I need your help. I would not be asking if I didn’t have to. Please take a moment to read.
Travel is a passion of mine, which is why I started this blog. In time, I hope to turn it into something bigger.
I am not a millionaire, and I do not have wealthy parents. I only travel when I am able to, both financially and physically, and I travel frugally by looking for deals, and write in my spare time. Although I have not said this before in my articles, I live with chronic diseases and have disabilities that stem from a childhood cancer. I’ve since had another 2 cancers in the past 7 years over a period of 5 years, and value every opportunity to travel I can manage. My full time job is managing my medical affairs.
When I write my articles, I always make it a point to talk about accessibility. I’ve built this travel blog to provide practical advice to other travellers, and to show that disability doesn’t mean giving up on adventure. Travel is a passion and a form of freedom I’ve worked hard to pursue — even in the face of significant health and mobility challenges.
Due to my health issues, I have great difficulty getting meaningful paid work. I am also the victim of domestic violence at home. A few years ago, in a desperate attempt to leave the house I live in and to obtain financial independence, I fell victim to financial fraud that drained my savings, further damaged my independence, and left me fighting a system that has failed to act — even after multiple complaints to official government bodies and legal efforts.This fraud targeted not just me, but many others, and continues unchecked to this day.
I tipped off the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) about one of the scams, then gave a phone interview. My story, among others, were published, with mine published under a pseudonym “Melanie” today. You can read it here:
I have never asked for a hand out, and I only ask for help when I really need it.
I’m now seeking donations to help me recover what was lost — and to help me survive.
If you’ve connected with my story, my travels, or the mission behind this site, I’d be deeply grateful for your support. My experience and other hardships put me in a state of severe depression for several years, but I look forward to writing new articles soon.
Every contribution brings me one step closer to recovery. Please read my story below. For those who can, I will be grateful for every cent you donate. If you cannot donate, I would appreciate it if you can share my donation link far and wide:
Or, donate now:
Thank you
Hi there! Thank you for visiting my site.
I am a rational, pragmatic person and a trained scientist, and I love to travel. My mission with this website is to create a reliable resource of information that is easy to read, to educate travellers with realistic, practical and interesting information about travel that you will actually find useful.
Why you can trust me and why my articles are reliable
I have been told more than once by my friends that I am too rational and logical for my own good which I take as a good sign and a compliment 😜.
As a trained scientist and a naturally pragmatic person, my articles are detailed, informative, and factual, and based on personal experience and research about places I have actually been to. This means I can actually tell you what a destination is truly like. And if I haven’t, I research the destination thoroughly the way I do before I visit any place, to provide accurate information. My realistic approach combined with photos I personally take (where possible) gives a non-nonsense overview of destinations so you know what to expect, and not be disappointed by the big discrepancies that occur due to expectations from artificial postcard photos seen in marketing, and what it is like in real life.
My sources of information:
Apart from first hand experience, my sources include original and official sources like receipts, tickets, first hand information, and contacting the official bodies in charge of the information I need to obtain, such as border control of a country, or the local public transportation body.
I approach itineraries systematically, and take care to care about the details when making them. For example, location of accommodations respective to the surrounding streets, local shop types, and proximity to public transport. This makes me the perfect person to plan your itinerary if you have no idea how to plan one.
I have experience travelling mostly solo but also with friends to over 50 cities across 13 countries, arranging all the logistics myself, booking flights, trains, accommodation, local telecommunications, and activities. Countries I have been to include New Zealand, China, Singapore, Germany, Italy, and Spain, to name a few.
Find trip planning too bothersome? Hire me!
I like authentic travel where you get to meet locals, or experience the destination in a less superficial way. This means tours that are not simply packed buses that drop people off at touristy places and then take them back to their hotel.
Being Chinese born and raised in the USA and Australia, I speak fluent Mandarin and English and am familiar with cultures and history of all three countries.
I am also a keen photographer, and most photos featured on my site were taken by me, not stock photography, so you know what they actually look like, not the artificially perfected and heavily edited version you may see elsewhere. You can purchase prints of my naturally beautiful photos on my photography site here.
Affiliate services
You may have noticed I have Aviasales flight search widgets on my site. Aviasales used to be called Jetradar, and I used to use Jetradar and their widgets on my site to find flights because after comparing flight aggregators, they seemed to find the cheapest options. Try it out for yourself and compare it to other flight aggregates. If you do end up booking through the widgets on my site, you’ll help contribute to my site – I earn up to 1% of every completed sale, at no extra cost to you.
Are you a business? Contact me for advertising, sponsorship and co-operation opportunities.