Even after 7+ years on the road, Kat and I STILL deal with new challenges that confound us. We always work through it, but sheeesh!, it can be tough.
Our first visit to Asia in Q1 2020 was challenging since neither of us had been there before. We had no idea where to start, so after researching a lot, settled on Bangkok, initially for one month, and had the option for staying a second month. Our “plan” was to settle in, check out the rest of the country, and see where else we wanted to go. But Bangkok did NOT work for me! It was too noisy, too crowded, and way too smoggy. We had a nice unit on the 36th floor of a 42-story building, but it was a bit outside of town and we felt isolated from the city. Wherever we went required a taxi, no big deal, it was cheap, but there weren’t any great walking areas. There WAS a brand-new metro stop nearby, but it was only partially working so we couldn’t use it like other stops. And truth was, I wanted to get out, and my discomfort was tough on both of us. So we decided to take side trips, keep our stuff THERE, and visit other cities that might be more appealing. Which we did.
First stop was Chiang Mai, one of the most popular expat and traveler destinations in Asia and Thailand, we liked it, but just before leaving (about Jan 15), Kat got COVID—the night before we were due to fly to Vietnam. It was a mess all around. A paramedic ride to the hospital about 2:00 a.m. was very tough, and trying to FIND an equivalent of a “911” emergency line was impossible. The paramedics did come, she stayed in the ER several hours, they NEVER used the word COVID, and truthfully, I don’t think they had a definitive name for what she had. But she had it. Long story short, we never made it to Vietnam at that time but instead returned to Bangkok to recover. Which she did. Over the next six weeks we did venture out again to several places in Thailand, as well as Vietnam and Cambodia.
New things were difficult, but we had been on the road for less than one year; we were seven years younger, and we looked at it as an “experience.”
And we’ve had many experiences since then, and they are getting more challenging. Packing and repacking is getting tiresome, and figuring out “new stuff” is not as exciting as it used to be,
Which brings us to now.
This is our fourth trip to Southeast Asia and we’re pretty comfortable now. We know the topography, a bit of the languages, customs, currency, as well as where to go and where not to go. But we’re finally heading to country #44 (we’ve been stalled at #43 for too long!), Japan, and THAT is a whole new experience.
For one, and we knew this, it’s much more expensive that southeast Asia. Still affordable, especially compared to parts of Europe, but we’ve been used to paying less than $40 a night for a long time, so looking at $100 a night rooms was daunting. And then the question is, “WHERE do you go?” We allocated two weeks and this will be our Vietnam quarterly visa run, which was our plan before we even got here. Every 90 days we must leave the country, then reenter with new visas. Rather than do a quick flip, we thought it best to actually GO somewhere, and Japan is number one. It’s a big country, with many famous cities to visit: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, etc…and the list goes on. So rather than trying to do TOO much, which we’re not up for anymore, we focused on two: Osaka and Kyoto.
Artificial intelligence is a godsend, and I wish we had it years ago! My Gemini program advised us how to split our 14 days between those cities and gave us IDEAS of where to stay. Their cities are made up of “wards,” and some are better than others. And how do we decide? I’m not as comfortable with BIG, big cities—one reason we passed on Tokyo for now—but now we had to settle on our lodging. Kat is a whiz at that and reads the reviews, checks access to transportation, and finds good values. Fortunately I had a bunch of frequent flyer miles through Jet Blue (airlines) which I have a hard time using since I don’t fly much in the US anymore, so we used them for hotel points. Did the same thing with American Airlines miles, so we actually got off pretty cheap! We didn’t have to tap into my 100K of Chase credit card points since they didn’t have anything that made sense, so instead we’ll take a portion of that in CASH to pay for the room through Bookings.
Like I said, this takes some work!
Logistics are crucial with all travel, and here it was even more so since we’ll be dealing with a language we’ve never encountered, along with their Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana writing, which will be very hard for us, our first time! English usage is pretty strong from what we’ve heard, so that should take away a bit of the stress. But one thing we committed to is to carry with us ONLY what we absolutely need to. Fortunately weather will be warm, so that helps with clothing, and I decided that carrying heavy stuff like toothpaste and body lotion makes no sense, when we can buy what we need there for a few bucks. Instead of carrying my big 48-liter bag, we’re doing this with a much smaller one, and of course, checking no luggage.
Our trip will depart from Hanoi, and we’ll be spending two weeks there, along with nearby Ninh Binh, so overall we’ll have four weeks of stuff in a few small bags. We’ve done it before, so I know it can be done, but like I said, it’s tougher than it used to be. The good news is that when we return to Da Nang about June 1 we’ll move into the apartment we lived in two years ago, so we know the area, the restaurants, and everything around it. And we plan to stay at least six months, take some side trips within the country, and do our visa run when we need to.
At least that is the Plan…
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