Lomography: Perth, Western Australia in Fisheye

Travel Staples

I am heading to see Don for a quick, sneaky trip! Earlier the month, I decided that I want to see Don. I miss him and I miss Perth. We’re not going to wait until Christmas to see each other. Making it another 5-6 months gap between our visits. Don couldn’t give me exact dates to when I could come because of work, but I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. After some stressful planning (for Don), I booked my flight ticket a week before I was intended to fly off. I only had a few days to pack and a day to organize my itinerary. I tried to let this trip be a free and easy one, but I couldn’t!! The OCD in me wrote a small, quick itinerary of place I want to go, eat, buy and people to meet.

I have been quite lucky to go on trips every month for the past 3 months. Packing has become significantly easier for me. As I was packing, I compiled a few of my travel staples. I didn’t know I had “staples” for my travels because I do different kinds of traveling. Turns out, I do. Here are some of my travel staples.

How To Deal With Long-Distance Breakups

Recently, I found out that one of my LDR buddies broke up with her boyfriend. Really sad times... We had a chat about it – she seemed okay, but I knew deep down she was a sad and disappointed about the breakup. As she was telling me what happen, I started having flashbacks about MY long-distance breakup. I was in an LDR with my previous boyfriend when I first moved to Australia. We didn’t break up because of the distance (as a couple, we had too many issues) but the distance contributed to the breakup.

No break up is easy. Especially if it’s a long-term relationship. I’ve been heart broken many times and in my experience, breaking up when you’re in a long-distance relationship is the easiest and the hardest thing to go through. Easy because… you were already leading a “single” life. Your SO was hardly around you to feel the loss. You don’t feel the physical loss. Hard because… it’s emotionally draining. What you feel the most is the emotional loss. No one to talk to at night before bed. No one “there” for you when you need someone. No one to make you laugh. No one to tell you jokes.

5 Ways To Afford Trips To See Your Long-Distance Partner

When Don and I first started our long-distance relationship, we knew that it was going to be a lot of work, time and money. We are both working our first job after graduating uni and earning entry level wage (which is not much). But you know, we are both in love, young and eager to see the world together. We had to make it work even if we have to eat cheap, cut down on things and save. I guess, we are pretty lucky in the sense that Don’s currency is WAY higher than mine. Traveling to me is SUPER cheap for him but me traveling to him is SUPER expensive for me. It would cost him two weeks salary to afford a flight ticket, accommodation + food to Malaysia while it would cost me a month salary to afford flight and money to move around. Despite all the travel costs and having to save diligently every month, every penny is worth it when I get to see my smiley, handsome man when I walk out the gate.

Here’s are some tips on how I save to afford trips to see Don in Australia.

Interracial Couple: Why are people staring at us?

This incident happened over a year old when we first started dating. After moving back (from Perth) to Malaysia for good, I took a trip back to Perth to see Don for a few weeks. It was one of our first time together, out in public. It took a little adjusting because we were so used to hanging out uni cafes in a big group or watching movies at our houses. Walking out together holding hands in public was new for us as a couple.