Top Five Destinations I’d Love to Return

I felt very honoured to be invited to a post challenge by indahs: travel story & photography for an article on the five places I loved and would love to return. This challenge is originally from Booked.net — Top Destinations to Go There. I was so excited when I saw this invitation as this is my very first invitation to a challenge! Thanks so much Indah for considering me!  To be honest, I have not travelled that widely yet. So few that I could count how many of them on top of my head. But I love travelling so much! and I am wishing to do more in the future. So I thought I should write a list on the Top Five Destinations I’d love to visit. I would love to share that on future post one day 🙂 but for now here are the lists I have created on the top five destinations I’d love to return…

5. Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

I have visited a few cities in Malaysia twice when I was a kid and during my teenage years. This happened so long ago that I do not have much re-collection of the experiences I had. But I know that I have enjoyed the trip as I love travelling. I was also not a ‘photo-nerd’ during that time, thus I did not take much photos at all. This is why I’d love to return to Malaysia again especially Kuala Lumpur. I would love to experience the liveliness again in the city of Kuala Lumpur. I believe that travelling during different stages of life let you experience different things. I am in my late twenties now and I believe that I would treasure the experiences more and grow with it. Apologies that I do not have any photos from Malaysia to share with but I would definitely love to take proper photos when I do visit again. I promise I will share this if it happens 🙂

4. Singapore

Singapore is like my second home. I have to pass by Singapore whenever I go back to my home country, Indonesia, for a holiday and to visit my family. As a result of visiting Singapore SO MANY times, I tend to not explore the city much. I just treat it as a country that I am passing-by to get to another country which is really bad! However, I am hoping to explore Singapore more probably during December on my annual trip back home. Singapore has so much to offer like the newly-built area, Marina Bay Sands, which has amazing views of the city. This will be so great for urban night photography! I also LOVE the cuisine so much! It is so yum!

3. Buenos Aires (Argentina)

City of Buenos Aires, Argentina

City of Buenos Aires, Argentina

I visited Buenos Aires, Argentina last year for a conference and stayed for a week. Most of the time I was at the conference and only had two days to explore the city. I really enjoyed the conference and appreciate the opportunities to meet so many scientists from around the world. It was such a privilege to be able to visit South America! I would love to return to explore this interesting city more. There are so many places I have yet to go to such as El Tigre. Apart from Buenos Aires itself, I would love to visit the Iguazu Falls, listed as the UNESCO World Heritage Centre. I am hoping to share the experiences I had last year in an upcoming posts soon. It is on the queue I promise! 🙂

2. Florence (Italy)

Santa Maria dei Fiore Cathedral at night

Ponte Vecchio, Florence, Italy

I am simply in love with Italy! Maybe because it was my first solo trip after Buenos Aires so it holds a very special place in my heart. As you might have read from my previous posts, I was in Parma, Italy for a laboratory visit and research for a month. I got to explore many other cities in Italy on the weekends. I would definitely love to go back to Italy especially Florence one day. Seeing the Santa Maria dei Fiore Cathedral (II Duomo di Firenze) made my heart skipped a beat. I was just in awe of the country as a whole, it has so much history, culture and arts – so breathtakingly beautiful!

You can read more on why I love Italy so much on my previous posts: Italy-Florence and Italy-Parma. There will be more posts coming up on other cities of Italy that I have visited such as Pisa, Venice, Rome, Vatican City, Milan and Verona. So stay tuned! 🙂

1. Batam (Indonesia)

I am putting Batam, Indonesia as the number one on the lists here not because I am trying to promote my own country as Indah has also pointed out. I am mentioning Batam here simply because it is my home, where my family is. I am originally from SelatPanjang, Riau Island where my parents still live in now but my sister and her family are in Batam now. My parents visit Batam often so it is like home to me. I love visiting my family and it is like an annual trip for me. I am quite a foodie myself and I love the food so much especially seafood and noodles! It has lots of traditional food that are hard to find anywhere else. To be honest, I felt ashamed as I have not explored Indonesia much. I would definitely need to visit more cities in Indonesia!

So those are the top fives! This is quite a challenging post – it made me think a lot. But I loved it! It brought back many beautiful memories I had in those countries. Thanks again Indah! So I encourage all readers to participate in this challenge as well, what are your top five destinations that you wish to visit again? It will be interesting to share around and helpful for all of us 🙂

According to the challenge, I should nominate five travel bloggers to participate in this challenge. My nominations go to: Stuff It…Go Travelling, Travellers Planet Blog, Nins’ Travelog, joy loves travel and Exploring the Earth.

Hope you find this challenge interesting too and would love to participate in! Happy reading and writing! 🙂