa and Sappen
In Bodo, I was dog sitting for a host. She went to Spain to escape the winter cold and to do scuba diving. Boring, but lot’s of freedom and free time to explore. In Sappen, I was working in a guesthouse with hardly any guests. Meet 3 awesome Italian volunteers who are still in contact with me to this day. In Sorreisa, it is one of the best volunteering experiences I have had and the bar has been set very high for it. The family accepted me because he wants foreigners to interact with 7 of his children. Besides me, there is also a Spanish volunteer who eventually became my first close friend. Now that I think about it, other than shoveling snow, we basically did nothing. We live with the family, eat with the family, and occasionally went hiking and skiing together. I will never forget these awesome people that I’ve met. Lot’s of tears and hugs during the last day.
The second country I went to was Scotland. I did 5 Workaway there, and 4 out of 5 were horrible. Basically, these 4 hosts were exploiting volunteers for free labor. They host many volunteers, create a schedule and make you work like hell. In 2 of the locations, I didn’t even get to see the host at all. I do also think that maybe the experience I had in Norway was too good, which makes my subsequence volunteering experience seems pretty average.
Luckily, I did manage to have one awesome experience on the Isle of Mull. A young couple, AJ and Hannah accepted me as their volunteers and we spent an enjoyable time together. I eat with them, work with them, and they also bring me around to explore the island during free time. This is how I feel volunteering abroad should be, working together and sharing cultures while creating lasting bonds.
