
Nadia and her dog Reggie (All photos: Nadia Hasbi)
Options: You launched The Ultimate Dog Friendly Travel Guide to Malaysia last October. Tell us about it.
Nadia Hasbi: It’s hard to find information about dog-friendly travel here, so I wanted to be the solution to my own problem. I went out and explored and decided to share the information.
The guide is currently available only in e-format. Are there plans for a physical edition?
Yes, most likely by December 2025 and also in limited quantities. I am planning to share my ideas with potential partners such as dog-friendly restaurants and hotels, gauge their interest and maybe team up to offer discounts and so on. The idea is to bundle the book with vouchers to encourage people to make travelling with their pets feasible and affordable. The dream is to offer savings that exceed the cost of buying a copy, making it perfect for Christmas gifts. If the pilot project takes off, the plan is to do it annually, every year-end. I am more than happy to hear from interested parties about how we can all collaborate.
Tell us a little about your career path so far.
Life started out in a typical Malaysian manner, doing marketing for Maxis and then business development for Scomi Engineering. One thing led to another and I then decided to try entrepreneurship, developing a line of sportswear featuring designs that were hand-drawn and painted by traditional local batik artists. Then Covid-19 came along and completely destroyed my business. I had to return to full-time employment and secured a position with Mindvalley as a product marketing manager. To cut a long story short, I started creating content for fun and saw it going somewhere. In July last year, I decided to take a chance, quit my job and give myself 12 months to see whether this little hobby could turn into an income-generating endeavour. So far, it has been good.
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And how did the idea for a local dog-friendly travel guide come about? I used to be afraid of dogs, to be honest.
As I grew up and travelled and made friends from all over the world, my mindset changed. But, somehow, my husband never gave in to my requests for a dog. We always seemed too busy or out all the time. Then, when the pandemic struck and we were confined to the house, he finally ran out of excuses, caved in and got Reggie, a wonderful Golden Retriever. And it remains one of the best decisions we ever made. Back to the question, Reggie loves car rides and going to new places. And when he is happy, I am happy. It’s just so uplifting to explore and discover Malaysia together. Putting the e-book together took about a year and was completely self-funded. At the end of the day, I just want to do my part, showing how dogs are wonderful, friendly and loving fluffballs who will be your best and most loyal friend if you would just let them.
How did you come up with the name Reggie?
One of my mum’s friends had a dog named Archie, after the main character in the comic series. I thought it was cute and told myself if ever I had my own, I would name him Reggie, after Reggie Mantle, Archie Andrews’ nemesis.
What are you reading right now?
The Forever Dog by Rodney Habib and Dr Karen Shaw Becker so that Reggie can live as long a life as possible. Whatever I am learning from the book, I share with all my followers on social media.
What are you listening to right now?
I am a huge fan of Joe Rogan and pretty much listen to all his podcasts. He is curious, a great conversationalist and has the most interesting guests, from Elon Musk to Snoop Dogg. Also, as I work from home and am mostly alone with Reggie, it’s nice to have one of Rogan’s three-hour podcasts playing in the background so it doesn’t feel too lonely or quiet.
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What’s on the 2025 travel list?
Lots more travel to discover dog-friendly spots, of course. Almost every weekend this month has been booked up visiting places with Reggie. By the time you read this, we’d have come back from The Dusun in Negeri Sembilan. After that, IGo Glamz in Genting Highlands, Zen Forest in Bentong and then the Gibbon Retreat, also in Bentong, are on the cards. We plan to travel more out of the Klang Valley to Johor and the islands off the East Coast. I want to keep on discovering so that our readers and followers — and their dogs — can live their best lives.
Describe your idea of the perfect weekend.
Chilling at Cherating beach with Reggie during surf season. The culture there is so different compared to anywhere else in Malaysia. The surfer boys are so chill and love having Reggie around. They let him tag along in the water. Some even tried teaching him to get up on a board and surf!
'The Ultimate Dog Friendly Travel Guide to Malaysia' is available here at RM49.90.
This article first appeared on Jan 13, 2025 in The Edge Malaysia.