My First Swiss Hike!

5 LAKES WALK

Zermatt, Switzerland

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home, that wilderness is a necessity." -John Muir

Little update for those who don't know: I've packed my bags and left Singapore in search of wilder things. Okay, for 4 months at least HAHAHA. I'm now in Paris for an exchange program & after hastily chucking my luggage into accommodation, I ventured off to breathtaking Switzerland.

These are pictures of our adventure at the 5 Lakes Hike in a quaint little town called Zermatt, with amazing views of Mt.Matterhorn (also known as the Toblerone mountain because it's the mountain on the Toblerone chocolate packaging) throughout the hike. It was proclaimed to be a 2.5hr hike but we took... 6 hours. Partly because of the many photo-stops, mostly because we were just so awestruck and immensely distracted by the view.

Growing up in the city, it would seem absurd to describe myself as a country girl but I really am one at heart. My love for horses would attest to that (deeply contemplative upon a 1-week Iceland riding trip but it's in the thousands sooooo daddy? mummy?) as do my rash inclinations to charge into wooded areas in search for unchartered paths (ask my dog Kobe he knows it all too well).

I've always found myself drawn to the irresistible lull of lush greenery, forested woods and sandy hills so I really am delighted to share the pictures of this hike with you! May it remind you that there is respite for your soul, that there is a place in your heart that cannot be fulfilled by glowing devices.

Take a break with yourself.

"Mountains seem to answer an increasing imaginative need in the West. More and more people are discovering a desire for them, and a powerful solace in them. At bottom, mountains, like all wildernesses, challenge our complacent conviction - so easy to lapse into - that the world has been made for humans by humans.

Most of us exist for most of the time in worlds which are humanly arranged, themed and controlled. One forgets that there are environments which do not respond to the flick of a switch or the twist of a dial, and which have their own rhythms and orders of existence.

Mountains correct this amnesia. By speaking of greater forces than we can possibly invoke, and by confronting us with greater spans of time than we can possibly envisage, mountains refute our excessive trust in the man-made.

They pose profound questions about our durability and the importance of our schemes.

They induce, I suppose, a modesty in us."

- Robert Macfarlane, Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit

For my fellow adventurers yet to conquer this one, here's some information about the 5 Lakes Hike:
On Getting There (Zermatt-Sunnega-Blauherd)
1. From Zermatt train station, walk to the Sunnega-Rothorn station.
2. Buy tickets there and take a funicular (a train that goes through a tunnel in a mountain) from the station up to Sunnega and then a cable car from Sunnega up to Blauherd, where you can begin your hike!
3. Alternatively, you could hike up from Zermatt to Sunnega (~2 hours entirely uphill) and/or hike up from Sunnega to Blauherd (~1h 15mins)

Crucial Tips 
4. If you bought the 2-way tickets for the funicular, COME BACK BEFORE 5.45 P.M BECAUSE THE FUNICULAR CLOSES AT 6P.M. If not, you would have to take another 2 hour, extremely steep hike down and experience the pleasure of aching knees and a bruised pride from sliding down rocky areas. Trust me, I know.
5. You might want to be a swimsuit/towel as many of the lakes are very nice to jump into! Or you can watch jealously as furry friends paddle in and soak themselves in the crisp clear waters.

Love and Grace Always,

Trish  x.

Who I Really Am

"you look good on you.

smile, let that sink in."

- 

I was never the skinny girl and I'm still teaching myself that I shouldn't hold myself to that standard.

At too young an age, I found myself hating the curves that grew on my body.  I remember standing in the shower and checking everyday that my stomach didn't grow so big that I couldn't see my toes. I remember doing that when my friends ate whatever they wanted and fit into clothes smaller sizes than I did. 

I remember hating curves because they made school uniforms look baggy, made you look unshapely, made you undesirable. Once in school after I had just cut bangs, one of my teachers had the gall to comment in front of the entire class that I shouldn't cut bangs because I looked fat in them.

"Oh, you've put on weight!"

"Oh, you've lost weight!"

When the first thing someone tells you when they haven't seen you for a long time is about the way you look, you start wanting to look a certain way. 

So stop it. There is so much more to a person than the way they look. There are palaces inside of them of which you haven't walked the hallways of their histories, contemplated the darkness of their dungeons or tasted the richness of their depths. There are stories their hearts are aching to tell of wars lost and battles won and pieces of their heart left shattered they are still carefully treading upon. 

So instead of asking what color their walls are painted, why not ask them what lies beyond those walls? 

I am done letting someone else determine how I feel about myself, and so should you. You look good on yourself, and nothing anyone says about you can change that, unless you let them.

Little Girl's Heart

Hello you, how are you doing?

I'm currently in Perth for a long overdue visit to my sister who has been studying here for the past 2 years! We took a trip down to Margaret River the past few days and stayed at this gorgeous place at Acacia Chalets, where wild kangaroos and rabbits visited us. Besides that, if you know me, you'll know that every trip overseas is always another opportunity to try... A riding trail!!!!!

I actually fell in love with horses and riding on my very first trail in Australia. My passion for horses a raging wildfire, I remember the exact moment the spark for my never-ending love with horses was lit. I was going up a hill in the forest on horseback, and although terrifying, going down that hill sent a thrill through my bones that I knew would always leave me wanting more.

That probably explains why even though I ride 3 times a week back in Singapore, I am always so incredibly excited to go for trail rides when distance forces me apart from Donegal. I seriously have no idea how I'm going to deal not seeing him for 4 months when I'm in France for exchange this August. 

But let me not digress with my melancholic ramblings. In my time at Margaret River, I headed to Jesters Flat for a 3-hour trail ride with lots of trotting, cantering and even galloping! It. was. amazing. We saw fields of kangaroos, sheep, cows and even an emu dashing across our trail. What I loved most was the gallop at the end, with the other rider beside me racing across the field. I have never gone that fast in my life and felt so safe and free. 

Though I couldn't share that experience with you, I can share with you the rustic charm of Jesters Flat. This is THE house of my dreams - the log fireplace, the treehouse, the vintage interior and of course, the horses. Enjoy. 

Sending you lots of love, Trish x.

& ending with a few lines from a Spoken Word I was listening on the way back from Margaret River that almost made me cry.

"If she was a book, I would memorize her table of contents.

I would read her cover-to-cover hoping to find typos 

just so we can both have a few things to work on.

Because aren't we all unfinished? 

Don't we all need a little editing?

Aren't we all waiting to be proofread by someone?

Aren't we all praying they will tell us that we make sense

She don't always make sense

But her imperfections are the things I love about her the most."

-Rudy Francisco

Old New/Bangkok Wanderings

I want a life measured, 

  in first steps on foreign soils

 and deep breaths

  in brand new seas. 

  I want a life measured

 in Welcome signs,

each stamped

with a different name,

borders marked with metal and paint.

Show me the streets 

that don't know the music

of my meandering feet

and I will play their song

upon them.

Perfume me please

in the smells of far away,

I will never wash my hair

if it promises to stay.

I want a life measured

  in the places I haven’t gone,

short sleeps on long flights,

strange voices teaching me

 new words to describe 

the dawn.

Words by: Tyler Knott Greyson

So, how'd you like this poem + picture travel post? I have a lifelong affair with words and how some people are able to put the simplest of words side-by-side and make your heart leap. I was looking at these pictures when this poem popped into my head and what can I say - It's a match made in heaven!

This was my first time in Bangkok, and I loved it. The rugged metallic houses found amidst the massive, tall buildings gave me an imagery of what Singapore's Orchard Road circa 1970s looked like before it grew from a tiny town to the skyscraper city it now is.

But unfortunately (or fortunately for some of us) our lives don't take the decades-old metamorphosis that cities do. For some of us, change is startling, chokes you and leaves your heart precipitously  beating to catch up with the rationalization in your head. 

I am going through that kind of change now, the change that makes yesterday seem so impossibly far away. It threw a tank truck at me and I wasn't Superman - I couldn't swing it away, fly back in time to stop it from happening or haul it right back at whoever threw it at me. I am crushed under the weight of something I could do nothing about and the only thing I know how to do is to tend to the people who have fallen under the brutality of it. 

But although it has crushed me, I am not crushed.

I may not be Superman, but I know a Superman. And He will always, always save me. 

Sending my love and His Grace always,

Trish x.