These are questions that very often men don’t need to ask. Datin Paduka Marina Mahatir is a seasoned traveller.

Having to travel from one place to another for work often, Marina often had questions such as ‘What is the appropriate dress for such and such a country?’, ‘How do people, men especially, feel about women who work and will sometimes head delegations?’, ‘What are the appropriate courtesies I should extend, and will be extended to me in such and such a country?’.

During her opening speech at the ZafigoX event which took place on November 9th until 11th, she said,

“These are questions that very often men don’t need to ask. But we do.

“Some 6 years ago, after decades of travelling, I realised that there is very little available information specifically for women on what they need to know when they travel, especially in Asia.”

When she met her friend, James Chong, and shared her thoughts with him, he decided to help Marina set up a website to answer all these questions.

“Once we launched and started calling out for travel stories from women, we discovered a few things.

“One, a lot of women are travelling  these days, a result of women being more emancipated, earning their own money and also because there are now a lot of cheap flights to choose from.

“Secondly, they are travelling to very different places, having more adventurous holidays, very often on their own or with a small group of friends and not going so much on the usual package tours.

“And thirdly, they were very keen to share their stories with other women.

“And Zafigo.com was at last the platform for that.”

Over the aforementioned weekend, several talented women from all walks of life shared their experience with attendees.

With talks on various topics such as ‘The Art of Travel Writing’, ‘A Woman Traveller’s Worst Nightmare: What I Did to Overcome It’, etc., and workshops on photography and self-defence, the three days were filled with nothing but education.

Marina continued,

“So, ZafigoX aims to not only inspire you to book that ticket for that trip on your bucket list but also to understand the many life lessons that other women before you have learnt and that you may benefit from, not just abroad but also at home.”

If you feel like you’ve been left out, look forward to next year’s event!