6 months on

I reached my 6-month milestone while at sea in Galápagos. I felt very fortunate to be travelling in good health, safe and sound and without losing most of my possession although I carelessly threw away one of my earrings the day before, thinking it was part of the biscuit crumbs in the pocket of bag (I have removed my earrings and left them in the pocket in case I lost them while snorkelling). By the time I remembered, the very hardworking staff on the boat had already emptied the rubbish bin in my room. Oh well, my own stupid mistake. 

During my travels, I had met many people from very different work background - pilots, nurse/paramedic, teacher, science researchers, retirees (not all of them are old), lawyers, au pair... Many of whom are working just so that they could travel. Some take up contract jobs overseas. Some work very hard in relatively harsh conditions (and presumably for better pay) for 6 months (say, in the mine) and then travel for 6 months.

There were a lot of small talks. The most commonly asked questions have been: 

- What is your name? 

- Where are you from? Where is Singapore? What is the population? What is the highest mountain in Singapore? What is the national animal/bird/flower of Singapore? Which part of Sydney do you live in? 

- How long does it take to fly here from Singapore? (This question would then lead the other party to find out that I had not flown from Singapore.)

- How long have you been travelling? Where did you go? What is your favourite destination so far? Where are you going next? Are you travelling alone? Will you be meeting up with family/ friends to travel together? 

- What is your profession? 

Then the discussion topics would become more personal: 

- How many brothers and sisters do you have? 

- Do you live with your parents? 

- Are you married? 

- Have you got a boyfriend? Why not? Why??? (erm, what answer were you expecting for this question? Seriously!) 

- How old are you? (Most people actually thought that I am 26 years old. Phwahahahahaha!!!!! It always made my day and I never, for once, thought they were just being polite.)

Through the small talks, I learnt more from people from other countries - their lives, food, language, culture... Some further confirmed stereotypes but mostly, it affirmed that if people communicate, some conflicts/wars can be averted.

On the negative front, I had to deal with 2 news of deaths from a distance. Both knew me since I was a baby. It was difficult but we coped somehow.