Introduction

I've always loved travelling.

From my very first excursion out of Singapore waters on the Russian cruise ship Turkmenia at the age of 14, with my parents, my brother and sister, I've loved to travel. The ship was a bit hoky and back then, the women on board looked and sounded like men on 'roids! The trip itself was just to Penang and back, but the damage was done - I was bitten badly by the travel bug.

Since then, either alone or with my family, then with my boyfriend, now husband and today, with my large family, I've been to many places. But I'm always hungry for more. In a year, you'd find me out of Singapore at least once - if not on a plane somewhere, then at least across the border to our nearest neighbour Malaysia, a country I've come to love from travelling its many highways and kampong lanes. When I am not travelling or too broke to travel, you'd find me wistfully trawling the internet for travelogues and my library card used up with travel guides, travel stories etc.

Having children has not stopped me from being on the move. We just pack 'em up and go. The youngest that I've ever taken on a trip with me was baby Trinity Rose, who at the age of 3 weeks, took a plane with me to Australia and patiently sat in with me during various birth education workshops. So a child's age has never stopped me from travelling, neither have the numbers. As the family got larger, we just adapted to the new requirements and got on with it. Neither has pregnancy nor birth stopped me from travelling - I've travelled 5months pregnant, 8 months pregnant and 3 weeks post-partum and usually with at least one to four kids in tow.

I've met parents who either stopped travelling once they had kids, or choose to travel but leave their babies behind (I did that once - never again!) or travel with their children but bring along a rearguard of maids, extended family members and a whole store of baby/child paraphernalia including - I've heard - baby playpen, baby strollers, sterilisers, crock-pots, rice-cookers, etc. I get exhausted just thinking of the list.

We, however, like to travel light and move around easily. If I had to bring so much stuff with me when I travel, I figure I might as well stay home.

KH has been bugging me for the longest time to document our travels. So here it is. I'm starting off the blog with our recent trip to Japan.