Random Thoughts - Dusting off my Luggages, Time to restart my Travels

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A couple of articles back in this blog, in the April 2022 edition of Travel Bits, I wrote about my envy of friends who were all already embarking on their long awaited travels, visiting faraway and beautiful places in Africa, Europe and the United States. In that blog post, I also complained about my inability to embark on any travel plans so far because of a perfect storm of relatively high travel costs, the hassles of overcoming COVID-related border measures and restrictions and also schedule conflicts and procrastinations on my part.

Well, complaints no more. In the short span of just an April week, I had booked 2 additional trips for this year. But as I remained firmly as a traveller who abjures onerous travel-related hurdles, these 2 trips were chosen mainly because they present the least restrictions and requirements. No pre-trip testings, no pre-trip submission of lots of paperwork, no pre-trip loading and seeking approval on poorly-designed apps and the likes of these.

The first will be a trip to Siem Reap (Cambodia) in the month of May. I last visited the city more than 7 years ago and I remembered it was a rather "rushed" trip. Then, I was trying to visit too many places within too short a time. This trip, I will take it slow and easy, intending to spend an entire day just at Angkor Wat and another whole day at Angkor Thom. I want to make full use of the time I have in this trip to observe, study and photograph aspects of these remarkable historical sites. With my air tickets and accommodations, booked, paid and confirmed, I am all ready to resume my travel adventures. 

The second spontaneously booked trip was a cruise to nowhere for July; meaning it departs and return to the same port without visiting any other ports for the entirety of the cruise. Usually, I will not be too keen to spend my limited travel budget on a cruise to nowhere in particular but I decided that since I have never been on a cruise before, it is time to do so. Even though I have a regional cruise with the same cruise company and the same cruise ship booked for October 2022, we never know what nasty surprises that the current pandemic may throw up or any other unforeseen events that may happen between now and then to make overseas trips impossible again. So, cruise to nowhere it is.

And yes, before my trip to Siem Reap, there is still a driving trip up north to Malaysia (Ipoh and Cameron Highlands) in the middle of May. 

Meanwhile, I continue to be on the lookout for travel deals to either Western Europe or Turkey.

My Travel Luggage will finally be on the move again! Riding a tut-tut, Siem Reap, Cambodia (2015)



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