It's All About TRAVELLING !

              Without we knowing, there are a lot of unique places around the world. Most of this unique places are hidden and well preserved. Some of it are like a fantasy places that we could not imagine it. One of them are in Pamukkale, Turkey. This place is a hot spring that heated by an underground volcano. Because of some scientific reasons, vast whiteness around the pool are created and people keep calling the place as white castle or cotton castle. It has been used a healing spa for thousand of years. "To help preserve the area, hotels and access roads were taken down and man-made pools were created to help in keeping the natural beauty of Pamukkale." (Matyszewski A. September 6, 2011). In Sweden, there are ice hotel. A hotel for tourist that is fully made by ice. Those tourist who came will need to sleep on bed from ice. Everything were made from ice, including church, hall, bar and even glass were made from ice. (May, R. n.d.). Travelling would be interesting if you have a chance to visit those unique places. That is why, it is important for us to have some research about the country that we are going to visit. We can know if there is any unique place in the country. 

Ice Hotel, Sweden

                   Travelling around the world will give you the best experience in tasting , and eating food from other country that could be really different with what we always eat. No matter where we go, every different places have their own specialties. We have to try it since we are in other country and we could not have the chance to it in our country anymore. But, remember for Muslims, please take a good care with 'Halal' and 'Haram' even though we are to eager to try their famous food. We still need to put boundaries. Near to Malaysia, in Thailand, they have 'somtam', this food are very well known there. It is a kind of salad, pound garlic and chilies with mortar and pestle. They put in tamarind juice, fish sauce, peanut, dried shrimp, tomato, lime juice and also the main ingredients, grated papaya. It surely have spicy and tangy taste. In Singapore, you can try the famous chili crab which will give the experience of spicy, sloppy and meaty in one food. Having a platter of chili crab with mini mantou buns is the best. While in Hong Kong, "Like many classic dishes, the Hong Kong egg tart marries two contrasting textures: crusty, flaky pastry and jiggly, trembling custard", (Travel CNN, July 21, 2011). It it the best to eat hot from the oven, that is the best taste of Hong Kong egg tart.

Somtam

Singapore Chili Crab

Hong Kong Egg Tart

Tacos Al Pastor

Korean bulgogi

          There are two types of people who loves travelling. Ones prefer more to enjoy the nature rather than staying and visiting big cities. While ones loves to explore those big cities, go shopping and so on. Usually, the ones who loves extreme activities will have more preferences in exploring and enjoying the nature.There are many activities that they can do while they travel such as sightseeing in the forest, jungle trekking, camping, swimming at the waterfall and so on. Most of them usually does not care where they should stay at night, they just can build up their tent in the jungle explore more about the natural environment. In Hokkaido, Japan, there is one place that has been designated as a world natural heritage site called Shiretoko. "It is such a beautiful places that has been spotted as a magnificent natural area by tourist who visit there. There are many activities to enjoy here, such as trekking on the wild bird-populated shores of the five lakes of Shiretoko, boat cruises from which you can see waterfalls that are over a hundred meter high as well as brown bears, and much more explained by Japan Monthly Web Magazine" (n.d). The crystal, clear streams and endless natural wildlife has been an attraction to animal and nature lover around the world. 

Shiretoko National Park

Shiretoko National Park

          Instead of travelling around the natural environment, they are people who love travelling in big city. They loves to shopping, visiting memorial building and museum. Itally, London and New York City is famous places that they love to go. In the big cities, there are lot of luxury shopping outlets, huge shopping mall, a long street where people can just enjoy their coffee and bread while reading newspaper. In London, they can enjoy the night view on the famous and huge London Eye and they can spend their time taking photos at Madame Tussauds London where it place life size wax models of celebrities. "You could spend days just shopping in London, mixing with the upper classes in the “tiara triangle” around Harrods, or sampling the offbeat weekend markets of Portobello Road, Brick Lane and Camden". (Rough Guides. n.d.) 

New York City / NYC

               Are travel guide is really needed when you are going to travel? Cant you survive by your own? Actually whether you use travel guide or not, it depends on the individual itself since some of them prefer to travel alone because they want to explore the country that they visit by themselves. But some of them really want the travel guide to ease their journey, helping them exploring the country, explain to them about those places. A tour guide is a person who have a lot of experiences being in another country and they also need to be trust-able as their customer relying on them in order to have fun travelling in other country. "Tour guides must be thoroughly knowledgeable about the cities, regions and countries where they work. It is the responsibility of the tour guide to help travellers understand the culture of the region and the way of life of its inhabitants. They have to promote the cultural and natural heritage and at the same time impress on the visitors the significance of the place they are visiting". (Wilson, November 3, 2008). 

One of travel guide is explaining about the place that they go.

       Tour guides also can be called as face of the tourism, they influenced the tourist to attract more to the place. By hiring tour guide, your journey on your holiday will be interesting and smooth, as they will always be with you. Those tour guides will do their best in explaining about the place to you, take care of your safety and provide advise along your journey. If we have any problem with communication, or anything else , they will surely helping us. If we look at other side, which means, we are going to travel by our own without hiring and using any tour guides, there are some good reasons why we choose so. One of them is , we can have more privacy as we can move freely because we do not have to follow the schedules. Then, we can learn how to survive by our own, and we will be more eager to explore the places by ourselves.  Independent Traveler.Com (n.d) explained, "In places that are exceptionally rich in historical or cultural significance, an educated tour guide can offer a depth of experience and knowledge to which no guidebook, audio guide or plaque-reading will come even close. A good guide can explain the stories behind the complex carvings on an Indian"

Travel by your own trigger your mind more.

               

           We have always seen people went travelling all around Asia, Europe, or even around the World with car, bus, flight. But we rarely heard people who went travelling by riding a bicycle. How can you imagine that they are cycling thousands of kilometers with some bags that they need to bring. A cyclist, Sam Swain, 22 from England has traveled 10,000 miles across Europe and Asia with his beloved bicycle. He took his hybrid touring bike all the way from Ireland to Japan and then through Turkey and Iran before cycling it to India and Thailand. (Reilly, J. June 12, 2012). He successfully fulfill his childhood dream after completed the ten-month journey together with his father.

Sam swain and his father.

       The second story is about a couple, Michael and Sonya from Singapore which set out a motorcycle trip to go around the world. They are the first couple which make it real on 17 September 1995. They travelled on the motorcycle for about 2 years and make their return on 14 May 1997. Through their bike that they called 'Baby Quek', they successfully raise funds for children's charities through Singapore Community Chest. Michael , 31 is a former advertising account director, and his wife, Sonya, 28 a former Cathay Pacific flight stewardess both quit their job to travel around the world with their bike BMW motorbike. (Singapore Infopedia, n.d)  It becomes beautiful when the couples are sending postcards from the country that they go to a school in Singapore.

Michael and Sonya from Singapore.

     
        As we want to travel to other country, it is important to learn about their culture, customs or rules. In order to avoid any misunderstanding from happen in the foreign country, it is better to learn about them before hand. At least we have something we know, and we've prepared about it. As for example, in Africa, there are a few cultural values that we need to know. For your information, it is rude to pointing at something or someone using index finger. "Different ethnic groups have different ways of pointing, but the method I usually employ is poking my chin in the right direction and widening my eyes", says Mark Wiens, (March 28, 2011). And you are also not allowed to point your foot sole toward others as it it the dirtiest part of your body. In Japan, it is important to know that there is no tipping given. If you give a tip to someone, it is consider insulting them because the service that you used has already cover by price, why they need to be pay more. Then, you need to take of your shoes at the entrance to all homes and put it in the shoe rack. Usually they provide slippers for indoor but remember do not wear slippers when you are at tatami mat. "It is extremely bad form, for example, to reenter the main room of a house wearing slippers that have been running across dirty linoleum". (Wright, T. May 27, 2008)

             Asia is well known with a lot of beautiful places for travelling. Each country around Asia has their own tourist spot. And one of them is in Vietnam, the place called Ha Long Bay, and it is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Existing at the place is about 3,000 islands and around 1,600 people are living there in floating villages.Tourist who go there usually take a cruise and enjoy the experience life from the water. To the one who loves architecture, or history, you can visit Siem Reap in Cambodia. The most famous visited there is Angkor Wat Temple besides other few temples and the Old Market. After that, you can also visit Chiang Mai, Thailand where this place is in between Bangkok and Thai island. Chiang Mai is famous with its night market and cheaper price, so there are lot of tourist love to go here instead of Bangkok.

Angkor Wat Temple

Chiang Mai Night Market

Ha Long Bay , Vietnam

         Another nice place to go which has the highest votes is Bali. It is the place where ancient temples, white sandy beach and luxury hotels are in one place. You can get to enjoy everything there and it is very suitable for honeymoon. Then you can go to Agra, India to visit the famous Taj Mahal. "Built in the 17th century in memory of his beloved late wife, Emperor Shah Jahan created the Taj Mahal, now considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World and one of India's major tourist destinations." (USA Today, n.d). The famous building which is made by love took 22 years to be constructed. And not to forget in Malaysia, we got Taman Negara National Park where it lays as a one of the world oldesr tropical rainforests." One of the most exciting activities at this eco-travel destination is the canopy walk, which is the longest canopy walk in the world, hovering 45 meters above ground", (Trip to Discover, July 28,2014).

A temple in Bali

The beautiful Taj Mahal

                 There are two kind of people when it comes to travelling. Some of them prefer to sightseeing the places, while some of them enjoyed shopping at the places. They have their own good reasons why they said so. When we are at other country or city, of course we want to do different things, but it really depends on that person , what they want to do, what they prefer to do?

                  People who love to sightseeing the country/ the places while travelling is the one who love to enjoy the scenery and lovely environment in a new places. While sightseeing the places, they can learn more about the culture, talks to the citizens and also learn about their history. Sounds educational but it is interesting. What so special about sightseeing other places? Different countries have different kind of places to be visited. While discovering the places, we can enjoyed the beautiful Allah's creation that our place would not have it. In other foreign countries, we can see or meet kangaroos, dolphin, penguin and so on but not in Malaysia. So if we get the chance to meet them, we should appreciate it so much.

A couple enjoy their time sightseeing the places together.

             Some of tourist who travel really loves to shopping. They spend most of their time being in other country by shopping, not only in market which sells artistic and unique item but they also spend their precious money to shop at famous boutique especially in London and Paris. Eventhough every countries' currency are different, it is not reason that can stop them from having their leisure time shopping all way round. In London and Paris, there are lot of famous and luxury boutique such as Harrods, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and many more. Luxury Travels on NBC News explained, "When you buy something in another country or another city, you always have a story to tell about where you got that particular item," explains Jill Fairchild, founder and publisher of Where to Wear, a series of city shopping guides. "You create lasting memories with your purchases."

Unique items in one of Turkey's market.

Famous boutique in Italy.

 
       

One of the example of important items that need to bring

Travelling will be going to be uncomfortable if you are not bringing items that you should have in the first place. That is why before you are travelling, make a to do list , and create a list of important items that you need while travelling. It is going to be very useful to you in order to have a smooth journey and fun holiday. So that is why I'm going to give some tips on what to bring when you are travelling. Make sure the bag are not big enough because it might disrupt you in your journey. When you bring a smaller bag, you can always keep it along with you rather than put it in the luggage area because we do not know whether it is totally safe or not. Then try to minimize the number of clothes that you want to bring, because sometimes we are only wearing the same clothes for a day. You can just wash and dry it overnight. And as reminder, you do not need to bring fashionable shoes, just bring the one which are comfortable for you to use everywhere, pack your item smaller as you can, bring lighter things for your outfits.The most important tips and also reminder is do not bring too many gadgets. You could be target by theft if you bring a too many gadget items such as a laptop, cellphone, tablet. Just bring the one that you really need instead of bringing everything. If you got work to do, you do not need to bring a laptop, just bring a tablet so you can hide it well , and it lighter too. (The Travel Hub, August 11, 2015).

This travel outfit picture shows example of mix and match outfit so we can minimize the clothes that we want to bring.

              Health is also important during travel. We need to take a good care of our health and body during travel. What we need is a travelling medical kit as it will be really useful when there got emergency cases. You can include motion sickness pill, painkiller, cold/flu pilss, band- aid, antiseptic/ antibiotic cream and so on but please be make sure again, keep it small to make it easier to carry. And for the preparation of keep in hygiene, brought hand sanitizer and also wet wipes if you get dirty. (Travel Independent, n.d)

Travel medical kit / first aid kit

Travel alone by yourself?

Or having fun with your friends?

                    Travelling by your own or travel alone is not that bad as been said. Travelling by your own is actually exciting and gives a new adventure that you cant experience other way.  There are few reasons why sometimes you should considering travelling by your own. One of them is when you are alone while travelling, you tend to be more closer to other travelers and people surroundings. If you are with your family and friends, you are just stick to them rather than exploring other things around you. Then, travelling along can trigger challenge your fear in facing strangers without any companion with you. You will be more cautious about your safety and your belonging. Sometimes, we need time for our own after facing packed scheduled, stressed surroundings, unhealthy lifestyle. That is why travelling alone is good as a big treat to your own self. " Whether you are backpacker travelling cheap or if the sky is the limit as far as your budget goes, you can use this time to pamper yourself. Indulge in rich and delicious local meals which will boost your energy health, take long walks on the beach by sunrise, or get a massage", (Thought Catalog, December 27, 2013)