*A better view of books acquired from the most recent destination. My coffee table collection is slowly but surely piling up 🙂
Been a while since I blogged. Writer’s block? Not so much. There has been a lot of Pilates studies and some travels. At times, if I’m lucky, some Pilates pilgrimage, or industry espionage as I like to call it :).
In all honesty, I love when I could combine Tahlia, Pilates and wanderlust into one neat experience. Attending overseas studios, see how they do things, meeting wonderful old and new friends, and just being a tourist. Actually, trying to be more like a local: catch subways during peak hours, jaywalk soon as I gained confidence, and dine around various hawker centres my most recent destination had to offer…
I feel incredibly lucky to be working and learning in every overseas city I had set my feet on. Thoughts were many, some new found perspectives as I muse on.
Firstly, ain’t nothing like travelling to make one realise how little material stuff one actually needs. I was and still am a denim jeans aficionado. But just as Will Smith’s late father once said to him in his younger, car-crazed days “son you only have one bum, how many cars do you need?!” This is especially true when packing clothes for travels. I likely only end up wearing the same pair, usually the dressier pair, even when I have packed two pairs, just in case. Similar with other items, travelling teaches you multitask and make-do with less. Folding, packing and finding space for stuff slows you down and takes away precious exploring time and I wouldn’t have wanted that. Of course, I needed to pack for myself and for Tahlia, but all in all, my suitcase weighted just a little over 14kg to last me a whole week away. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Secondly, subways, the tube, trains, MRT (Mass Rapid Transport)… I love getting on public transport in a foreign city. Grabbing a multi-day tourist pass is amongest the very first things I do once having settled down. I honestly feel there is no better way to get amongest the locals and feel the action and the vibe of a city than commuting with them and as one of them. I did just that in NYC and Singapore and enjoyed both places. Maybe there will be another post comparing trains in different cities as I travel more? Thoughts for another day. For now, I’m glad to have commuted aplenty on public transport. Peak hours didn’t bother me. Being a leisurely tourist, I waited, studied the city’s expansive MRT map as I watched swathes of crowds emerging and disappearing as one train pulled into the station after another…
Last but not least, I’m a sucker for local book stores. Attached is a screenshot of books I brought back home from recent trip to Singapore. I like to head straight to the local section where there is a bunch of treasure to be found on people, place and culture, and add to my coffee table collection back home. I mentioned somewhere that during my visit to NYC, I brought “Ask a Native New Yorker: Hard-Earned Advice on Surviving and Thriving in the Big City” with me to cafes after visiting Barnes and Noble. I did about the same in Singapore. This time it was “Hard at Work: Life in Singapore” acquired from Book Kinokuniya, or the Kino, as the locals would have it. There is a lot to be savoured when reading about local culture while sitting in one of their restaurants.
That’s a wrap for now. I wholeheartedly look forward to more travels!