About The Cheapskate Backpacker

Hallo Leute, Heidi hier! bubble girl. penniless backpacker. bahnreisensliebhaberin. toastbrotrandabschneiderin.

I was a pretty diligent (if I may say so myself 🤓) mechanical design engineer cum postgrad student in computational physics for some years — while trying to fund my never ending education + my love for travel by moonlighting as many things in my spare time. In addition to my regular engineering job, I was also a: freelance photographer (mostly weddings), document translator, English / science / math tutor, FEA software training instructor, etc… until Sept 2013 when I felt I had enough of wearing all these hats and thought, “Screw everything. I’m quitting my job(s) and going to Europe.”

These days I have one foot in archaeology + paleoanthropology as I support myself with my laptop and travel around the world. I translate science documents + books mostly from Malay to English and get paid per page. I would love to go back to crash-testing vehicles and simulating black holes one day when it feels right.

(Shameless plug: Malay and English are my mother tongues. I learned French in high school and have been learning German due to my previous employment with a European subsidiary. I am available for translation, proofreading and writing gigs in English; feel free to ask me for details.)

I love: gardening, ancient ruins, train travel, spending hours inside museums, dancing, outdoor photography, staying up late and sleeping in, picanha bbq, and rock concerts.

I hate: cold showers, socioeconomic inequality, Internet trolls, people who do not understand the concept of personal space, cleaning my room, being broke, my fear of drowning, high heels.

This is my travel blog. This is where I share my stories. Be warned you may encounter sprinkles of geekiness on this blog, for which I offer no apologies 😉