A Thousand Miles Journey has come a long way since its first post way back in 2023.
West Malaysia to East Malaysia, East to West, foods and flights – we’ve covered plenty of travel topics in 2025 alone.
So, in honour of the new year, here’s our very first lookback at what our readers found the most interesting in 2025!
Travel Photography: Tips & Tricks
Far and away our most popular article of the year, “Travel Photography: Tips & Tricks” was a quick and dirty look at how to elevate your travel photography. Which made its runaway success all the more surprising!
In fact, the article was originally meant to list out the tips that couldn’t fit into the previous companion piece “Travel Photography 101: ISO, Shutter Speed & More!”. I’m glad plenty of people out there seem to enjoy travel photography like I do!
If you want to see some (amateurish) photography basics in action by yours truly, check out my Qingdao travel guide!
The Ultimate Otaku’s Shopping Guide to Akihabara (2025)
The only international article on the list, “The Ultimate Otaku’s Shopping Guide to Akihabara (2025)” all but confirms that Malaysians can’t get enough of shopping, especially in the Mecca of Japanese pop culture!
And if you couldn’t tell, yes – I am a huge Japanese pop culture fan, I even did some hands-on research for the article myself! This was in addition to a cool daytrip detour to Mount Nokogiri’s quarries and cliffs.
Actually, Japan is still one of the most ringgit-friendly destinations of the year (still true as of Jan 2026). Though if you’d like to stick closer to home, there’s been plenty of J-pop culture events on Malaysian soil recently, like the Delicious in Dungeon retrospective exhibition.
The Ultimate KTM ETS Travel Guide (2025)
Going back to local flavours, The Ultimate KTM ETS Travel Guide (2025) was originally planned to be a quick look along our criminally unexplored rail network. But as they say, plans have a tendency to run away!
Stretching all the way from Perlis to Johor, the ETS train coach can ferry you to sleepy tin mining towns, UNESCO-worthy islands, even vast rice fields and gorgeous mountains! No driving needed!
Plus, with the new Johor Bahru extension and a Singapore RTS link in the works, travelling by rail in Malaysia has never been easier! Though no one’s stopping you if you’d rather stick to a KL rail staycation!
Amcorp Mall: A Guide to a Preloved Paradise
Another shopping guide makes it to the top, this time for the niche yet decently packed Amcorp Mall and its weekend flea market.
Written after an impromptu weekend visit, the mall and its weekend market were an eye-opening look for me at the junk, preloved and collectors’ items that Malaysians love to buy.
For those craving preloved Japanese goodies in particular, you can also try out one of the many mushrooming Klang Valley bundle stores.
Malaysia’s Ten Most Beautiful Churches
From the commercial to the sacred, we have “Malaysia’s Ten Most Beautiful Churches” rounding off the list of top articles.
Inspired by the magnificent churches of Europe (Vienna in particular), I started researching some of the more historically significant or just plain gorgeous churches we have in our own backyard.
By the end, I found a whole constellation of serenity and divinity that are well worth a visit amidst the troubles of modern life, much like the sombre memorials of WWII.
As you can see, in 2025, local stories really resonated with our primarily Malaysian readers while shopping and sightseeing articles also put on a strong showing.
As part of my 2026 resolutions, I hope to further explore these topics while branching out to new ones. Here’s to a better and more travel-packed year!
