From the Big Apple to the Little Red Dot

The island city-state of Singapore is known as the Little Red Dot because on a map of the world, it’s often represented as such, belying its influence. (And/or fervid self-promotion, subject of a post to come.) But this journey really begins with another island state: Hawaii.

In October 2014, my husband Andrew and I flew to Hawaii for our honeymoon. Hawaii was his top choice of destination, not mine. I don’t really love tropical weather (I’ll surely come back to this topic as well) and was fixated on the idea of visiting Japan (and still am). But he held firm and with the generous help of his parents, we booked the trip.

For almost two weeks on Maui and Kauai, we all but lived outdoors: hiking, swimming, sailing, snorkeling, reading on the lanai, driving to out-of-the-way cafes, eating fresh sushi on the beach… It was everything a relaxing honeymoon should be, and a real respite from our jam-packed lives in New York City.

Beyond serving as a backdrop for wedded bliss, our trip to Hawaii reminded me that I love to travel. The demands and financial realities of graduate school, a nonprofit career, wedding planning, and a bicoastal family meant that anything more exotic than a Thanksgiving flight to the Bay Area had been out of the question for years. In fact, I realized that it had been almost a decade since I had left the country.

I understand that this predicament might filed under what could politely be termed White People Problems. However, the fact that I hadn’t studied abroad in college had become a nagging regret. I’d always wanted to travel, I’d always MEANT to find a time. I read The New York Times every day, worked in one of the world’s great cultural institutions, and knew bulgogi from baba ganoush. And yet here I was at thirty, having never left home.

After Hawaii, Andrew and I both vowed to do more to get out of our Brooklyn bubble. We inadvisably bought a car to escape the city on weekends, jumped at the chance to visit friends living in Argentina, and talked about taking some time– maybe between jobs? before a move?– to do a longer trip to Asia.

Then, on the same day in January 2016, Andrew found out about two new promising job opportunities. I couldn’t make this up: they were both in Singapore. Andrew’s longtime company won out, asking him to open their first Asia Pacific office. It was difficult to say yes, but impossible to say no. While the timing was right in some ways and terrible in others, we both understood that we wouldn’t have this opportunity again. And here we are.

I then had the same conversation many times before I moved. How did I like Singapore during my visits? I’ve never been, I would reply. But surely I’d been to Asia before?

Reader, it’s all new to me. Hopefully this blog can be a place where I can record these experiences, both for friends and family to follow along and for me to document and reflect.

Below is a loose itinerary of some of our past and upcoming travel to date, Andrew’s more brief work trips not included. (He just did a 20-hour day trip to Bangkok, 5 hours of which were cab rides between the Suvarnabhumi Airport and downtown Bangkok. No thanks!)

• Early August: Vancouver and Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
• Mid-August: Phuket, Thailand
• Mid-September: Seminyak and Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
• Early October: Taipei, Taiwan
• Late October: Ho Chi Min City, Rach Gia, and Phu Quoc, Vietnam (though the new visa policies for Americans might affect planning)
• Mid- November: Siem Reap, Cambodia
• Maybe Late December: Myanmar
• Maybe Early February: Laos

Our other top destinations include Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Borneo, the Philippines, northern Thailand, Java, Southern India, Hong Kong, Bhutan, and yes– Japan. We’ve also talked about ending this chapter with a long trip through New Zealand, but who knows.

And of course, the weekends we are in Singapore–haze and Zika be damned– we will be enjoying and exploring our new island home one degree north of the equator.