The Weekend Rambler

Always Authentic. Always on its own path.

Category: Study Abroad

  • Seoul Past, Seoul Present

    To get into Beijing, I took advantage of the 144-hour transit visa, which allowed me to stay in Beijing as long as I had a flight going somewhere other than where I came from. Seoul was the cheapest option, and so I went. I visited Seoul, along with Busan and Gyeongju back in 2014, and…

  • Dusty Beijing

    Beijing is dusty and hazy. If you open the weather app on your phone, it will probably show you the temperature and then under it say something like, “Partly Cloudy” or “Sunny”. But in Beijing, it’s a bit different. So with a “Very Unhealthy Air Quality” city ahead of me, I strapped on my face…

  • Bears, Monkeys, the Borneo Basics

    My trip to Brunei was the perfect introduction to Borneo. I polished up my basic Malay a bit, got acquainted with the way of life and some of the Muslim values, and got excited to see much much more of this beautiful island. Unfortunately, these weekend rambles don’t allow for enough time, so I have…

  • Rain Over the Abode of Peace

    Brunei…have you heard of it? When I was telling people about my upcoming trip to Borneo, they would (even being Hong Kong locals) say, “umm…sorry but where’s that again?” “Borneo? The third largest island in the world? The one where David Attenborough makes movies about Orangutans and Proboscis Monkeys? The one with an incredibly old…

  • Chiang Mai, Renovations of Chill

    From what I had heard, Chiang Mai was a black hole for backpackers, a place for souls to escape the bustle of Bangkok and the endless parties of Phuket. When I would tell people I was venturing to Chiang Mai, the reaction was usually along the lines of “Awwww wow I’m so jealous. I spent…