Lubna Alli

25 days, 6 countries, 13 cities, 17 flights, 7 missed, 3 nights sleeping in bus stops and airports, and way too many trains to count. My first time in Asia was a beautiful mess of organized chaos, and I would do it all over again.

 

Why hadn’t I thought to come here earlier? Like most ignorant and easily impressionable westerners, I was afraid of the unknown; the language barrier, the cultural difference, and the worry for how the darker colour of my skin would be interpreted in a land afar. I was raised in both the heat of the Caribbean islands and in the cold of Toronto’s diverse melting pot; little did I know I had been preparing for this my whole life.

 

I started off my trip learning to just go with the damn flow. I had a very thorough google doc of my itinerary planned (y’all that shit was detailed detailed). I let go of the reigns and I ended up in Taipei when I wasn’t supposed to, used my best pointing skills to order the house ramen, and watched the morning sunrise above the city skyline before heading off to Singapore.

 

My god was Singapore a freaking dream. I’ve done 7 countries solo travel before, but nothing compares to the bliss and peace I felt there, hands down. Incredibly safe, incredibly clean, and incredibly scenic. No words or pictures of mine could ever do it justice. And to top it off, @mellymoo made sure I knew about all the best spots and had only the most authentic food.

 

Solo travelling there was the self-reassurance I needed to remember that I’m capable of so much more than I psych myself out to believe. I’m smart, I’m capable, and I have the world at my fingertips; all I have to do is trust myself and let go of the reigns. If I waited for everyone to be ready to live the life I wanted to live, I’d be waiting a long damn time.

 

Fast forward to Kuala Lumpur, another exceptionally beautiful city that taught me to also just go with the flow. Instead of travelling at the very fast pace I’m used to, I spent most of my time in the countryside, self-reflecting with each mosque I visited, finding ways to make my new 9-month-old friend baby Zakaria laugh, and watching the sheep graze in the pasture. It was agonizing at first, especially because I had this whole list of cool places to tackle, and spending time with family was the last of my priorities. Nonetheless, it provided me with the less touristy experience of Kuala Lumpur.

 

I then headed to Japan, the all-encompassing purpose of this trip. I was hand-selected with 14 other UofT students for an intensive seminar with Masters and Ph.D. Urban Planning students from the University of Tsukuba in Tokyo, Japan and Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Bonn, Germany. Before the course started, @sarbear17 and I planned on overnight bullet climbing Mount Fuji. We packed all our hiking gear, extra layers, cliff bars, water packs, headlamps, the works. But the weather had other plans. Typhoon and cyclone warnings both weekends we were in Japan said, “bish you thought.” So, you guessed it, we learned to go with the damn flow. The days in Tokyo were hot and sticky, most days hitting 45 degrees Celsius. I saw a lady pass out on the train with my own eyes, and we took salt pills every day to fight dehydration and heatstroke. Nonetheless, Tokyo was the perfect mix of busy vibrant streets and still quiet nights, the only sound on the walk home being the purring of the cats in the streets and the singing of the cicadas in the trees.

 

The rest of the trip after Tokyo went by fast, each day a new city and a new adventure, including wheeling @sarbear17 to the hospital bc she went sicko mode on these bitches.

 

The whole trip couldn’t have been what it was without all of the incredibly hospitable and kind people I met along the away. From the Imam at the mosque in Singapore who I sat and talked with for a good half hour and who sent me packing with gifts of ittar (essential oils), to the teeming handful of friends I made in Japan, including my husband Yuta the Cuta (yes he’s indeed v cute I just wanna pinch his cheeks ok bye), to the incredibly touching peace offering that was given to me by two of the sweetest Japanese girls in Hiroshima, to the beautiful mother and daughter from Manila that were so incredibly kind and that even invited me to their home (and to marry their son – @michelle the answer is yes!!), to the caring housekeeper in Osaka that drove us to the hospital, to the Australian @shennanigans that we met along the way and that became our travel bud, to the police officer that helped us in a major time of distress in Busan, South Korea, and to my new Japanese pen pal Yohei, who told me at the airport that he was returning back to Chicago to meet his college exchange friends after 19 years apart. Through each of our interactions you will forever have a piece of my heart and a indefinite return of the same level of generosity and hospitality in my home turf Toronto.