And 2024 comes to an end! It’s been an eventful year for me, and I always enjoy taking the time to look back at the year that has passed to really take stock of how things have gone – we don’t always have the time to reflect in our busy day to day lives. Let’s look at how much travel I managed in 2024.
Total number of days travelled in 2024 – 35
I managed to take 6 trips in 2024, totalling about 35 days of travel. Like I mentioned in my 2023 Round Up, I was laid off from work in late 2023, but I managed to find a new job and started work in January this year. Yay to new things, and also this job gives me 21 days of annual leave – I used to only have 18 days – which is another great perk!
Hanoi & Ninh Binh, Vietnam
Before starting my new role, I managed to squeeze in a very short trip and decided to revisit Hanoi, one of my first solo travel destinations that I last visited way back in 2011. It’s been awhile since I visited Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City was the last time I visited in 2015, so it was nice to see how much and how little had changed in Hanoi.
This Hanoi trip was mostly for chilling, so I didn’t really make any firm plans leading up to it, and mostly spent my time in the city wandering around and eating street food. I even took a motorcycle food tour which was a ton of fun!
I did get to see some things I missed before, like the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and the Vietnamese Women’s Museum as well as the Long Bien Bridge, but also re-explore places from before like Hoan Kiem Lake and Van Mieu Temple of Literature.
I also spent a day outside of Hanoi in the nearby town of Ninh Binh with its limestone karsts where I rented a scooter to explore solo. If only it was a little less grey, but at least the weather overall was relatively cool in January.
Phnom Penh & Siem Reap, Cambodia
There wasn’t too much travel in the first half of 2024 as I was busy studying for my Singapore tourist guide license! I spent most of my weekends exploring Singapore thoroughly for my test so I couldn’t really travel much, though I managed to fit in a short media trip to Cambodia with Emirates, commemorating their new direct route to Phnom Penh, ticking off another new country visited.
Cambodia is one of the last few countries in Southeast Asia I had yet to visit at that point so I was stoked to visit. Emirates flew us to Phnom Penh in style where we explored the city. My favourite part was taking a sunset cruise on the Mekong River.
We then hopped on an AirAsia flight to Siem Reap where I finally got to see the magnificent Angkor Wat in person. Sunrise over Angkor Wat… check! We also got to see some pretty cool spots in Angkor Archaeological Park and even visit a local village and make our own noodles.
Broome, Australia
A sudden trip opportunity popped up in the middle of the year thanks to my freelance writing for ST Life – I got a chance to visit a brand new destination in Western Australia that I’d honestly never known existed before I received the invite from Jetstar Asia promoting this brand new route.
Hello beautiful Broome! The landscapes of the Kimberley are unbelievably beautiful and like nothing else I’ve seen. From camel rides on the beach to catching the moonrise over the shallows, I truly enjoyed the natural wonders that this tiny pearling town had to offer.
Bangkok, Thailand
It was only until September that I managed my next trip. 2024 was when I finally managed to meet up with my friends from school – we made our grad trip to Taiwan back in the day and I explored UAE with them. Now that the rest of them are married with kids, it’s been hard to travel together, but we managed to squeeze in a tiny weekend trip to Bangkok for some food and R&R.
This trip was very short but we managed to do a lot in that time, eating dinner at two Michelin-starred restaurants – Potong in a quaint little shophouse serving up interesting courses of progressive Thai-Chinese food, as well as the German Suhring in a bungalow surrounded by greenery.
It was here in Bangkok that I tried my first Korean style hair spa and also enjoyed lots of good massages! It was really nice to hang out and catch up with friends even if just over a weekend.
Kyushu, Japan
A trip that I was really looking forward to in early October was my road trip in Kyushu, Japan. I have been to most of Japan’s popular cities – Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Hokkaido, and I realised that I never spent much time in its southern island of Kyushu except for a brief stopover in Fukuoka in 2016 on my career break.
This trip was another epic road trip with my friend P who’s also my dive buddy. We first headed to the amazing Princess Mononoke island of Yakushima for some nature and hiking. I love how green this place is!
After that we hopped over to Kagoshima where Sakurajima volcano is and we roadtripped our way northwards through more hot springs in Kirishima, Kumamoto and the lofty Mount Aso and finally made our way back to Fukuoka.
Busan & Ulsan & Gyeongnam, South Korea
I squeezed in one last overseas trip with a media trip to South Korea‘s southern region of BuUlGyeong, aka Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsnam (Gyeongsan-nam). I was pretty excited to be revisiting Busan since I’d not seen these particular places on the itinerary, as well as see new spots like Ulsan and Gyeongnam.
I got to stay in Haeundae on this trip to Busan and explore more of East Busan’s highlights, like Dalmaji Road and the Haeundae Beach area.
The coastal town of Ulsan is where I encountered ancient whale petroglyphs and Onggi pottery kilns, while rural inland Gyeongnam was where I learned about traditional Korean medicine and saw some pretty cool temples.
Travel Writing
You might have seen some of my ST Life articles, like the one about Niigata and its artsy side, or my Broome follow up about this amazing new destination so close to Singapore. My Angkor piece was a little late but still made it out this year as well.
I also did a whole series of articles for Tripadvisor on Macao and everything you need to do there, and this piece about Singapore for Etihad‘s Inflight Magazine Atlas to close out the year.
Check out my portfolio for more – it’s been a great year writing! Not all my articles end up in bylines, and working on external writing means less writing for my own blog, but I definitely hope to catch up a little more on my own blogs too… eventually!
Tour Guiding in Singapore
2024 was the year I got my tourist guiding license officially! You can read about my tourist guiding story or even book a tour with me if you’re in Singapore. It’s been an interesting journey so far, because this is just one more activity I have to juggle alongside my full-time job and travels, but it’s been pretty cool so far.
I’ve learned way more about Singapore than I knew before, and I’ve met some pretty interesting people along the way as well.
What’s next in 2025
So… have I planned any trips for next year already? 2024 was a year of revisiting the familiar or seeing new sides of familiar countries, but I’m always hoping to do something a bit more epic once in ahwile.
So far it looks like I have a pretty epic birthday month trip happening in March to go somewhere really out there (hint: it’s the ‘stans!) and later in the year, a dive trip somewhere pretty ulu in Indonesia, stay tuned for more!
Hope everyone had a great 2024! Here’s looking forward to a great year in 2025.
