The New Year in Amsterdam (picture courtesy of teewallpapers.net)

2014 has ended and all I can say is ….Woooaaahhh!! What a ride..

When the year crossed over into 2014; I was in Almere, close to the Dutch capital with friends…drinks and cameras in hand, looking out to the sporadic flashes in the sky, the accompanying thunderous booms and the dazzling array of colours and patterns silhouetting the heavens.

I had no inkling at the time that the year would end with me having travelled to locations such as Athens, Bangkok, Paris, Sarajevo and Siem Reap. I only had an epiphany that the year would be awesome. Period.

After I set out on a road trip to Paris and shortly thereafter a surprise trip to Asia early last year; after bonding with elephants and tigers in the hot Thai sun, savoring a melange of taste-bud awakening cuisines in foodie-heaven, Singapore…and after getting up at 4am just to make it for sunrise at Angkor Wat, I knew that these stories would not just be my own, but were narratives that had to be shared and sampled beyond the confines of my space and imagination.

Singapore skyline in the dusk, views from Supertrees, Indochine restaurant

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

An elephant at one of the temples in Siem Reap

Starting a travel blog meant committing to it, and continuing the stories and the travels sometimes at my own expense.

A trip to the Balkans in the summer got re-routed and downscaled to two countries instead of four, simply because I missed a flight. A last minute decision to get to Athens for the TBEX conference over the October break resulted in me meeting people seasoned and experienced in the world of travel. I was awed in the wide-eyed teary sort of way, at the accounts told over lunch of climbing Mt Everest, of luxury budget travel by others, and laughed at zany bizarre experiences by a few.

At TBEX 2014, Athens.

The speakers in one session after another broke down everything about travel blogging to a notch, into bite size tit-bits that I would take in and use to fuel my blog.

As the year came to a close, I skipped over to neighboring Brussels for Winter Wonderland and gluhwein; and dashed to Amsterdam for memories and madness.

Now that 2015 is here, I plan on hitting the ground running! I hope to offer more leads to my readers, competitions and complementaries…quick get-aways or lengthy stays.

Come journey with me in 2015! Have a great year…