About 11 years ago, I harboured a wild idea to visit all 13 states of Malaysia, for whatever reason I cannot for the life of me recall. Maybe I’d hoped that it would be a preparation of sorts for a similar plan I have with the United States; or maybe I was just being a little too obsessive- either way, somewhere after the ninth state, the plot was lost and I just didn’t feel like I was doing it right anymore. 9 states on, and I couldn’t tell you specifically what I liked about half of them, or what are the must-eats, must-dos, must-sees. I could tell you what state borders which and how long you’ll take to get from what place to another, but let’s be serious here: These aren’t things you need to travel to know. These are things you flip atlases to know.

Talk about checking things off the list just for the sake of.

A couple of years back, I crossed the great divide again after what has been a good, what, 5,6 years?; and this time round, perhaps it was because I was accompanied with three other friends that I felt a crazy inspiration to dig up, dust off, and revisit this silly ol’ plan again. Maybe it was the change of perspective, or maybe we just passed some really good hidden gems that gave me that ‘a-ha!‘ moment I needed to put a spin to my project; but I quickly learned that the one thing which I’d spent a good part of my travelling years believing was the mark of a good trip, was the very same thing that eroded my passion for this project over the years.

There is no need to cover every single place of interest and/or check in at every single ‘must-go’ site you read on Lonely Planet, for it to count as a good travel experience.

Keeping it simple doesn’t make you any less of a traveller; it just makes you a more personal one. I mean, after all, isn’t that what the research is for? To weed out the things you have absolutely no interest in and to zone in on stuff that actually excites you? This realization is fast making me regret every single place of worship/park/museum/non-descript place that I’d reluctantly dragged myself to over the years over the countries – just because they were deemed featured interests and I felt like my trip would be ‘incomplete’ if I didn’t at least set food there. Think about all the other things I could have done with that time. Take my 2013 trip to Cambodia for instance: After spending three full days doing the temple run in Siem Reap, I spent the fourth visiting a museum that was mostly filled with dioramas of said temples.

I could have gone to cooking school.

Cycled around town exploring.

To be honest, even lying in bed and flipping through channels would have been time better spent.

Which is why, I would like to say, behold.

Given the change in the world landscape now that we’re on the brink of a worldwide pandemic, I just might spend the future year ahead uncovering Malaysia in a way I never quite managed to do right the first time round.

Behold.