At the age of 23 years old, I still don’t make it a dream traveling all around the world or in all the seven continents before I reach 30 years old, even after I was suggested to give it a try by an American host when I traveled in the US for about one month. I have heard some people having and fulfilling this dream, which I admire a lot. I am not a big time traveler myself because for one thing, I cannot afford to do so with my writing job, and for the other thing, I am among the faint-hearted. But why I travel from time to time is just for the quest of knowledge not available in my country, the reason highlighted in one article I wrote last month.

Curious to know how many countries I have been to? And when I actually started to step out of Cambodia? It was pretty exciting to get me started on this, but usually without value added to my traveling, reading this blogpost of mine won’t be worth your while. So, when I was in high school, I would imagine myself doing a lot of work just to make ends meet, let alone travel abroad and meet interesting people that have since shaped my life. The first time I stepped out of Cambodia was in 2009. I had to attend a four-week workshop in Bonn and Berlin. After the first visit to a far-away country like Germany, I dared not dream again of being there again. Now that I didn’t know what to do, I kept on dreaming. I thought that if I believed, something would happen, and that happened. Law of attraction, that is.

Something happened. Last year, I was selected to join a three-week workshop in Berlin, Nuremberg and Munich. Seems like Germany kept calling me back again and again. Early this year, I spent more time in Germany taking a two-month course on muti-media and online journalism. From there, I traveled to Czech Republic and some nice domestic areas of Germany such as Leizig, Dinklage, Hamburg, Koblenz, Frankfurt, Mainz and more. Besides Europe, I have stepped on the soil of Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) twice, first to send my father to a hospital there and second, to attend Foss Asia 2010. In Kuala Lumpur (three times), I went there as a tourist in 2010, and attended a blogging conference in 2011, whereas I attended a blogging fest in Penang (once) in 2010. Singapore (twice) was always a darling to learn from. How is it possible to make your country as economically successful as small-sized Singapore?

I had to believe, I told myself, that if I wanted to be there, I would need to keep this dream alive. Nothing was achieved without being dreamt about first. We would never have the luxury we are using nowadays without the dreams of those who invent it. Here goes the magic of the dream we have. Dare to dream.

I’m writing from Ethiopia, one of the countries in Africa. Then, I’ll go to Doha, Qatar and Jakarta (Indonesia).