Happy New Year 2013

I celebrated New Year 2013 at Church of the Nativity in Singapore. My uncle was one of the organizers of the event so I got "arrowed" into helping out. It was a lot of fun and I met some great people.

Happy New Year! We are about to find out if 13 is an unlucky number. After all, the world managed to survive the alleged “Mayan prophecy” of 2012, predicting the end of the world.

Thank you very much for following my blog this year. From Thailand to Indonesia, covering Chinese New Year, Songkran, Singapore National Day, your visits have motivated me to blog on.

The past twelve months have taught me a great deal about myself as well as various South East Asian cultures.

While others lament living out of a suitcase, I lived out of a carry on sized backpack for pretty much the whole year.

I met some really great people along the way, having quite a bit of fun while doing so. Thanks to many of the locals, I also ate lots of great food, all on a backpacker budget.

Who needs luxury anyway? If I have a comfortable bed, hot shower and a roof that doesn’t leak – ok, and air conditioning – then I don’t need to spend $60 on a room with beautiful fixtures when a $10 room meets my other four requirements. I’m not out to impress others and I’d rather spend the difference on experience.

Speaking of experience, this year was incredible. I had my first snorkeling experience, partied with the locals at the Songkran festival, tried my first hardcore Muay Thai classes in Thailand, zip-lined through the Chiang Mai jungles, chilled on the Phuket and Huahin beach, celebrated Chinese New Year the traditional way, sat in an F-15 fighter, one of the last few people who could stay and fish at Sultan Shoal and drank and partied with a whole bunch of people.

Thanks to everyone who made this year amazing. I’m looking forward to the next! I leave you with some of my favourite photos from 2012. I have quite a few more that I didn’t post unfortunately.