After finding success on Instagram, Melissa shares her travel tips on Girl Eat World

“Travel Stars” is an interview series created to get to know people in the travel industry who are making a difference; writers/influencers, producers, and travel executives.

This week we had the joy of interviewing Melissa.

Melissa is an Indonesian girl who has been blogging for two decades and was part of the early adopter of Blogger before switching to WordPress. She paused blogging for a while until she accidentally found success with her Instagram and discovered that she still loves telling stories. Then she decided to give another chance to blogging and create Girl Eat World, where she tells her travel tips and food stories. Although she loves blogging, it is not her full-time job, and she keeps working as a Product Designer in Singapore.

Check out this amazing interview with Melissa.

Tell us a little bit about yourself – where are you from? Where did you grow up? Etc.

I was born and grew up in Indonesia. I moved to Los Angeles when I was in high school. After university, I moved to Singapore and this is where I’ve stayed for the past decade! I have also taken up Singapore citizenship.

Can you remember what first got you interested in the world of travel? and why?
I’ve always thought travel means spending an exorbitant amount of money, and it was just something I couldn’t afford. However, when I moved to Singapore, I realized traveling around Asia can be quite affordable. The next year, I traveled around Europe and it further reinforced the idea that travel does not have to be expensive, as long as you’re smart about what you choose to spend.

For example, in Europe, I would stay in hostels instead of an actual hotel because I am always walking around anyway and barely stay at the accommodation. This helped me to break free from my mental restrictions and I started traveling more and more.

In the next year, If you could only visit one place for one week, where would it be?
I would go to Hokkaido. I have spent a lot of time in Japan, but I have yet to make my way up to the Hokkaido region.

What are some of the top places you enjoyed visiting the most? Why?
Japan, I think this comes as no surprise to those familiar with my blog.

What was one of your more popular posts in the last year? And why do you think it caught on?
A lot of my popular posts are itineraries around Asia. I think it caught on because the posts are very detailed and useful for travelers.

You also like scuba diving and have over 100 dives. In your opinion, what is the best place for diving you have been to so far? And why? Any curious story about it?
Raja Ampat is truly the best diving you can find in the world. The visibility was great and we got to see some unique dive sites and sea creatures that I don’t think we would be able to see elsewhere.

Blogging is not your full-time job. How do you reconcile this with travel?
I am lucky that my job is flexible and allows me to take leave when I want. I think I am not the type that would make blogging full time, I can’t imagine only doing this for the rest of my life and I don’t feel the need to be on the road 24/7 and 365 days a year. So this works out for me!

Your Instagram is famous for the food pictures in front of the city’s sightseeing. How did you come up with this idea?
I was in Rome with my good friend. She insisted on taking my picture in front of the Colosseum, while I insisted on keep eating my sandwich because I was way too hungry. The resulting pic was a funny one of me pigging out in front of an iconic background.

Since then, I thought about doing a collection of pics like that – of me eating in front of famous places – but the next time opportunity came, I was traveling by myself. I was a bit shy about asking strangers to take a picture of me. So I took the food pics by myself in front of whatever iconic backgrounds I happened to be in.

Where are you planning to travel next? and why?
I don’t have any plans yet, but it would probably be Japan again. Japan is my favorite place in the world. There is so much of the country I have not yet seen, despite going there twice a year for the past 5-6 years!

What are you doing now (or about to do) that you are excited about? Do you have any new projects?
I gave birth to my first child as the pandemic was starting, so I did not get to travel with him much yet. I am excited to bring him around the world. Aside of that, I think I’m a pretty simple person so I’ll keep doing what I’ve already been doing :)

Thanks for sharing your tips and journey with us, Melissa!

If you want to know more about Melissa, here is where you can find him:

Girl Eat World Blog

Melissa’s Intagram