Hi!

I hope your July went swimmingly! We went on an actual vacation last month, which was incredible. I say "actual vacation," because although people think all our travels are vacations, they really aren't. A lot of the time, like today, we are locked up in our room working away on our computers. You know, we have to fund this travel lifestyle somehow! But last month, we got to go off-grid for a week with family to spend a relaxing getaway in Exumas, Bahamas. Now, back to reality (which for us is currently sitting in Singapore at the start of a 2-month Southeast Asia adventure)!

What's new for Mind Over Matter Travel?

1. We visited our 50th country! Singapore is the 50th country that Zac and I have traveled to together. Although we aren't huge into country-counting, we keep track to show our community how many and which countries we are well-versed in! We are so excited to continue exploring new countries around the world.
2. We don't have any new offerings, but if you don't already know what we offer, you can see most of it here. These include both our free resources and our paid services.

Where we've been recently

This past month has been spent between time in California, one week in the Bahamas, and the start of our travels in Southeast Asia. We'll be sharing all about our travels across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan on our social media and blog.

Are you interested in visiting any of these destinations? We are here to help and provide personal recommendations based on our experiences. We offer FREE travel planning and booking services. Complete our travel planning inquiry, and we will reach out for an initial consultation.

Favorite experience

In all transparency, my favorite experience in the past month was our 1-week vacation in the Bahamas. But, since it was vacation, I didn't get much content (except for what I posted on IG today) and am not planning to share much about that trip. But what I do want to share is one of our recent favorite experiences here in Singapore!

If you know us, one of our favorite ways to introduce ourselves to a new country is with a food tour. That's exactly what we did in Singapore, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it's a contender as one of the best food tours we've been on. The 6-hour tour is put on by Singapore Foodsters and takes guests to three different cultural neighborhoods across Singapore. With more food than we can eat and history lessons along the way, it was the best way we could spend a day in the city. We felt that we tried all the must-try foods while seeing a large portion of the city, making the value of the tour exceptional. I would not hesitate to recommend this tour to anyone visiting Singapore.

Bucket list travel opportunity

A key way to have a transformative travel experience is by taking advantage of travel opportunities. I found this one for you:

Win a trip for two in Greece! In the last newsletter, I shared about our recent trip to Greece. We had such a great time and want everyone to have a chance to enjoy it like we did! That's why we're excited to share a giveaway by TourRadar for a 10-day Greece getaway to Athens, Santorini, and Mykonos. The deadline to enter is August 31, 2024. ​Enter before it closes! (Note: it will prompt you to share to your social media, but you can skip that part and still enter without it)

Transformative travel tip

Go on a food tour! Based on our favorite recent experience, taking a food tour is one of the best ways to get to know a country. So many cultures have strong ties to their cuisine that not only are you tasting delicious food, but you're also learning about locals, their culture, and their customs.

We always aim to take a food tour within the first couple days of our time in a country so a local can show us the best places to eat and give us tips to avoid tourist traps. For example, we took our recent Singapore food tour on our second day there. On our first day, we went to a local hawker center (food court) and tried what was supposed to be delicious food. We were not impressed. Our food tour guide the next day explained that we went to a touristy hawker center where they don't make food fresh. This is the kind of valuable information you can get on a food tour.

By using this tip, you can have an even more purposeful and transformative adventure!

Travel must-haves

Now that we are traveling in tropical areas across Southeast Asia, I recognize the importance of always having an umbrella while traveling! Even if you travel somewhere that is supposed to have good weather or when it's supposed to be the "dry season," weather is unpredictable, and it's always best to be prepared. That's why I love my compact travel umbrella. It's very affordable and packs up nicely so I don't even need to second guess bringing it with me on trips. Check it out here!

What's next?

If you want to follow along with our travels, here are our tentative travel plans for the rest of the year:

• August: Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia
• September: Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan
• October: California
• November: England
• December: Italy

If you've been to any of these places and have particular suggestions, my inbox is always open! Or if you are looking for specific insight for me to share while I'm there, let me know.

If you want to follow our journey, connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

As always, thanks for being here 🤗

✨ Elaina