International passports owned (to date): 3

Number of years pretending to be an European: 12

Countries visited: 17

US states visited: 7

Number of years left of my US visa: 5

Longest period of time away on a single trip (weeks): 10

Bagpipers encountered: 3

Concerts attended abroad: 3

Operas at Arena di Verona seen: 5

Face-painting in the spirit of festival/carnival: 1

Abandoned fully paid non-refundable flights/train tickets: 2

Macarons eaten: > 50

Languages spoken: 4

Chinese dialects spoken: 4

Most expensive airfare for a single itinerary (€): 951

Most expensive garden admittance ticket price (CAD$): 25

Number of times London was visited: 2

Number of times Paris was visited: 22? 23?

Glacier hiked: 1

Ziplined: 1

Eaten in a 3 Michelin-star restaurant: 0

Eaten in a 2 Michelin-star restaurant: 1

Eaten in a 1 Michelin-star restaurant: 4

Argued that the highest number of stars Michelin awards is 3: 1

Chinese New Year dinners organised: 5

Chocolate fairs visited: 4

Art masterpieces seen: > 10,000

Salsa classes attended: 16

Lightest weight of the luggage for a single trip (kg): 6

Naturist offering to sell me clothes: 1

Passenger capacity of smallest plane taken: 40+

Passenger capacity of helicopter ride taken: 8

Hop on, hop off bus experienced: 3 4

Hop on, hop off boat experienced: 1

Most postcards sent in a single trip: 32

Never have “Hello world!” been so appropriate. ;)

Still, I have travel envy.

I am envious of carefree travellers who are seemingly unbound by anything but their wish to see the world. Oh I am sure they have their share of worries but at least they are not paralysed by these responsibilities of life.

On the other hand, I fret over too much, from my being a female (indeed, many places are safe for single female traveller but there are also places where to venture all by myself would be foolish to say the least) to the burden of education loan (unless someone’s offering to help me repay them?) to the lack of travelling time (at times of recession, jobs are hard to come by and losing one would hardly be conducive to saving up for travels).

It all comes down to balancing act. I try to sneak away for a trip here and there whenever I can spare the time and the dough (loan repayment obviously takes priority), and I try to do sufficient research to ensure my safety and well-being. Luckily I usually do have travel companion(s), or friends to spend time with at my destinations, thus it’s not often that I’m left to my own device in a foreign location.

I used to dream of having a job with extensive travelling opportunity. Even better would be a job that allows me to stay in a place for 2-3 months before moving on to another place, so that I can get a deeper feel for the place, the culture, the language and the cuisine. But of course, this is untenable. It doesn’t take much for me to realise that I’m not quite as nomadic at heart, as I need to have a stable social circle to really thrive and to appreciate what I have in my life when I’m away.

I may not travel as much as some, but I count myself very lucky to be able to travel more than most people.