Quarter-life crisisLast week, I was introduced to Busy Travel Bee and I devoured the details of her 15-month round-the-world trip in 1.5 days. I just couldn't stop reading - day after day, places after places, experiences, people. I took them in, all the time imagining myself in her shoes.
How I wish.
Here was a mid-lifer, Singaporean woman, travelling solo through Africa, Middle East, Europe, Latin America, Central America, and even Antartica. It seems all at once so attainable yet unreachable at the same time.
In between then and now, Sissy S and I have booked ourselves on return air tickets to Ho Chi Minh city (HCMC), for a 16-day round Vietnam trip from late October to mid-November. We are intending to rough it out in true backpacker style with hostels, public transport, tons of walking, and lots of discovering on a shoestring budget.
We had contemplated a trip to Taiwan but all the promo tickets were sold out. We also considered going to Cambodia or Myanmar but really, the tickets to HCMC were too cheap to be ignored. At SGD239 nett for both of us, they were a steal! Besides, I've been longing to visit Halong Bay after seeing how picturesque it is on photos posted on Facebook, blogs, and the TV.
Friends I speak to said 16 days is way too long for travelling in Vietnam. I try to convince them by highlighting that long-term travellers usually spend at least a month exploring Vietnam alone. They don't get why but I guess it's because they are usually exposed to the 4 day 3 nights guided tours to HCMC or Hanoi advertisements by tour agencies.
I've also just realised that a one-way Hanoi-HCMC train journey takes 33 hours! Being the bargain hunters that we were, we'd bought return tickets which implies we'll have to do a loop circuit instead of a Hanoi-HCMC or HCMC-Hanoi route. That means 2 legs of 33 hours train ride, 66 hours, and 3 days gone. Gosh. Who said 16 days is enough?
So the travel bug has bitten me pretty hard this time. I think this is the worst case of wanderlust I can remember. Truly. I've been reading a couple of travel blogs which make long-term travel appear so possible and it is ever so tempting to just up and go. Some of them are:
The Lost Girls
Nomadic Chick
Adventurous Kate
Legal Nomads
I've always known that I want to live abroad, even if it's for a short period of time, in the future. It is 2012 and I am turning 25 this year. There is no better time to buckle down and figure out how I am going to do it. I've always assumed it was going to be for the purpose of study but I have since learnt that there are alternatives to that. I need to ascertain what is it that I hope to gain from going overseas and set a path from there.
