Jobs fill your pocket, adventures fills your soul

Jamie Lyn Beatty

Final days at work, preparation for a 2 month trip

Now, where do i start? 

My friend Shanery and I, we came from different backgrounds, different career, different lifestyle. I remembered the day we met, we chatted at a coffeehouse after climbing at an indoor sport climbing facility at Climb Central, we got introduced to each other via a mutual friend, Cheryl. 

Travel, mountains, hiking, outdoor sports, nature, we chatted for hours about our travel stories and realised, hey we kind of hit it off really well and can’t wait to actually travel together one day to experience the joy together. (This was covid period, quote 2020), none of us were able to travel out of the country so we had to wait. 

2022 in short

Fast forward 3 years, not only had we gone on a few trips together, like road tripping Melbourne when the borders first reopened, to hiking in the Taiwan mountains soon after she opened her borders to our countrymen. I dreamed to step foot on United States for the first time for my birthday, which happened to be United States Independence Day. Whereas, my friend was really keen on road tripping United States in a Camper van, and a plan was hatched in our minds. We wanted to go on a three month or longer road trip in 2022 to United States, exploring the different states and hiking the national parks. We even went on to book a few campsites in advance. 

Unfortunately, 2022 was a rough year for both of us, i didn’t had a smooth time at work and my health either. Questioning the days spent working at home for a job that kept me in my comfort zone for a very long time. Trying to move forward but lacking the motivation to do so.

The health also kept me on my job as i had many check-ups and physiotherapy to attend to. There wasn’t much travel except for the few neighbouring short trips to Malaysia as well until my friend had her personal stuff sorted out, as i wanted to be there to support her. My headspace concurrently wasn’t in a good place to enjoy, there was this unknown source of stress constantly wrapping my life, personally and professionally.

2023 and beyond

2023, this was a year where the dust settled, i finally took the break i wanted. It was very uncomfortable to leave my job and know that i will be back home months later jobless. However, i took this opportunity to break out of my comforting and secured life and went for something my soul always wanted, to travel and be away from familiarity for a good period of time.

My friend was due to return to her career soon and she happen to have this short period to take a break from the rough covid years before heading home to workforce. It was why we finally decided, it’s time for us to fulfil our 2022 dream trip. 

With the limited time my friend had before she needs to return to her career, we ditched the camper van idea. Instead, we decide to help shave the costs down by taking a month basing ourselves somewhere, then the next month travelling. Travelling on the go is very expensive because you will have to keep moving. Moving often meant that your transport costs and accommodation costs will chalk up to a big amount.  

The destination we chose was Japan for 2 weeks, after which we flew to Honolulu, Hawaii, stayed there for a month, and then we spend the final month travelling the west coast of United States via domestic air, public transport and rental cars. This blog came in 3 months late because we tried to create as much content as we could when we’re on the road, and we never seem to find the time to properly create content.

As we are not full time content creators, without the luxury of time, we are unable to update as we travel. Nonetheless, the backlogs will be updated here. 

In the upcoming posts, we will share more about why we decide to head to a certain country and where we explored/travel. We will also share more about the destinations in detail, (attractions, accommodations, culture, tips, transportation etc). So stay tuned if you are excited to read more about our adventures! 

In the meantime, here’s us travelling out of Singapore, and coincidentally meeting our friend, Jiayun, who just returned home from her solo 3 months adventure in Canada. Our flight out and her flight back home timing happened to match! We could briefly see each other before saying our goodbyes! If you are keen on hearing her side of the story, you can also read up on her blog here regarding Canada.

Pic below from left to right: Shanery, Jiayun, Michelle (Me) 

You can guess where we are heading to next right? 😀