01 / The Shift Begins

Current Location: Colombo, Sri Lanka

After a week of clean, orderly and sensible Singapore time, we’ve just spent two days in Colombo city, Sri Lanka – the contrast is hard to ignore.

Colombo is heady, humid, ultra-sensory and everything un-Singapore. Wafts of wonder surprise you from nowhere. “That’s not *gag* ok” I remarked. The depths of Mordor hit my nasal passages when exiting the hostel this morning. There’s something strangely familiar going on here though. Memories of India travels back in 2010 – that same intensity, that same feeling that things aren’t always neatly wrapped and polished.

Galle Face Green, Colombo | Sri Lanka

The Moment

There was a moment where everything shifted.

We were strolling Galle Face Green early Saturday evening. It felt like the whole city had come out to play. Families, lovers and friends all enjoying the precious open space along the ocean promenade.

The sky was alive with animal-shaped kites and a proper jaw-dropper sunset. Vendors selling lentil patties topped with prawns from makeshift kitchen carts powered by car batteries. At one point an ice cream truck rolled past belching thick black diesel smoke. Messina had arrived!

What stood out most though were the small interactions. A smile here, a wave there. And genuine eye contact. A simple acknowledgement from a stranger... it’s a basic gesture, but it felt noticeably absent in Singapore, where most people seemed superglued to their smartphones.

That magical evening brought back a familiar warmth from earlier travel days – a kind of quiet joy that I hadn’t realised I’d been missing.

The Reality Check

Colombo doesn’t let you sit in that joyous feeling for too long.

The intensity is constant. The smells, the noise, the pollution, the intense heat, the hassling and humidity, the visible poverty – it’s all smack bang in front of you. There’s a clear sense that life here is harder, and that basic things we take for granted like sanitation and fresh drinkable tap water aren’t a given.

At the same time, there’s connection, and a level of presence you don’t always see in more developed countries. People look at you. Sometimes it’s a friendly glance, sometimes it’s a more intense stare that you’re not quite sure how to respond to.

The Pre-flight Check

And then there’s the lead up to this 365-days-away adventure – the chapter that doesn’t get talked about much.

The months of trying to reduce our lives down to something that fits in a backpack weren’t exactly smooth sailing. I didn’t share that with many people before leaving, mostly because it felt indulgent to complain when about to hit the road for a year. The general response was fair enough – you’re going away for a year… what are you complaining about!

Packing up our little off-grid-on-wheels escape

Life stored

But the reality is, making a shift like this happen involves a sizeable tick list and a decent slab of pressure.

There were times it put stress on our relationship. Work didn’t wrap up neatly. Plans constantly shifted. Simple admin tasks turned into drawn-out, very un-Virgo processes… there were plenty of moments where it felt like the whole thing was just not meant to happen.

The Shift

And then… you finally arrive.

Not just physically – that part happens when you touch down at pit stop A – but mentally, which takes a bit longer to catch up.

Something has started to shift. There’s a lightness beginning to creep in. Being surrounded by new environments and climates, unfamiliar streets, and new interactions seems to wake something up.

It’s a reminder that our brains thrive on new input. That sense of routine and familiarity at home, while comfortable, can tend to blur things over time.

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A Few Shared Moments

Best meals (impossible to choose just one):

• A home-style street market lunch in Colombo, with enough chilli to shred a few layers off my throat, all balanced out by a sweet clay-pot lassi.

• Chinese-style steamed fish at my brother’s home in Singapore.

• Hawker market breakfast with my 7-year-old niece — kaya toast (coconut jam and a kilo of butter) with thick, condensed milk coffee.

Sri Lankan Market Lunch - YUM!

Home-style Chinese eating with family

Best ‘worth the effort’ moment:
The first Business Class leg of our round-the-world Frequent Flyer trip. Being able to lie flat and sleep. It’s going to be hard to go back.

Low point:
Getting halfway to Melbourne airport in an Uber and realising I’d left my carry-on behind. Not ideal.

Random observation:
Airport lounges make it ok for people to drink red wine for breakfast.

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And… onwards!