Friday, May 06, 2005
Round the World by 80
this is dedicated to Norman, wishing that you fulfill your wish to see the world by the time you turn 80!!
such music to my ears when you recently said that you dream of setting foot on every country on earth before you die.
it was my dream, once, too. but so much has changed that these days, i dare to dream no more.....
it was our goal to take at least 1 vacation each year, so that i get to see the whole world by the time i die (at a respectable age).
we trekked Nepal in 95, enjoyed sunny phuket and dazzling HK in 96, backpacked (part of) europe in 97, visited the land of smile (bangkok) in 98. i went down under (see kangaroos) in 99. year 2000 was a crazy year - our vacation was suspended because the whole country was on standby for the millemium bug attack!! spent 5 weeks in US in 2001, doing all the dare-devil stuff....
with minimum luggage but tons of emotional baggage, i travelled 2 major cities in china alone in 2002. thanks to HY, we waltz into vienna (+ other parts of austria) and germany in 2003. for 2004, the soul searching trip to Bali did me some good and I made a decision to come to the bay area.
i am supposed to have visited vietnam, cambodia and NZ by now. Alaska was on our list too. I had wanted to see the arctic before 35. But with mid-life fast approaching, i dun see this happening at all. it was also part of the plan to check out many, if not all, of the national parks in the US - smoky mountains, yellowstone, etc. oh, there was plan to go back to Nepal, because i wanted sooo much to trek to Everest Base Camp. From Nepal, we should head towards Bhutan and Tibet. I also wanted to visit the vast grassland of Mongolia.....
so what's stopping me? the truth is, i dun like to travel alone. the china experience was horrible. i mean, the place and everything else was great. but i 'enjoyed' the trip alone and hated every bit of it. sure, I met people along the way, hangout n had fun. but it was all too superficial.
i often wonder if i ever will get the chance to continue chasing this dream......
such music to my ears when you recently said that you dream of setting foot on every country on earth before you die.
it was my dream, once, too. but so much has changed that these days, i dare to dream no more.....
it was our goal to take at least 1 vacation each year, so that i get to see the whole world by the time i die (at a respectable age).
we trekked Nepal in 95, enjoyed sunny phuket and dazzling HK in 96, backpacked (part of) europe in 97, visited the land of smile (bangkok) in 98. i went down under (see kangaroos) in 99. year 2000 was a crazy year - our vacation was suspended because the whole country was on standby for the millemium bug attack!! spent 5 weeks in US in 2001, doing all the dare-devil stuff....
with minimum luggage but tons of emotional baggage, i travelled 2 major cities in china alone in 2002. thanks to HY, we waltz into vienna (+ other parts of austria) and germany in 2003. for 2004, the soul searching trip to Bali did me some good and I made a decision to come to the bay area.
i am supposed to have visited vietnam, cambodia and NZ by now. Alaska was on our list too. I had wanted to see the arctic before 35. But with mid-life fast approaching, i dun see this happening at all. it was also part of the plan to check out many, if not all, of the national parks in the US - smoky mountains, yellowstone, etc. oh, there was plan to go back to Nepal, because i wanted sooo much to trek to Everest Base Camp. From Nepal, we should head towards Bhutan and Tibet. I also wanted to visit the vast grassland of Mongolia.....
so what's stopping me? the truth is, i dun like to travel alone. the china experience was horrible. i mean, the place and everything else was great. but i 'enjoyed' the trip alone and hated every bit of it. sure, I met people along the way, hangout n had fun. but it was all too superficial.
i often wonder if i ever will get the chance to continue chasing this dream......
# posted by nic @ 12:41 AM 
