Top 5 YOLO Travel Moments

YOLO. You Only Live Once.

Tonight my mind wonders wildly because I’m about to embark on a YOLO trip willingly. I bought flight tickets to Taipei, Taiwan for two weeks from now! This is the most expensive flight ticket I ever bought from Jettly, but it was worth the money. This is also the first time I’d be travelling solo. Too much anxiety. Also too much excitement.

As I think about this upcoming YOLO solo trip, I recall several YOLO moments and most of them happen to be from travel experiences.

#1 Climbing a 72m tree unprotected in Australia 

No harness. No safety nets. Just myself and 153 metal spikes coming out from the tree in the middle of an unattended national park. I climbed the Gloucester Tree, which is the second tallest fire-lookout tree in the world, second only to another tree we also visited but did not climb to the top. It was freaking scary and exhausting. I came back with crazy bruises all over my knees because I refused to stay away from the 153 metal spikes that went around the tree. It was exhilarating to experience this with RK. Our hearts pumped so so so rapidly. So crazy but so rewarding.

#2 Taking shelter  from typhoon in Hong Kong 

On the day we were supposed to fly home from Hong Kong, typhoon warning elevated to the highest level and flights were cancelled. Ours included. All shops and land transportations were halted as we hurried through the strong wind to find last minute shelter for the night. Honestly, RK and I were super excited. RK couldn’t stop storytelling about him being blown away in typhoon during his previous Hong Kong trip so it felt complete that I got to experience typhoon in Hong Kong with him too. Except typhoon changed direction unexpectedly and missed Hong Kong. No offense to the possible damage it may have caused; it was fun.

#3 Watching turtle lay eggs and baby turtles hatch in Pulau Redang

During a school trip to Pulau Redang, my schoolmates and I were brought to a beach on a little boat at the middle of the night to wait for turtles to lay eggs. We lied quietly under the dark starry sky and wondered if we’d be lucky enough to see any turtle that night. Before we dosed off on the sand, we were summoned to walk on the dark beach to visit a turtle when she was laying eggs. Luck was with us that night when eggs hatched right under our feet when we visited a hatchery on the same beach. Definitely remember being told not to jump, make noise or turn on lights when hundreds of baby turtles unexpectedly climbed over our feet to get to the sea. It was ticklish! It was magical.

#4 Watching sunset on a kayak in Langkawi 

It was another school trip to Langkawi, which coincided with my birthday. We took a longer-than-expected overnight train up north due to technical issue. Pretty cool. Even though I had trouble sleeping when schoolmates decided to share ghost stories when the train went through a tunnel at midnight. I don’t remember if we kayaked on my birthday (checked: it’s the day after my birthday) but I remember being asked to hold on to each other’s kayak at the middle of the sea so that we could stabilize each other on the wavy sea to watch sunset together. It was unplanned. I just happened to kayak during sunset. It was amazing.

#5 Going on a trip to Thailand with two girls

I don’t remember how we decided to go Bangkok for our inaugural trip together. It was my first trip to a country that doesn’t speak any language I know. It didn’t even come across my mind that it’d be a problem until we tried to get a taxi at the Thai airport. And it didn’t occur to me that it may be dangerous to travel with two other girls who were not avid travellers then. We turned into Powerpuff Girls at the Grand Palace by paying swindlers for cover ups. We pretended to be taking selfie at the backseat as we tried to take photo of the taxi driver’s license during a long trip to the suburb. It’s funny when I think about it now but it was so scary back then when we knew so little about travelling abroad.

See. Most of these YOLO travel moments that are most memorable to me were impromptu. All required me to go out of my comfort zone and be open to new experiences.

This decision to travel solo to Taiwan is nerve wrecking and is one I never expected myself to make. But I want to do it. I want to go test my limit and go beyond boundaries to discover more about myself. It’d be an opportunity to grow. It’d be a YOLO moment I’d proudly remember for the rest of my life.

For a starter, I’ve chosen a country marked very safe by many travellers. Wish me luck!