I've been travelling around Malaysia for around 2 weeks with my Taiwanese girlfriend. During this time I've been seeing family I haven't seen in years as well as seeing my brother who flew in from London to our home town of Miri in Sarawak. It's been awesome to be on the road again, especially as I'm getting to connect with my family again from Asia. The last time I came to visit relatives in Malaysia was almost 9 years ago. And spending everyday with my girlfriend has done absolute wonders for my Chinese.

It's been a different part of my travels as it's been fun getting to know my relatives and have them get to know me. Just like in Taiwan, I made a new family there who I stayed with, which was far more rewarding than living on my own. But in Malaysia it's been a realisation that I actually do physically have family that I can stay with, get to know and learn from. So if you have family around you that you don't know that well, I'd advise you to get to know them. It might surprise you. Take that first step, because blood will always be thicker than water. They might end up being some of your best friends.

Family is important

On my travels to Malaysia I've realised how important family is. Meeting cousins I haven't seen in years or never met at all has been amazing. And not just family that I have out here, but I miss my family back in London more seeing my brother out here, which makes me miss my parents. It's also reminded me that I should call home once a week, because parents will always miss their children.

I can feel where I'm from when I see my grandma and all my aunties out here. It's heartwarming. And it was a welcome break from being away from family for so long. It makes me feel like I'm not alone in this world.

Motivation to work

As much as I like this holiday trip with my girlfriend it's been making me more and more edgy as I yearn to start working towards some of my goals. There's a couple goals that I want to start working on once I get back to Taiwan. The first is to start to write a book about how to start learning Chinese and the other is to build a product which I genuinely believe is useful to people. I've needed this break to know what is important to me, and the top of that list is location independence. I may return to London sooner than I expected, but even if I do it will be on my own terms and not slave to a company building their products. I want freedom.

Singapore

I arrived now in Singapore yesterday and currently living in an apartment with my girlfriend for the next week or so. I'll be meeting some good friends of mine that I haven't seen in several months. This will be my last leg of this little excursion before I return to Taiwan. And once back in Taiwan I will hopefully have a plan to push forward with some of the things I've got planned to do.