Random Thoughts - Hermit No More

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After the boredom of 2020 and 2021 that is synonymous with stay-at-home, work-from-home and what have you, 2022 has seen leisure travel resuming; a little at  first and then gradually creeping back more and more as pandemic-related border restrictions were lifted. 

Personally, I have joined in the worldwide phenomenon in releasing the pent-up demand for leisure travel even though I am currently only travelling regionally. Why so? Cost is the main driver in my choice of travel destinations. I do not have a large travel budget. Thus, I decided that several short regional trips beats one single distant trip.

The resumption of leisure travel and the demand that comes with it seems to have caught many airport authorities and airlines by surprise. We have all read about the long queues at airports, the missed connections, flight cancellations and lost baggages hobbling travellers. However, such travel chaos are affecting different regions of the world differently. In my part of the world, South-East Asia, such travel inconveniences are minimal. This is the next key reason why I chose to travel only regionally for now. I shall patiently wait until travel authorities in other parts of the world have the time and opportunity to sort out the current travel chaos.

Only travelling regionally has in no way dampen my enjoyment of these trips. Since May 2022, I had visited cities in Malaysia and Cambodia. Before the end of calendar year 2022, I also have trips to cities in Indonesia and Thailand planned and booked. For now, I am simply happy just to be able to enjoy the small luxury of leisure travel while looking forward to longer haul trips and more distant destinations in 2023.

A selfie of myself enjoying the sight and smell of the open sea when I went on my first ever cruise holiday in July 2022, Spectrum of the Seas, Straits of Malacca (2022)


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