What’s in my bag: Michelle Wong is basic AF (when she travels)

Are you a light or heavy packer? Organised or messy? A last minute packer or a well-prepared traveller?

These were a few burning questions we posed to the cast of Channel 8’s newest long-form drama series Jalan Jalan at the show’s press conference last month, where we invited them to bring and share with us some of their must-have travel essentials when they are on an overseas trip. 

It was an intimate session, to say the least, with the actors airing some of their insecurities and deepest, darkest secrets, and we had it all captured on camera.

We picked up a couple of interesting celebrity trivia about the cast of Jalan Jalan: there is a self-professed fitness nut who needs to work out every day when he’s travelling because of his sweet tooth; a gadget girl who can’t live without her arsenal of techy stuff (even though it weighs a ton); and an idiosyncratic traveller who packs two of everything, just to name a few…

This week, we have Michelle Wong, who plays Candy, a social escort and sugar baby wannabe – a stark comparison to the actress’ sweet girl-next-door personality. The 27-year-old is a girly girl through and through – something that is plain to see judging by her stash of ‘womanly’ travel essentials and the fact that she travels everywhere with her bulky facial massager.

She admits to being neither an organised packer nor an organised traveller and sometimes continues living out of her suitcase even after a trip. But her ‘relax and chill’ approach to travelling might make her the perfect holiday partner because she’ll just go with the flow with her ‘free and easy’ ways.

Michelle is miss goody-two-shoes personified, and her most ‘stressful’ excess baggage encounter is nothing compared to all the times we tried to ‘talk’ our way out of forking out extra cash for overweight baggage charges.

“One time I went to Korea and split my 20kg luggage allowance into two bags – but the airline required it to be in one bag. I was so stressed, but it was a good thing the staff suggested we put some things in our hand carry bags,” she recounted.

#1 Phone
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“I really, really love to take videos and Instagram stories – and things like that. Every time I go on a trip I’d take one second videos and piece it together to form a video called ‘Mich in a minute’ – so you can check it out on my Instagram. Most importantly my phone has my music and everything inside too.”

#2 Earphones

“So these are just some wireless earphones. [I] always need my music, especially when I have no Wi-Fi. I like to listen to old school ‘90s music [by artistes] such as Jay Chou, JJ Lin and a-Mei. (Laughs) But usually I like to listen to instrumental music... [it makes me] feel like I’m in my own movie, when I sit on the train and look outside.”

#3 Book

“This is just in case there’s are no Wi-Fi in the area. [I’m] reading this now called ‘Creativity and Ego’. [I’m] not pretending to be smart, but this is what I’m reading right now. I like to have a book… if not, I’m always on my phone… sometimes it’s a bit cumbersome to bring it around, I like to bring around with me when I take the MRT too – but it’s not like I always read it (laughs).”

#4 Charger

“This is a cute but impractical thing… [it’s] so big, but it’s very cute and I’m very happy with it. It can charge my phone two to three times. Good thing about it is that you can charge it multiple times, when you travel and run out of battery – it’s a life saver.”

#5 Facial massager

“The good thing about this massager is when you roll it on the body, it helps to press and knead your muscles. When you travel, you [tend to] walk more than usual. My parents like to use it ‘cos they can just roll it [on their bodies] by themselves. It helps to de-swell your face and de-swell calves and thighs.

“It’s a bit heavy but I still bring it along [with me when I travel]. I think ‘cos I’m used to it. You cannot roll too much if not your skin will tend to sag. You can only roll it once or twice … It’s really useful for legs especially [because it] encourages blood flow. This massaging tool is very useful especially when you travel with elderly people.”