495 Days of FUNemployment
I traveled for 495 days straight in 2013 and 2014.
It was an extreme reaction to burnout—a break I didn’t plan but one I desperately needed. I had burned the candle at both ends for too long which ended with me bedbound for almost two months with glandular fever (AKA mono).
These two months without traveling made me go completely stir-crazy. So I quit my start job and left Singapore indefinitely for the US and South America. I thought I would be done in three months and back to working on incubating the idea of Chicken Feet. (Spoiler alert: I was back in Southeast Asia by the end of 2013, see 3)
Here’s what I learned while being FUNemployed:
1. I’ve never felt less alone than while travelling alone
When you travel solo, you’re rarely alone. Hostels make friends out of strangers overnight. A shared meal, a missed bus, or a recommendation overheard at a cafe can become a friendship.
I became more at ease with connection—comfortable asking for directions, advice, or simply sitting beside someone without needing to fill the space. I still love traveling solo, but I no longer equate it with solitude.
Unless you go out of your way to avoid it, you are always forced into a social situation. And when you do go out of your way, which most travellers don’t bother, you start to make friends with local people and that is where the real travel starts.
2. Go “home” at least once every three months.
I was lucky to have “homes” in Australia, California, and Singapore before I started backpacking. That meant I had couches to crash on, people to decompress with, and the luxury of being around folks who didn’t expect me to be interesting.
Recharging in the company of old friends—even just for a weekend—gave me the stamina and mental space to keep going. It reminded me who I was in the quiet moments to recalibrate.
3. Southeast Asia is my favourite.
I had every intention of spending most of my time in South and Central America. But the more I traveled, the more I realised how much I missed Southeast Asia.
There’s something here that’s hard to describe and harder to find elsewhere: the rhythm, the kindness, the colour, the comfort. Diving is brighter, life feels easier, and the food will always win. And the biggest part, as a solo female, was and will always be safety.
4. We are all interconnected
Five new conversations a day, every day, for nearly 500 days. When you hear the life stories from that many people, from all walks of life, from everywhere around the world, patterns and similarities emerge. I have met enough people in hundreds of different places to know we have much to learn from each other.
I have met enough people fortunate enough to be in tourism after breaking away from being nameless and faceless factory workers who are making our clothes and growing our food, and it makes you reconsider how you spend your money of anything and everything that. We, as a collective species, are more interconnected and interdependent on each other than ever.
I learned a Balinese phrase in 2022, “Tat Twam Asi,” which roughly translates to “I am as you are”. There is so much to sit with and think about in those three words.
5. Travel can change the world for the better
I’ve seen tourism lift entire communities. I’ve also seen it strip them of dignity. Travel becomes destructive when it’s rushed, extractive, or thoughtless. But when it’s done with intention—when you choose guides over influencers, culture over content—it can be transformative.
When you support the right places, the ripple effects are real: education, healthcare, cleaner coastlines, cultural pride. You’re not just getting a great trip—you’re investing in someone’s future.
That’s what I want more people to see.
6. Make Good Friends and Be a good friend
In the end, it wasn’t just the landscapes and the exploring that defined those 495 days. It was the people. The friends I made—and more importantly, the friends I kept. The ones I met by chance but chose to keep. The friends who taught me how to live slower, listen better and show up fully. Some became chosen family. If there’s one thing I’ve learned: it’s not just about making great friends—it’s about being a great friend. And the best part is catching up around the world years later.
7. Gather Skills and share them
The other key take away is to learn everything you can. I call them YOLO skills—the things that make life smoother, lighter or just more fun when you’re out going where the wind blows you. From building websites to fixing a broken zip, from making latte to editing photos and videos, these little things add up. In today’s world, we have access to so many tools. The best best thing we can do is pass those skills on—especially in the communities we visit—so that others can build, lead and run their own futures too.
Final reflection
After 495 days on the road—which I know realise were really just extended market research—I came away with a complete understand of the best and worst of tourism from developing and very overdeveloped places around the world. Those lessons are now the backbone of everything we’re building: a better way to travel, one that disrupts the status quo by valuing people, place, and purpose equally.
