A Piece of Me In Every Place

Notes on travel and its meaning to me.

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia (October 2024)

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Travel has always been an important, incandescent part of my life. Before I even knew how to walk or talk, I’d already experienced a flight home to Malaysia, where Dad is from, so that my family and I could finally meet. Some of my earliest memories are of clinging to my aunties as we café-hopped, house-hopped and visited temples embedded into the limestone cliffs. I adore these sights even now. Next, it was on to Hong Kong – Mum’s home country – where the other half of our family met me. A vibrant and neon-bright city struck with dichotomies that enchanted me so much that I chose to move and live there in my twenties. And perhaps it’s because of these early, formative trips that I’ll always feel as though I leave and learn a piece of me in every place I go.

Only the Duomo di Milano knows how I felt when my boyfriend and I arrived on its rooftop at sunset to celebrate our first anniversary together. There’s a park bench where my best friend and I traded summer stories at the end of the season. A kerb that I once sat on and uncontrollably sobbed when it hit me that I was really realising my mid-twenties dream of moving abroad, leaving everything behind. The old castle walls of Antalya celebrated my boyfriend’s 34th birthday with us, and the ancient city of Rome rang in my 32nd birthday. Oh to be so young in such storied lands. In Croatia, I uncovered a piece of me that adored smaller cities, but in Hong Kong I revel in being one tiny dot amongst millions of moving parts. The rainforests of Malaysia cradle my lifelong adoration of trees. Copenhagen’s love-worn Tivoli Gardens echoes with the sound of my sister and I’s tired, delirious laughs, and Budapest dances with footsteps of our cherished sister trip there.

Somebody once asked me why I am hellbent on travelling to so many new places when I claim that I am environmentally conscious. True, air travel is one of the most polluting activities for our planet. But, travel is surely what has given me a love for our planet. I’ll be honest: I reeled for several weeks after I read that comment left on my blog a few years ago. I am environmentally conscious, yet I love to see our beautiful globe and everything it has to offer. Whether or not I squeeze myself on a commercial flight in economy with hundreds of people, whether or not I recycle all of my packaging – diligently separating it so it doesn’t contaminate, whether or not I drive a zero-emissions car, whether or not I run a carbon-neutral small business… Travel is what keeps me invigorated and excited to preserve, restore and regenerate our planet and its environments.

True, too, is the fact that travel has enriched my life beyond measure. These places know me, but they have also imprinted on me. My countless visits to the South of France remind me to take my time and to embrace the sun. I am imbued with the absolute kindness and welcoming nature of Japanese people. Whenever I am in Seoul, I feel another sartorial part of me fall into place. Visits back to Malaysia and Hong Kong give me life and refresh my connection to my own heritage. When I say that there’s a piece of me in every place, I mean that there’s a piece of every place in me too.