“Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly.” from the video, a very inspiring video.
I think this was how I used to choose where to go: just to choose somewhere I never been to, maybe in the bottom of my heart, I just want to cross another country/city on my list. Now that I travel more, I see more, I start realizing crossing the list is cool, but it shouldn’t be the reason to travel. It’s nothing to proud of that you’ve been to 20 countries in 1 year, because when you think you are cool, there are someone else in the world travel to 30 countries in 1 year. What I mean is, you think you are cool? There are someone who is cooler out there. So now, when I want to travel, these are some reasons to determine my next destination.
1. Friends
Throughout the travel I had before, I met a lot of interesting people. I want to meet many of them again. So when I know we are close, that’s a motivation to see them again and visit the places they are at.
2. Cultural
Last Christmas, I was in Europe. I really would like to spend Christmas with an European family to experience the difference of celebrating Christmas in Europe and in Hong Kong. I also would like to go to the Tomato Festival in Spain, Oktoberfest in Germany…etc.
3. Place I never been
Instead of checking the list, I still would like to explore places I never been. But I would like to experience and enjoy the place rather than just for the sake of being there.
I always love traveling abroad since I was very young. Yet I am not coming from a rich family. Unlike some of my classmates who travel abroad every year with their families, my parents and I seldom travel together. To be honest, they’ve been to places way less than I do (because they can’t get the same opportunities like me). Nevertheless, I am grateful that they let me go and see the world. These are some of the ways how I manage to get myself away from Hong Kong without spending too much mommy’s money!
1. 學校的交流團 Exchange tour by secondary school/university
The first time I traveled alone was when I was 13 years old. My secondary school was invited to go to the United States (Silicon Valley, California) to perform in the Moon Festival. We went there for around 10 days, in which we spent a week studying in the local school, lived with the host family and went to all those touristic places. I still remember I also had my longest birthday ever! We departed on my birthday, and when we arrive after 10+ hours, it’s still the afternoon of my birthday! I notice that my university also arranged different exchange tours as well, so it can be your chance!
2. 制服團體或青少年組織的交流團 Exchange tour by uniformed groups*/youth organizations
I was a member of a uniformed group in Hong Kong when I was younger. During summer time, these uniformed groups or some other youth organizations always organize different exchange tours. Many of these tours are subsidized, so they are relatively a lot cheaper. Since they are organizing these kinds of tours almost every year, they are experienced in the arrangement as well. I’ve been to 4 different trips with these organizations: Inner Mongolia, Shanghai and Yangtsz River in China and Australia.
上海世博 Shanghai during World Expo!
*Uniformed groups are those youth organizations aimed to provide disciplinary and expedition training like Scouts, Cadet Force, Red Cross, and so on.
3. 政府附屬組織的交流計劃 Exchange program by government affiliates
Each year, the Home Affairs Bureau and Commission of Youth on Hong Kong select some young people recommended by different associations and schools in Hong Kong to participate the International Youth Exchange Program (IYEP). The program gives delegate opportunity to go on an exchange tour for free to one of these countries: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan and Singapore. Young people from the respective countries will come to Hong Kong as an exchange as well! I was lucky enough to get the chance to go to Singapore for a week in which I met some lifelong Singaporean friends!
I volunteered in an English language school in Turkey. During my 6 weeks there, I got a chance to live with some locals and interact with them. I didn’t have to pay for my accommodation, which usually is the biggest spending for my trips abroad. I enjoyed the experience a lot because I believe having the chance to talk with the locals is giving me the most out of my trip! That’s how I can really learn about the local culture there and know some secrets that normal tourists won’t know at all! I learnt to cook some Turkish food and belly dance from my host!
邊當義工邊感受土耳其文化 learning the Turkish culture and contributing to the Turkish society!
Having the chance to study in Denmark for 1 semester has given me the chance to explore the Nordic world. It’s the first time I lived alone and leave my home for such a ‘long’ time but I think it’s worth it! Many universities offer different exchange students program for their students (like Erasmus in Europe) and if you apply for it, you may even get some subsidies for your time abroad.
As a student, what else can be better than getting some internship experience and enjoying another culture at the same time? Going to Sydney(Australia) for a summer internship allowed me to discover other cities during my weekend on top of my internship experience! Even though the internship was not paid, I got subsidies from my university to cover my day-to-day cost!
在充滿活力的澳洲工作 working in the vivid Sydney!
7. 國際研討會 International conferences
一些國際學生組織如AIESEC及Model United Nations也會不定時舉辦不同的國際研討會讓會員參加，有時有些院校也會提供資助讓該校的學生到外地參加研討會。這是一個結識來自五湖四海的朋友的好機會，而且也能一同探討一些青年人關心的議題！正因為這些研討會，我也有機會第一次踏足了意大利、希獵及台灣！
There are some international student organizations like AIESEC and Model United Nations. These youth organizations hold international conferences from time to time, and sometimes they have subsidies as well. It’s actually a good way to meet people from other countries and learn something new together! This is how I got a chance to go to Italy, Greece and Taiwan! Sounds cool, right?
Before I went to Europe for the first time, I knew very little about things going on in this continent. I know some of the things may sound really stupid not to know, but I also believe that’s how I gained my knowledge bits by bits when I traveled. This is one of the reasons why I love traveling, and why traveling is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.
Greenland is part of Denmark. It is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark!
Differences between Nordic countries and Scandinavia! Scandinavian countries = Sweden, Norway and Denmark and Nordic = Scandinavian countries, Iceland, Finland, and three autonomous regions (Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aland Islands). *
Super small countries in Europe: San Marion and Liechtenstein! (I heard of Vatican City, Monaco and Malta before.)
Trains can separate into 2 or even more parts. For instance, the first bit of the train will go to city A, while the last bit will go to city B.
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are considered as 1 area (or country) if you are buying inter-rail/eurail pass in Europe!
The major/easiest way to travel from city to city in Turkey is by bus, and they have wifi, free snack and drink provided on the bus! Someone will push a little trolley and come to your seat and serve you!
After buying a train ticket, sometimes you have to reserve a seat, if not, you may end up standing in the train for your whole journey.
Cheap airline can be really cheap! I once got a ticket from Italy to Denmark for 5EURO!
While many food is more expensive than HK, carrots, milk and potatoes are cheaper! For example, 1 pint (568mL) of fresh milk cost only £ 0.49 (HKD5.75), while the average price of a pasta in a restaurant is around 10GBP (HKD120). [For foreign visitors’ information, 236mL of fresh milk cost at least HKD6 (£ 0.51), while a pasta with coffee or tea will cost around HKD50 (£ 4.25) during lunch time and HKD80 (£ 6.8) for dinner time.]
Italian cuisine is more than just pasta like spaghetti and pizza! There are more like gnocchi, tortellini…you can make a Strawberry risotto, and the pasta we called Angel hair in Hong Kong is called Capellini in Italian. (If you tell them Angel hair, they may not know what it is…)
Difference between hard water and soft water! Hard water have more minerals like Calcium, for us who are not used to drink hard water, you may end up having some hair loss problem!
Get a free postcard in pubs in Denmark! (maybe also in other countries…)
Send a postcard for free from Europe by writing ‘student-to-student’ instead of sticking a stamp. Couldn’t find any official info about it, but I had quite a lot of successful cases! (Send from: Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic, and Austria…etc. to Japan, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the USA…etc.)
Free university education (up to Master degree) in some Nordic countries (e.g. Denmark, Sweden)!
Daylight saving! So time will shift 1 hr on a specific day.
Celebrations of festival! For example, St. Patrick’s Day in March in Ireland; Mother’s Day and Red Nose Day in March and Red Poppy for Remembrance Day in Nov in the UK, Queen’s Day in May in the Netherlands…etc.
There are little <3 (hearts) on the coins of Danish Kroner – the Danish currency.
You can’t make snowman with any snow. Sometimes snow is too wet or too dirty for it.
Only Asians have difference between single eyelid and double eyelids! Europeans all have double eyelids! (Why?! Life is sooo unfair!)
It’s very common that we feel stressed before traveling or studying abroad, we worry about what we should pack along. If we bring too much, we may feel a bit stupid to bring along things we don’t need. If we forgot about some important stuff, it may create some inconvenience. Rather than sharing a packing list which you can easily find online, let me share with you 5 secrets I have when I am packing for my traveling or study abroad trips.
1. Socket adaptor/ extensions
Bring at least 2 socket adaptors with you! In case one of them is broken/not working, there’s one more to charge your gadgets! What if both of them are broken…?! Then I would say, sorry, you are so unlucky, maybe you should buy your adaptor somewhere else next time! 😛
Especially for the ones who are going to study abroad: Bring an extension cord with 3-4 sockets! This is very useful for lazy people, so you don’t have to un-plug, and plug, and un-plug your charger every day!
[from http://www.kenable.co.uk/]
2. Learn about layering
Sounds abstract, what layering? It’s about how you prepare your clothing For girls in particular, wear with layers can help you reduce the amount of clothing you need to bring! Preparing different occasions with different outfits, girls always need many different kinds of clothes. In addition to climate change, it’s hard to forecast how the weather be like, prepare some long sleeves t-shirt and leggings in black or some other dark colors so you can wear them underneath your summer t-shirt and shorts!
3. Clothes Hanger/Clothes line
Bring at least one clothes hanger with you, so you don’t have to worry where you can put to dry your shower towel!
Especially for the ones who are going to travel for a long time: Buy/Prepare a clothes line, so you don’t have to worry where to dry your clothes in case you have to wash some of them in your hostel later on.
4. Travel towel
No matter study abroad or traveling, I always bring along a travel towel with me, this kind of travel towel is slightly more expensive than the usual ones. But if you always travel around, it’s something worth to invest!
Advantages of travel towel: Light-weight, quick-dry, big enough when you open it and small enough when you fold it!
5. Guide book
Never Never Never bring a guide book/travel book! (Unless you have a lot of space and weight limit for your luggage…)
It’s easy to look for travel information online nowadays! If you always plan well for your travel, maybe you can photocopy the pages you need for your travel (please aware of the issue of copyright, to be honest I never really read a travel book) or you can print the information online! If you are not planning to plan your trip, then why don’t you just go to the Tourist Information Centre or Hostel to ask for suggestions and your way after you arrive!
P.S. The products introduced above are not advertisements, they are just sharing that I have my travels. Photos of the products are from the official website (Please let me know if you do not want me to use the picture.) If you have any other recommendations or packing secrets, please share!
購買旅行用品相關網站 Related website about buying travel products：Go Travel, Muji
Many people like traveling. However, if you are a girl, and you are traveling alone, especially for your first time, there are certain risks that we have to bear. Other than those common tips you can find online, the following are some tips that a girl should know when she’s traveling alone for the first time in her life!
1. Safety is your Number 1 priority!
Especially when students are traveling alone, many travelers want to save as much money as they can. But when you are alone, sometimes you can’t risk your life over money. For example, whether you are staying in a hostel or doing couch-surfing, or you are planning to go to Western-Europe or Eastern-Europe. Though sometimes these tiny decisions can make a huge difference for your travel budget, if you have to worry too much every time you go out, how can you enjoy your trip? In the end, which is more important: your life or your money?
2. Take reviews seriously!
No matter you choose to live in a hostel or do couchsurfing, you have to read the reviews carefully. A high rating in a hostel doesn’t mean it’s a really good one. For example, Hostel A has 99% but there’s only 1 person doing the review, whereas Hostel B has 95% only but there’re 100 people reviewing. Probably Hostel B will be more reliable, at least there are so many people stayed there and the ratings are still that high. Also read reviews seriously, so as to give yourself some idea what kind of situation you are going to face.
3. Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best!
Confirm your accommodation before your departure; check how you could get to the place from the airport/train station. Google map can be a really helpful tool! Print out all the maps that you need, and if you have time, follow the ‘street-view’ of google map to walk virtually to your destination, so you will have some rough idea how you will get there! Research for a spare hostel, just in case there’s some problem with the hostel you were planning to stay, you still have an emergency place to stay in!
4. Emergency number!
The first emergency number is the local emergency contact. 112 is applicable in many countries, but better check it once again before leaving! The second emergency number is the number of your family. Maybe you used to have their numbers in your own language in your mobile, but before you leave your country, better change it to some simple English words like ‘Mom’, ‘Dad’, or even ‘Emergency Contact’. Touchwood if you have any accident, people can try to reach your family.
5. Stay low profile!
When we are traveling, of course we would like to dress nicely so that we can take beautiful picture as memory. Yet the more glamorous you appear, the more you are trying to tempt the bad people! Remember to separate the money you brought with you, some people like to put under the shoes, some put inside their socks, some girls like to put inside their bra…etc. it’s up to you where you feel comfortable to put!
