Bucket List: Wishlist

By -

World, Anywhere, Once in a Lifetime Experiences

This month's take on my Travel Bucket List is different from the usual articles. All my previous articles for my Bucket List series featured either trips that I had taken which had been on my list or new additions to my list as I travelled.

For this month's article, I would like to list down 3 trips on my Travel Bucket List that I intend to complete as soon as time and budget permit. Why? Because the World is changing. and changing fast. The old saying that "a place will always be there to be visited" may no longer hold true in our current fast changing world. Climate, Politics, Wars, Revolutions, Pandemics and many other unforeseen events are dramatically altering where and when we can visit.

For example, in the near and foreseeable future, it is difficult to see how I can be allowed to travel for leisure to China, Japan and many other Asian destinations. Pandemic-enforced border restrictions mean that some of these destinations will not be opening up to international tourists for quite some time yet. Even for those destinations which claimed to have "opened up" or is "opening up", onerous pandemic-related medical testing requirements and the associated costs and inconveniences are good enough to keep me away from even any thoughts of visiting.

Apart from pandemic-induced border restrictions and closures, many other places have also become un-visitable for now due to security issues such as internal civil unrests, political upheavals and of course, wars. Add climate change to the equation and that further put more places out of reach of leisure travel.

For now, countries in the western part of Europe are actually the only ones which have truly re-open their borders, as long as visitors are fully vaccinated. So, I have shortened my Travel Bucket List to just 3 items for now.  I am now reviewing my travel calendar. Once I have the time and money, I will be quick to embark on these trips, just so that I can visit these destinations before some so-called Black-Swan events occur and make these trips unattainable.

Travel Bucket List for the near-future:

1. Village of Saksun and viewing wild Puffins at Mykines, Faroe Islands (Denmark)

2. La Sagrada Familia and Casa Mila, Barcelona (Spain)

3. Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy (France)

Time to start researching for these trips and hunt for budget-friendly air tickets and accommodations!

Freshly-brewed latte, Swiss Air Business-Class Lounge, Zurich International Airport, Zurich, Switzerland (2017)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Singapore, Horsburgh - Deep Sea Fishing

By -
Image
Horsburgh Lighthouse (or Horsburgh) is located on an outlying small island (a.k.a Pedra Branca meaning "White Rock" in Portuguese) near the entrance to the east of the Straits of Singapore. The lighthouse was named after Cpt James Horsburgh, who was a hydrographer with the then East India Company. Horsburgh is located about 54km (34 miles) east of Singapore. It was raining in the morning as we set off for the long anticipated trip which was planned as far back as 3 months ago in August 1998. There were four of us; YK, Kenneth, CC and myself.  
 Soon, we were on our way to the suppossedly rich fishing grounds near Horsburgh Lighthouse. This locale is considered a good fishing ground for recreational fishing because commercial trawling is supposedly not permitted.  
 We reached our first fishing spot at exactly 5.00 pm local time. Looking around, we couldn't see actually any lighthouse but who cares, it was the fishing that we were coming for, not a visit to so
Read more

Cambodia, Siem Reap - Wall Sculptures at Angkor Wat

By -
Image
In many places of great historical and cultural significances around the world, wall sculptures left by generations before us convey messages of events past. Such messages are recorded versions of history of the places where they are found.  I have always been fascinated by how our ancient ancestors were able to faithfully convey events that would otherwise require many pages of descriptive words, through a series of wall sculptures. The creative ingenuities, stone masonry skills and storytelling talents of our ancient forebears were translated into these beautiful and amazing wall sculptures that allow us of later generations, to learn and study the civilisations that preceded us. Are these wall sculptures from the past simply just art? Or recorded history? To me, they are both and more. In my previous visits to Cambodia's renown Angkor Wat in 2015 and 2022, I spent time studying the many wall sculptures that still remained in this ancient site. The experience has made me more awa
Read more

Estonia, Tallinn - Palace of Ungern-Sternberg

By -
Image
I was awestruck by the grandness and magnificence of this building during my walking tour of the Old Town of Tallinn. While there, I had no opportunity to enter the building itself. Thus, admiring its facade and photographing its structure as I walked around its perimeter had to suffice.  The  Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) Without knowing what this building was, its history and its name, the photographs I took allowed me to conduct basic research on it after the trip.  Based on my rudimentary research into the building long after my trip to Tallinn, I was to discover that it was built in the year 1865 by the German architect, Martin Gropius. Also known as the Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, the building is today the home of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. The Academy is a group of scientists whose aim is to promote research & development and scientific cooperation as well as knowledge dissemination.  The main building housing the Academy is a
Read more