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 many Westerners, I was afraid of the unknown: the language barrier, the cultural differences, and the worry about how the darker colour of my skin would be interpreted in a land afar. I was raised in both the heat of the Caribbean and the cold of Toronto’s diverse melting pot; little did I know I had been preparing for this my whole life.
Taipei: learning to go with the flow
I started off my trip learning to just go with the flow. I had a very thorough Google Doc of my itinerary planned (y’all, that thing was detailed). I let go of the reins and 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.
Singapore: a solo dream
Singapore was an absolute dream. I’ve solo-travelled through 7 countries 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, my friend Melissa 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 reins. If I waited for everyone to be ready to live the life I wanted to live, I’d be waiting a very long time.
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 reins.
Kuala Lumpur: slowing down
Fast forward to Kuala Lumpur, another exceptionally beautiful city that taught me to 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 a new 9-month-old friend 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 slow days with family weren’t on my list. Nonetheless, it gave me a less touristy experience of Kuala Lumpur.
Japan: the reason for the trip
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 Master’s and Ph.D. urban planning students from the University of Tsukuba in Japan and Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Bochum, Germany. Before the course started, my friend Sarah and I planned on bullet climbing Mount Fuji overnight. We packed all our hiking gear, extra layers, Clif Bars, water packs, headlamps, the works. But the weather had other plans. Typhoon and cyclone warnings both weekends we were in Japan said, “ha, you thought.” So, you guessed it, we learned to go with the flow, again. The days in Tokyo were hot and sticky, with feels-like temperatures near 40°C. 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 sounds 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 a hospital detour when a travel companion came down sick.
The people who made it
The whole trip couldn’t have been what it was without all of the incredibly hospitable and kind people I met along the way. 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 handful of friends I made in Japan, 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 who were so incredibly kind and even invited me to their home, to the caring housekeeper in Osaka who drove us to the hospital, to the Australian traveller we met along the way who became our travel bud, to the police officer who 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 heading 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 an open invitation to the same level of generosity and hospitality on my home turf, Toronto.
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