Travel Memoirs That Shaped My Mind and Life

I have a soft spot for well-written travel memoirs. So here are some of the travel memoirs that helped to shape my mind and life.

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I read this book long before it was famous, three years before the movie.

I picked it out on a whim at a bookstore, where I started becoming a regular. Eat, Pray, Love spoke to me in its’ first few chapters. When Liz cried in the bathroom for marrying the wrong man and decided to end it (not her life but the marriage). I remember reading it in bed and kept rereading it many times. It felt like someone had thrown cold water on my face and woke me up from the longest unwanted dream. Deep, eh? But it was like that. It wasn’t a turning point yet, but I was never the same thanks to her book.

Later, when I read Eat, Pray, Love for the third time, I fall in love with it because of her travels. That love started my passion for reading travel memoirs.

An Idiot Abroad by Karl Pilkington

In the beginning, I was put off by the book’s title. Only an idiot will read a book titled idiot, I thought, but I was an idiot to think like that. So I bought the book from the Sydney airport in preparation for a 24-hour journey back (flight and its excruciating layover). I finished it before we landed and became Karl’s loyal fan within hours, although I can imagine him not approving me to be his fan.

Karl is an English celebrity who was forced to travel the world’s seven wonders. He didn’t like it and was burdened by it and managed to write his unhappy thoughts about it. He also rarely brought back any souvenirs to his long-term GF. In a nutshell, he sounds like umm.. an idiot/jerk, but he is not! He is keeping it real, and he is hilarious. Me likey.

Love with a Chance of Drowning by Torre DeRoche

Yet another book I hesitated to pick up because it’s about sailing in the sea, and the only thing I could relate to was my seasickness. I finally caved, mainly because I have followed Torre’s blog and love how she writes. It is now one of my highly recommended books in 2013, along with The Fault in Our Stars.

Why do you have to check out LwaCoD? Because it’s smartly written (think the opposite of Fifty Shades), it’s funny. It’s a memoir. Hence, the love story is real, and it will take you to exotic islands, whale watching and feel the adventures that broaden your mind all while sitting on the sofa, or in my case, lying on the bed, reading.

Adventures of 2 Girls by Pam and Ning

I have been waiting to read this book since I read its synopsis in the CLEO Singapore magazine.

Finally, I downloaded it to the Kindle and devoured it over the weekend. It’s a travel memoir of two friends who travelled for nine months. They came from different backgrounds, a magician and a journalist and were travelling for various reasons. But they did it, wrote about it, and it was awesome!! I want to do it with my best friend before we turn 35.

What I like about the book is that the stories felt normal yet exciting, like reading someone’s, actually twosome’s diary. Also, I love reading stories told from different perspectives (Gone Girl was one of the best books that do it).

The Adventures of 2 Girls is a fun Asian travel lit. Pick it up, ladies!

Lost in Japan by Cayi & Gelbo

Whenever I visited Jakarta, I stopped at the Gramedia bookstore to check the emerging local authors.

I bought Lost in Japan a couple of years ago as I was about to go to Japan, and I loved how Cayi and Gelbo wrote their book. It was about travelling on a budget, friendships, exploring and learning Japanese culture. It’s a heartwarming book, and I can so relate to them. Unfortunately for my non-Indonesian reader, the book is written in Bahasa Indonesia. Last year I bought another book of theirs, Lost in Korea, filled with tips and snippets of Korean culture and their Korean food adventure. It inspired my recent Korean trip.

Yes, a whole week’s trip to South Korea was inspired by a single book. That’s the power of travel memoirs.

Pretty Good Number One: An American Family Eats Tokyo by Matthew Amster-Burton

I laughed, nodded in agreement and was in love with it almost instantly when I read this book. But it also made my eyes water. It spoke to me on many levels.

I seriously need to go back to Japan again! Half through this book, I think this guy talks in way too much detail about Japanese food, where is the discussion about Mount Fuji and the likes, only to realize he is a food critic.

This book is for someone who loves Japan, is going to Japan, went to Japan and doesn’t know anything about Japan but is willing to risk falling in love with it. Matthew writes in a first-person perspective and his deep love for Japanese food.

My favourite person in this book is his daughter, Iris, who will celebrate her 21 birthday in a karaoke parlour in Japan. Sounds like a great plan, Iris. Ohayo!

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