10%

2013. You've been awesome!

a recap. shots from the phone.

By Carolyn Chon

January 6^th, 2014

Lombok, indonesia.

A short getaway with my husband for our anniversary.

Senggigi/Kuta.

February, 2013.

Taiwan.

Went to Taiwan for the very first time for work, with no expectations whatsoever. Suffice to say, I loved it! Besides nature, the people is obviously the other element of what makes a country awesome. Taiwanese are super duper nice people. Taipei/Kenting/Taichung.

April, 2013.

Sabah, Malaysia.

My first venture into directing a documentary brought me to the east coast of Borneo. We went into villages to find out more about the lack of access to clean water.

Kudat, Sabah.

June, 2013.

Thailand.

My first big, big trip. A friend and I traveled to Moscow from home, Kuala Lumpur by buses and trains. It was epic fun. We took the train into Thailand and took a small boat out and into Laos, right across the Mekong river.

Bangkok/Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai.

July, 2013.

Laos.

Having been to Thailand and Laos before, we breezed through it. That said, we really enjoyed our two nights in Chiang Khong, where most of it were spent on a bicycle. Rain or shine, we pedaled as much as we physically could.

Huoay Xai/Chiang Khong/Boten.

July, 2013.

China.

I call this motherland because I'm 3rd generation Chinese born and bred in Malaysia, and because of that reason alone, I had many reservations on China. I let social media and other people convince me of how China would turn out to be - the worst place to be. After spending two weeks going through Southwest and Western China, I'm glad and proud that I speak the language (though at a very, very moderate level) because my impression on the Chinese turned around as I got to know the Chinese people and their culture, from having conversations and observing their sense of community. China should definitely be on everyone's must-go list.

Kunming/Dali/Chengdu/Lanzhou/Turpan/Urumqi/Yining.

August,2013.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan has got to be one of the more intriguing and memorable place for us, unfortunately we didn't have enough time there. We took a 13 hour bus from Yining, China into Almaty (the former capital of Kazakhstan) and the bus ride was kinda fun, though dusty. One to keep in mind if you're ever in Kazakhstan, everyone with a car is a taxi driver. Yes, just stick your hand out and random cars will stop to offer you a ride (providing they're going the same direction), and yes, haggle for a good price. How do you know it's safe? You don't! That's the fun part I guess. Another tip is to at least learn to read the Cyrillic alphabets, it really helps a lot even if you can't speak or understand Russian.

Almaty/Shymkent.

August,2013

Russia.

We finally arrived at our final destination, Moscow... after a 60 hours train ride from Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Needless to say, the train ride was really, really fun. No, really. We met the nicest people who tried their level best to communicate with us, they fed us, gave us tea and told us stories. Anyway, our most memorable bit of Moscow was being asked to play a game of badminton by a former official umpire. Yes, how very random! We were both skeptical, but decided if it was dodgy we could probably out run the elderly man...who in the end turned out to be legit and completely whooped out asses in the games.He took us to play out in the park though, something we'll never find at home.

August,2013.

England.

And by England, I mean London. Hah. London was just a stop over right before n.Iceland. Didn't see all that much those few days, but my favourite was definitely the Natural History Museum which gave me a back ache after walking around for hours. Oh and of course watching Les Miserable!

September, 2013.

Iceland

Last, but not least...Iceland. I now call it n.Iceland though. The first shot you see, left me in tears on the plane. God's handy work left me dumbfounded upon first laying eyes on the epic-ness that is Iceland. No words are enough to describe its beauty.