How to "travel" when you are stuck at home.

 

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their well-wishes. My mum is doing well.

But it has still been a tough week and I really needed to unwind which means do stuff that is less consequential but to relax and improve my quality of life. 

One of the things I miss the most is travel. I don't do expensive travel. Most of the time I just go to KL to do some shopping and lots of eating. I recently heard that my favourite Sang Har Mee place at Lorong Imbi has shut down ( or moved ). I feel sad that some of my favourite haunts may not even be around when Singaporeans can visit Malaysia again.

So right now I am stuck in Singapore. The closest thing I can do to travel is to read Koh Buck Song's Around the World in 68 Days. I like it because it covers countries that I will probably not get to within my lifetime like Oman and Madagascar. More interestingly, it's not just a real travel guide but also a book on how countries can rebrand themselves. So it looks like my reads are still consequential after all. 

Of course, reading about a location cannot possibly replicate the real travel experience, so I try to supplement what I read with youtube videos. 

This is one of my favourite videos on Oman because there are plenty of references to street food. My wife and kids are huge fans of food vlogger Sunny. 

Youtube has plenty of videos that can be helpful to folks who need some travel therapy. One of my favourites has always been the Middle East because I doubt I will ever find a travel buddy to go there. Even if I do, I'm terrified of diarrhoea. A friend who has been to Egypt tells me that he had diarrhoea for almost his entire trip. 

Visiting a souk on Youtube is soothing and does not affect the quality of your bowel movements. If you actually want the diarrhoea experience, you can always eat McCrispy meal which checking out this wonderful walking tour.

I don't have grand travel plans once Singapore becomes fully vaccinated. My first priority is to visit relatives in the North and do something to support the Malaysian economy. 

A student wants to visit to see if he should buy a GCB there. I just want to kaypoh a bit and eat the zhi char there.