Bucket List: Wishlist 2024

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Wishlist 2024, Asia

2023 signals the resumption of leisure travel as the world cautiously but resolutely return to interconnectivity from the pandemic years of 2020, 2021 and to some extent, 2022.

Personally, I resumed leisure travel in 2022 with regional trips to Bali, Cameron Highlands, Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur and Siem Reap. I also took two cruise trips, with port calls to Penang and Phuket.

In 2023, I ventured a little further from the region, taking vacation trips to Japan and China (Hong Kong). Other regional trips include trips to Malaysia and Vietnam. I was glad that my trips in 2023 allowed me to fulfil a few personal travel bucket list items including watching the Nagaoka Hanami (Fireworks) Festival, sailing from Yokohama to Singapore and enjoying the experience of my first ever joyride on a tourist train, the Kairi which travels between the Japanese cities of Niigata and Sakata. I also got to admire the majestic views of Sakurajima in-person when I was in Kagoshima in August 2023.

As year 2023 draws to a close, I am setting for myself some not-so-ambitious goals for my personal travel bucket list in 2024. Why not-so-ambitious goals? So that these can be more easily achieved! I am not going to set impossible goals like climbing Everest or traveling to Antarctica. Instead, my three personal travel bucket list items are:

Travel Bucket List for 2024:

1. Taipei to Kaohsiung by train and making stops along the way to visit different cities and towns (Taiwan)

2. Nikko via the Spacia X tourist train and staying at the Nikko Kanaya Hotel (Tochigi, Japan)

3. Gunung Mulu National Park and Mulu Caves (Sarawak, Malaysia)

A plague in Car 3 dated 4 August 2023, the day of my trip. Car 3 is designated as store/event car where passengers can purchase drinks and snacks, Kairi Train, Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan (2023)


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