Travel Memories

As we spend yet another week indoors, I wonder if things will ever get back to "normal", or what the new normal will look like. I've spent the past 10+ years wandering around the globe, thinking about my next destination, but I'm not sure if travel for pleasure will exist in the next year or two. Obviously this is of low priority at the moment because, you know, pandemic.

I've been thinking about my previous adventures and for whatever reason, some moments stand out more than others. Some random memories to share:

On a restaurant rooftop in Istanbul with the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia on the horizon while the call to prayer echoed around the city.

The delight of riding a scooter on Cat Ba Island and the beauty of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.

Christmas Eve in Kuala Lumpur: people on the streets spraying cans of fake snow at each other in 30 degrees C weather.

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Southeast Asia & China 2008-09

As predicted, I ended up abandoning this blog. Now that I have settled into a routine, perhaps I will post more regularly. One would hope so anyway.

While I am enjoying my time back in Canada and getting the opportunity to spend time with friends and family, life is a bit mundane compared to what I was up to last year. The itch to travel is getting more and more persistent, something I'm trying to suppress as I attempt to be a Grown Up. I have visions of working on an organic farm in France, taking cooking lessons in the countryside of Italy or travelling through India on its rickety train network. Of course, I would be eating my way through these countries because aside from sightseeing, the best part of travelling is gorging on delicious food.

Instead of succumbing to my urges, I've been looking through my travel photos of Southeast and East Asia. I skimmed through the pictures when I first arrived home but haven't touched them since. It's an awful habit of mine - I take a crapload of pictures and then discard them to the side afterwards.

Here is a small sample of some of my favourite places that I visited.

Sapa, Vietnam

Sapa is located north of Hanoi, above sea level and surrounded by beautiful mountains. There is a large ethnic minority population and I did a two day trek with several ladies from a Black H'mong village. I can't even describe how breathtaking it was to walk through the terraced rice field - a green so vibrant it's almost blinding.

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