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Soo Vs Europe
It is a promise I made to myself to travel the world. It was meant to benchmark my 30th year of existence.
I toke a gamble and I booked my ticket to London today.
43 days of raucous revelry and bumbling backpacking.
It's a cocktail of fear and excitement.
What kind of compromising situations will be I caught in?
What if I'm "Taken" and my Dad is hardly Liam Neeson.
What if I take the wrong train and head towards a different country? Ever since the MRT dropped the Blue (West), Green (East), Red (Central) and Yellow (North) coding, I've been taking trains in all the wrong directions.
I need a friend who can point me in the right direction.
Cue Tim, my classmate from poly and seasoned backpacker who works for STA Travel Singapore.
First thing that comes to mind is that STA travel caters primarily to students. That's true, but I think they offer so much more. Tim handed me a wad of brochures. I was hooked from the first flip. There are plenty of options you can adopt to explore Europe. The most affordable and most sensible way to get the most out of Europe is the BUSABOUT. I'll be on that bus for most part of my Eurotour.
People tell me to take the Train aka the Eurail aka the MRT in my sense of word. It is the most sophisticated way of getting around.
It is also a bleed-my bank-dry and suck-my-blood option.
For example, the Eurail select pass allows you to take the Train 5 times to 5 countries for 404 Euros. That's around $831.75. The last I checked on www.xe.com. The current rate is 1 EUR = 2.05880 SGD. Happiness! I get to save a few bucks for beer binging. After all, it's gonna be Oktoberfest when I get to Munich. I would have opted for this option IF the Eurail included London. I should have faked a student card in Bangkok, the youth pass on the Eurail is MUCH cheaper to buy. The same 5 trips to 5 countries would only have cost $541.
I have planned a snaking route around Europe but I will not unfold the details until I arrive at the pitstops. Just keep checking back to see if I'm still alive.
There is much to prepare before Friday 18 September.
Miss Backpack Singapore
So do I compromise fashion with sensibility? The Number 1 travel advice from everyone is: Dress as shabbily and as poor as possible. So if that's true, won't the pickpockets/kidnappers/Steven Lim sorta pests also have the same prior information? Surely they will Wolverine lunge at the first torn Bossini t-shirt in sight. I rather go for a backpack spotted with Gucci motifs outlined with the Chanel insignias. It will be so cheong, I might get an invitation to join their street gang. What we find Obiang might be cool in another land. Vice Versa. Just think of Ed Hardy. I won't be donning the SQ kebaya but I will represent Singapore well with my pink boots and decent demeanor.
Money Money Money
It's a rich man's world. But that don't mean the poor can't travel. Have you ever inflated a balloon just to let go of its neck and watch it fart away from you? Same treatment, only this time its to my bank account. I'll be squeezing every last breath from my life savings for this trip. Some say stupid, many say insane, I say it will be the best $7000 I ever spend. Or alternatively, the $7000 can pay for a handle and lock of a Birkin bag. Do I need to launch into a million reasons why this trip will be more enriching and meaningful than 1 pair of Jimmy Choos + 1 Vertu ? If you are a little like me, looking for trouble and flirting with danger, there's gonna be plenty of stories about my journey chronicled here every other day.
I paid up $1575 for the SG_Dubai_London/London_Dubai_SG ticket. The Emirates ticket is valid for 2 months and worth its value for the timings I want. That leaves me $5425 for everything else. I'll be sleeping next to strangers in hostels and taking the public transport (which is kind of a BIG DEAL to me because I drive or cab ALL the time). It will be a pilgrimage of sorts for me. I'll be fending for myself in a place far away from home.
I'll be off to stamp my little pink boots all over Europe and I hope you'll keep me company on this journey.
Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~Ray Bradbury
I toke a gamble and I booked my ticket to London today.
43 days of raucous revelry and bumbling backpacking.
It's a cocktail of fear and excitement.
What kind of compromising situations will be I caught in?
What if I'm "Taken" and my Dad is hardly Liam Neeson.
What if I take the wrong train and head towards a different country? Ever since the MRT dropped the Blue (West), Green (East), Red (Central) and Yellow (North) coding, I've been taking trains in all the wrong directions.
I need a friend who can point me in the right direction.
Cue Tim, my classmate from poly and seasoned backpacker who works for STA Travel Singapore.
First thing that comes to mind is that STA travel caters primarily to students. That's true, but I think they offer so much more. Tim handed me a wad of brochures. I was hooked from the first flip. There are plenty of options you can adopt to explore Europe. The most affordable and most sensible way to get the most out of Europe is the BUSABOUT. I'll be on that bus for most part of my Eurotour.
People tell me to take the Train aka the Eurail aka the MRT in my sense of word. It is the most sophisticated way of getting around.
It is also a bleed-my bank-dry and suck-my-blood option.
For example, the Eurail select pass allows you to take the Train 5 times to 5 countries for 404 Euros. That's around $831.75. The last I checked on www.xe.com. The current rate is 1 EUR = 2.05880 SGD. Happiness! I get to save a few bucks for beer binging. After all, it's gonna be Oktoberfest when I get to Munich. I would have opted for this option IF the Eurail included London. I should have faked a student card in Bangkok, the youth pass on the Eurail is MUCH cheaper to buy. The same 5 trips to 5 countries would only have cost $541.
I have planned a snaking route around Europe but I will not unfold the details until I arrive at the pitstops. Just keep checking back to see if I'm still alive.
There is much to prepare before Friday 18 September.
Miss Backpack Singapore
So do I compromise fashion with sensibility? The Number 1 travel advice from everyone is: Dress as shabbily and as poor as possible. So if that's true, won't the pickpockets/kidnappers/Steven Lim sorta pests also have the same prior information? Surely they will Wolverine lunge at the first torn Bossini t-shirt in sight. I rather go for a backpack spotted with Gucci motifs outlined with the Chanel insignias. It will be so cheong, I might get an invitation to join their street gang. What we find Obiang might be cool in another land. Vice Versa. Just think of Ed Hardy. I won't be donning the SQ kebaya but I will represent Singapore well with my pink boots and decent demeanor.
Money Money Money
It's a rich man's world. But that don't mean the poor can't travel. Have you ever inflated a balloon just to let go of its neck and watch it fart away from you? Same treatment, only this time its to my bank account. I'll be squeezing every last breath from my life savings for this trip. Some say stupid, many say insane, I say it will be the best $7000 I ever spend. Or alternatively, the $7000 can pay for a handle and lock of a Birkin bag. Do I need to launch into a million reasons why this trip will be more enriching and meaningful than 1 pair of Jimmy Choos + 1 Vertu ? If you are a little like me, looking for trouble and flirting with danger, there's gonna be plenty of stories about my journey chronicled here every other day.
I paid up $1575 for the SG_Dubai_London/London_Dubai_SG ticket. The Emirates ticket is valid for 2 months and worth its value for the timings I want. That leaves me $5425 for everything else. I'll be sleeping next to strangers in hostels and taking the public transport (which is kind of a BIG DEAL to me because I drive or cab ALL the time). It will be a pilgrimage of sorts for me. I'll be fending for myself in a place far away from home.
I'll be off to stamp my little pink boots all over Europe and I hope you'll keep me company on this journey.
Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~Ray Bradbury
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