Meet Wendy
Singapore Travel Writer, Blogger, Content Creator
Hello! I am a Singaporean travel writer, content creator, and blogger. My writing journey started in 2013 when I had the once-in-lifetime opportunity to live and teach in Japan and sailed around the world with Peace Boat. I have worked with travel organisations and websites to provide meaningful travel content to empower travellers. A travel addict and compulsive-obsessive travel planner, I believe that when we know more, we travel better.
Why does Wendy write?
If you’re a writer, particular, if you’re a writer or a storyteller of any kind, there is something already kind of monstrously wrong with you.
Anthony Bourdain
I think there’s definitely something wrong with me. I pretend to be a writer; a travel writer to be specific. This delusion started in 2013 when I moved to Okinawa and I suddenly had more leisure time and the whole of Japan to explore thanks to the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET).
I spent two life-changing years teaching in Naha and travelling throughout Japan and neighbouring countries like Hong Kong and Taiwan. With my travel fund running low, I chanced upon an advertisement looking for articles on a travel website. I submitted some articles and was surprised that people would actually pay me for my ramblings. I guess all the years of churning essays as a literature student and teaching writing as a teacher paid off!
After my JET affair with Okinawa ended, I boarded on a ship and travelled around the world in 107 days with Peace Boat. Bursting with all the adrenaline and inspiration from my world travels, I returned to Singapore and I have been trying find time to write and escape from my regular job and city life.
I write because I believe that when we know more, we travel better! Through writing about my experiences, I hope to share information and stories of places and people to inspire and help you to plan your next travel adventure.
Why does Wendy travel?
We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again—to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more.
Pico Iyer
I am addicted to travel and when people ask me why, I find it difficult to express in words. After travelling to 36 countries (21 of them were thanks to Peace Boat), I yearn to travel more and experience new places, culture, food, and more. Why?
Because the world is so big (Singapore is a little red dot–about 720 km2) and I am curious about what is out there. I travel to escape from my ordinary and experience the extraordinary. I travel to be free–to be free to explore big cities and remote islands, to be free to experience and enjoy the unfamiliar, and to be free to learn and unlearn about the world. Travel has helped me to understand appreciate different cultures and introduce me to locals who have become lifelong friends. Travel has definitely changed me and hopefully make me a better human. How about you? Why do you travel?
During the height of Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, I was worried that the world would be closed for a long time and I would not be able to see my friends and travel to the places I love again. Now that we can travel safely, I am very grateful of the privilege I have to hop onto a plane and fly to my dream destinations. So I try to be a more conscious and sustainable traveller. I try to plan trips to maximise my holiday by combining travel with meetups with friends and travel projects, immerse in slow travel by spending more time exploring places rather than hitting tourist hot spots, and take one return flight to a destination and explore places around it using other modes of transportation like train and buses.
How does Wendy travel?
I am not a “Crazy Rich Asian” so I try to be creative to find resources and time to travel while juggling a full-time job. My travel awakening was inspired by two amazing exchange programs that allowed me to travel around Japan and the world for “free.”
Exchange Programs
The JET Programme brought me to Japan to teach and I enjoyed a “working holiday” where I spent my free time outside work and took advantage of budget airlines and trains to explore more than 30 prefectures in Japan.
After the JET Programme ended, I had the fortune to join Peace Boat’s global voyage as a volunteer teacher when I travelled around the world for 3 months and visited 21 countries. This was a “free” and once-in-a-lifetime trip!
I am a “travel bargain hunter” or as some of my friends call meーcheapskate or auntie. I am always on the lookout for travel discounts and contests. I suffer from “compulsive-obsessive-travel-planning disorder” (COTPD). I spend too much time to find the best travel deals and plan ambitious trips on a budget (unfortunately, sometimes this habit annoys my travel companions).
After years of trying different travel hacks, I have found ways to travel cheaper, travel better. Check out my travel resources from travel hacks of using travel booking websites, credit cards, and miles to winning contests.
Know more, Travel better
So to cut a long story short, whywendywrites is born rather surreptitiously due to my fortuitous sojourn in Okinawa, amazing luck to meet wonderful people from all around the world, and obsession with words and travel.
I believe that when we know more, we travel better! Through my writing and research, I hope to share information and stories of places and people to inspire and help you plan your next travel adventure.
Curious about my travel stories? Contact me and we shall see how our worlds can converge as I would love to hear your stories too!
Interested to work with me? Check out my travel projects here.
If you love to travel, please support me and buy me a coffee ☕! With your kind contribution, I can sustain my website and share more travel guides and tips with you!
