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A collection of things I sometimes write about. Comments? Questions? Get in touch.

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

6 min

Zero Waste Travel

Eliminating, substituting, and/or reducing the waste from our around-the-world gallivanting Once upon a time, someone once asked me: “If you had to choose between Prince Charming and travel, which would you go for?”, and a much younger me had answered without a shadow of a doubt: “Duh, travel of course.” You see, I enjoy travel in roughly the same way Malaysians enjoy food. This cat must be Malaysian! One foreign colleague who visited Malaysia had this for an observation: “Yo

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

8 min

Why You Should Go Snowboarding

Life lessons from throwing myself down snowy mountains while strapped to a piece of board. Snowboarding, like skiing, looks really cool, but is not all fun and games. It can be expensive to access, requiring a trip to the mountains, and may even necessitate flying to faraway places in search of snow, if you live in very hot, non-snowy places like I do. It involves quite a bit of pain, from being outdoors in the freezing cold for hours at a time, to falling a million times on

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

6 min

How To Get Yourself To Antarctica

In case it's one of your 2018 resolutions - just saying. Many people think of Antarctica as this far away, impossible-to-reach place, accessible only virtually via repeat viewings of Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2, but that's not true. Trust me, if I can get myself there, you totally can too (but hopefully with less vomiting). In a nutshell, there are 5 ways to get yourself to Antarctica: 1. Be a student taking a course on Antarctica that includes a study visit A number of unive

The Time I Found a Recipe for Seal Brains in Antarctica (Part 2)

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

10 min

The Time I Found a Recipe for Seal Brains in Antarctica (Part 2)

When you're on a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and it's so amazing that you're plotting on how to make it a twice-in-a-lifetime trip. Photo Credit: Siegfried Bruck, our official photographer on the trip This is a continuation of The Time I Puked My Way to Antarctica (Part 1). Read that first if you haven't already. *** The Day I Went Climbing on Antarctica After a sleepless night, we packed up our tent, cleared the campsite and returned to the warm and comfy ship around 5 am. I we

The Time I Puked My Way to Antarctica (Part 1)

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

7 min

The Time I Puked My Way to Antarctica (Part 1)

I've been wanting to visit Antarctica since I was a child - I finally did. The Day I Almost Didn’t Get on the Ship When you’ve paid a large chunk of your savings to go on the trip of a lifetime, you would probably be smart about it and not do anything stupid that will make you miss the trip. Not me. A few hours before the scheduled departure to Antarctica, I was nowhere near the port in Ushuaia, the City at The End of the World, where the ship was. I was far away, in the Tie

The Time I Was Infested By A Human Bot Fly and I Took It With Me To Antarctica

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

6 min

The Time I Was Infested By A Human Bot Fly and I Took It With Me To Antarctica

In October 2015, I was two weeks into my 2-month trip through South America. I had just emerged miraculously unscathed from the Amazon Jungle, and had taken a long bus trip to Cuenca, Ecuador for a bit of civilisation. From this... ... to this... ... and this. Cuenca is a small city full of colonial relics, and I stayed for two nights, mostly to recuperate. Unfortunately, while my roommate slept soundly, I found myself slapping away mosquitoes and getting bitten in the unlike

The Time I Took a 19-hour Bus Ride Across East Africa, Because Why Not.

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

5 min

The Time I Took a 19-hour Bus Ride Across East Africa, Because Why Not.

My work visa in Tanzania was about to expire, and I needed to do a quick trip out of the country in order to renew it. I couldn’t be gone for too long, so it made sense to go somewhere nearby, like to one of the neighbouring countries, like… Kenya. Plus, I had a friend in Nairobi whom I haven’t seen in years, which also meant free accommodation... Okay, Nairobi, Kenya it is. I did a bit of research, and found out there were multiple ways to get to Nairobi. Flying in was ridic

The Time I Was Arrested in Japan and the Police Served Me Green Tea

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

5 min

The Time I Was Arrested in Japan and the Police Served Me Green Tea

In 2007, I was working in Nagasaki, Japan, during my college summer break. My team traveled around the prefecture, teaching English to adorable Japanese school children of various ages. In between, we got to enjoy breaks, and stay with host families so we can live like the locals. We were distributed among different host families, and I was partnered up with Laura. She was Latino, and she corrected my pronounciation of her name: “Its Lauuuura, not Law-ra.” I immediately liked

Why you should go mountain-climbing (Part 2)

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

5 min

Why you should go mountain-climbing (Part 2)

Reasons why climbing a mountain can be the best thing for you to do. [If you haven't already, read Part 1 first. This is a direct continuation of that article - enjoy!] 6. That feeling when you reach the top… That being said, I don’t climb mountains just for its good looks. I also climb it to build myself up, and perhaps even defy my own expectations. If you are feeling a little down, a little less sure of yourself, or in need of a change, I really believe mountain-climbing c

Why you should go mountain-climbing (Part 1)

Atiqah Nadiah Zailani

7 min

Why you should go mountain-climbing (Part 1)

Reasons why climbing a mountain can be the best thing for you to do. I know, I know, mountain-climbing isn’t on everyone’s agenda. It certainly wasn’t on any of my to-do list or bucket list either. Being a dedicated couch potato who can barely run 2 kilometres without dying, it was the furthest thing on my mind. These are my lungs. Credit: theAwkwardYeti.com Yet in 2014, I found myself talked into my first mountain climb ever - Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia at 4095 m – At the star

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