Almost 2 years after the announcement of the SPG-Marriott merger on September 23rd, 2016, these 2 loyalty programs are finally merging on August 18th, 2018.

SPG has been my preferred loyalty program since I first signed up for it in April 2015. Even though  I'm a lil' bummed that the program is rolling into Marriott's big umbrella, I can't really say it's all bad as I've benefited a pretty good bit from the merger and have certainly enjoyed all the perks and benefits.
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This time a year ago, I published this blog/website and was looking forward to embark on our Round-the-World trip. Here's a quick recap of what I've 'accomplished' on this blog/website in the past year:

During my recent home trip to Malaysia, I decided to spend a night in Kuala Lumpur as my flight landed in KL close to midnight and there weren't any flights to Penang after midnight. Besides, I had a free night certificate from the 2017 Marriott Fall Megabonus (earned from 2 stays) that was expiring in June 2018, so this trip was a good time to use it.

If you've ever dreamed about traveling in a camper van but have little or no experience camper-vanning or camping, Iceland is the perfect place to try out the 'van-life'.  Here are a few reasons:

• Iceland is known for its spectacular landscapes and you can explore most of the sights (mostly free) by driving around the whole country (i.e. the Ring Road) within a week. 
• The weather in Iceland is very unpredictable, you'll want the flexibility to follow the weather and stop and park at one of the many campsites whenever you want.
• It is cold most of the time in Iceland (average temperature in summer is 10–13°C/50–55°F), a heated camper van will be more comfortable as compared to camping.
• There are plenty of space and traffic is non-existent outside of Reykjavik, which makes it less stressful to drive a larger (manual) vehicle.
• For the budget-conscious traveler, renting a campervan may not be the cheapest way to travel around Iceland, but it will allow you to save $$ on meals and accommodations.

We just returned from our Iceland trip and had an amazing time camper-vanning around the country! This was our first time traveling in a camper van and Iceland was the perfect place to do it.

When we were doing our research on camper van rental companies, the few popular names that ranked top on Google searches were Kuku Campers, Happy Campers and Go Campers. Kuku Campers definitely caught our eyes with their funny (and a lil' ridiculous) marketing, while Happy Campers had a lot of blogger reviews. We ended up renting our camper van from Rent.is, which had a great website filled with useful resources and camper stories, but we couldn't find many reviews elsewhere in the blog-sphere. We had positive experience renting from them and I felt they deserved a genuine review.
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Since I moved to the US in 2014, I've made it a point to go home at least once a year to spend time with family and friends, and I'm glad I've been able to do so over the last 3 years. Deciding the timing for this year's home trip was made easy by the following factors:

• The expected due date of delivery for bro and SIL's baby was May 10, 2018
• My work busy season wrapped up end of April/early May
• My vacation hours will be maxed out (and forfeited) by May if I don't use them
• I was able to change our Iceland flight (ori. Apr 27th) for free thanks to my Platinum status

Browsing through my 30 Before 30 list, I won't deny that I have been incredibly fortunate to have had all these wonderful experiences. Some may say I'm just lucky or that I'm rich to be able to do all these. No I'm not rich, and yes luck played a part, but luck didn't just fall from the sky. I've also put in a lot of hard work and seized many opportunities along the way to build up these experiences and to get to where I am today.  Most importantly, I didn't squander my 'luck'.

As the saying goes, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" - Seneca. I value working hard to create your own luck and I don't believe in sheer dumb luck (unless I win a lottery one day).

When I first relocated to the US with my job 3 years ago, I remember being provided with a 47-page new hire benefits book during the orientation, and was immediately overwhelmed by all the new information I had to digest within a short period of time. The benefits book included information about all different types of insurance plans, savings plans, and a bunch of other benefits. It was also filled with jargon like High Deductible, HSA, FSA, 401(k), Short-term disability, etc.