"I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell,
I know right now you can't tell,
But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see,
A different side of me"
(Unwell - Matchbox 20)
Today is my last day in my apartment. I decided to go full mobile even in Singapore. I decided to abandon my apartment room instead of renewing the rent. Well, it's been a year and in average I sleep in that room maybe only 5-7 days a month. This month I slept there for about 2 weeks since I have a CRS migration project in Singapore but it's going to end in the next couple of days. And I'm flying to Vietnam today, I will stay for more than 2 weeks there and may fly to another country after that.
I decided to stay in the hotel everytime I need to be in my base station, most probably in a budget or backpacker hotel. According to my calculation if I need to spend only a week every month in Singapore it’s much cheaper to stay in the hotel that is closer to office than paying monthly room with taxi since my current room is on the far west side of the island. Obviously it will be more fun, and I need to keep myself busy so I can avoid my Crazy Thought to keep bugging and asking me the very same question.
Or I can just stay in the office everytime I'm in the country. This is not a new life style for me. When I started my career 8 years ago I used to sleep in the office. I did it for about 9 months. It was fun since my previous office had cable TV, air con, high speed internet, copy machine and printer that I used to abuse after midnight so nobody was there to watch, always-on coffee machine, and last but not least: live network that I could use to practice for my CCIE lab ;)
But even with my new backpacking way of life, I'm not in the bad shape since I always stay in 5-star hotel during any projects in neighboring countries, and I enjoy more privileges and benefits since I have Gold membership with the airline and hotels.
My traveling experience for the past 2 years:
Hotel: Shangri-La (80%), Hilton, Hyatt, Ritz Carlton, Intercontinental, Swissotel, Sheraton, Le Meridien, Four Season, Holiday Inn, Westin, Crown Plaza, Conrad, Sofitel, Excelsior
Airline: Singapore Air (90%), Malaysia Air, Thai Air, Air Asia, Garuda, Jet Star Asia/Valuair, Emirates Air, Vietnam Air
Membership: Singapore Air KrisFlyer/Star Alliance Elite Gold, Shangri-La Gold, Hyatt Gold, Starwood Preferred Guest
Privileges: Airport business lounge, priority check-in/luggage, upgraded hotel room, free staying in hotel, miles
Travel style: Light. First priority is for passport, wallet and mobile phone. Second priority is for Cisco badge, notebook, chargers, iPod. Third, my backpack where I keep all the rest. In fact, everything that I need for living outside the country I put it inside this backpack
Favorite airport: Changi International
Favorite cities: San Francisco, Amsterdam, Sydney, Dubai, Bangkok
Best flying experience: A380 to Sydney
Longest flying time: San Francisco - Sydney (via Hongkong and Singapore)
Longest stay in city during one visit: 3 weeks (Sydney)
I’m a traveler as well as a consulting engineer, a dreamer, a blogger, a backpacker. I'm a Triple CCIE and a storyteller too.
And this is my story.
