About Chan Joon Yee
Welcome to Knapsack Treks. My name is Chan Joon Yee, a 60-year-old Singaporean writer/blogger who writes on a range of subjects from fiction and poetry to health, wellness and adventure travel. I started a website called Knapsack On My Back, a title named after a book on backpacking first written in Chinese by one of the pioneers of backpacking in Singapore, Mr Ng Wai Choy. I was the translator for the English version of 背包走天涯.
A backpacker myself, I have been travelling to Thailand, Indonesia, Borneo, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Greece. Some of my more notable antics include:
1. Climbing super active volcano Gunung Merapi (Indonesia) via the now banned Kaliurang route in 1993
2. Travelling across China from Beijing to Pakistan in 1996
3. Climbed Gunung Sibayak (Sumatra) on X’mas Day 1996
4. Climbed Gunung Semeru in Java 1997
5. Climbing to the summit of Mt Kinabalu twice from Laban Rata on the same day in 2000.
6. Climbing Mera Peak 6476m (Nepal) in May 2000 followed by a Hongu Valley trek and a backdoor entry into Khumbu Valley via Amphu Laptsa (did Everest trek 3 times).
Got married end of 2000.
7. Exploring the interior of Mae Hong Son Province (Thailand) solo in 2003.
8. Exploring the Mekong Canyon in Yunnan Province to locate the real Shangrila in 2005.
9. A failed attempt to climb Island Peak 6189m (Nepal) in 2009 in 8 days (normally takes 18 days) in winter.
10. Survivor of magnitude 6.3 earthquake at Kangding, Sichuan, China on 22nd Nov 2014 at about 5.00pm. Proceeded to trek in Daocheng, Yading.
11. Mt Olympus, Greece in December 2015
12. Did a post-earthquake climb of Mt Kinabalu for the 5th time in May 2016 @ age 52.
13. Climbed Gunung Merbabu in August 2016
14. Summitted Gunung Rinjani (Lombok) 3726m in 2017 @ age 53
15. Winter trek of Tilicho Lake 4950m in Nepal in 2017 age @ 53
16. Summitted Gunung Sindoro 3136m in 2018 @ age 54
17. Climbed Gunung Lawu in August 2019
18. Trekked in Mrauk U and insurgent-held Shan Hills of Myanmar November 2019
19. Kyrgyzstan Ala Kul trek and horse trek to Song Kul Lake in July 2022. @age 58
20. Climbed true summit of Gunung Agung (Bali) in August 2022. @age 58
21. Did Everest Three Passes trek in 16 days in November 2022. @age 58
22. Climbed Gunung Kerinci (Sumatra) in August 2023 @age 59