2015 Trip

As of my last blog entry, which I posted just a few days ago (but wrote a couple weeks back), my upcoming travel plans revolved around going to the Australian Open.  I went back to the States for Thanksgiving and Christmas and was hoping to make it back to Australia by mid January.  Two friends whom I’d met at Ohio State were interested in going with me to the Open.  From Australia we were considering a trip to New Zealand as well.

I was hoping to make it to the Australian Open, partly because
I love watching tennis but also since I hadn't been to Melbourne

All of that changed within the last few weeks.  I had been researching flights to Melbourne with airline points.  Unfortunately my points balances are down - I booked my flight back home from Perth using American Airlines miles.  Even if I had ample points, however, award flight availability was paltry.  It was a repeat of my trip to Australia in 2014, when I couldn't find any space on American flights until the beginning of February.  December and January are prime travel times to Oz, so I guess the lack of award space makes sense.
My OSU friends also were planning on using their airline miles to book a flight, so without available seats the possibility of a trip to the Aussie Open seemed bleak.  In addition to the flight difficulties I had decided to take the GRE in January.  I had been studying in December and felt like an extra week or two more of preparation would do me well.
In the end I decided to ditch the plan to see the Australian Open.  I was definitely disappointed to miss it - I had wanted to do it last year too - but in the end I couldn't justify the price.  After factoring in a cash ticket, say a week in Melbourne, and a flight on to SE Asia, I would have  easily spent over three grand.  For $3,000 I could backpack in SE Asia for two months.
And backpacking SE Asia was on the agenda again.  One of my favorite countries in SE Asia was the Philippines, and I wanted to make it there this time around too.  The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, and exploring all of it would take years.  I also wanted to see Taiwan, a country I missed that last time around.  Hong Kong was on the list too; I spent only one day there during Semester at Sea, and considering I am considering teaching in nearby Shenzhen I’d liket to get to know the area better.

The Philippines - I definitely want to check out Palawan,
the island in the southwest
Taiwan is on the list too!
Once I shelved the Australian Open my backup plan quickly started to take shape.  Mike and Sam, my two OSU friends, still wanted to travel with me in SE Asia.  Mike is the guy who works for himself and has tons of flexibility.  Sam, on the other hand, has a traditional job with only two weeks of vacation available for the trip.

Mike and Sam, two of my OSU friends who traveled to Australia
to meet me last year and who will meet me in SE Asia this time
After a bit of brainstorming we decided to see the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Vietnam.  It will be a quick trip for Sam, but considering he doesn’t get many opportunities to travel abroad, he should try and see as much as he can in the two weeks.  The three of us will spend 5 or 6 days together in the Philippines, a few days in Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year, and another 5-6 days in Vietnam.
As for Mike, he’s in no hurry to get back Stateside.  Sam will fly to the Philippines around the 13th of February, but Mike will likely come earlier.  Just today I booked my flight to Manila, which is due to arrive on the morning of February 4th.  Mike will try and get to Manila close to when I do, so we’ll have over a week there before Sam arrives.

More on my trip coming soon!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Training in DC and Prep for Georgia

Image
As mentioned a few posts ago, I took a new job back in the US starting in mid-January. I flew back from Japan to my hometown in Ohio at the end of December, arriving just in time for New Year's. My initial contract in Japan ended along with 2020, so it didn't make sense to start a new one for a week or two in January. This way I was also able to spend time with my parents and my sister and her husband (who live nearby) before moving to Washington, DC. In addition to family time, I had a lot of administrative tasks to take care of before the move; my new job is with the government, which involves a long, at times frustrating onboarding process. I had to fill out several HR packets, arrange temporary housing for my training in DC, decide on consequential things such as life insurance and thrift savings plan contributions, and choose my healthcare plan. By the way, why is healthcare so complicated here?! The electronic form listed over 200 healthcare options to chose from! After e...
Read more

Finishing Osaka, on to Tokyo

Image
I've covered some of the great food Andrew and I had in Japan, so now let me move on to whatever else it was that we were doing between meals.  Two posts ago I touched on Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and our fist stop in the country. Osaka is in the Kansai region of Japan, which also includes Kobe and Kyoto Osaka city proper has about 2.7 million people, but that is only a fraction of the true number.  Citing population based on city limits can be quite misleading.  Take my hometown of Columbus, and Cleveland, another city in Ohio, as examples.  The population of the city of Columbus is over 800,000, while Cleveland's is less than half that.  Take a look at the metro area, or the urban core plus surrounding suburbs and commuter towns, and the comparison is flipped: Cleveland is substantially larger than Columbus. Back to Osaka - while the city itself only has a couple million inhabitants, add in the urban sprawl and surrounding ...
Read more

My Dad and Uncle Visit Korea, Part 1

Image
Even before I left for Korea last November, my dad had mentioned that he might try and visit me.  In the past he has suggested trips only to say that it was just a hypothetical later on.  So when he finally booked a flight for a visit in the summer I was quite surprised.  Both he and my uncle flew in to Seoul on the 31 st of July and then also went to Japan together for four nights.  Here is a recap of their visit: My uncle (far right) and dad (second from right) were headed to Seoul! Korean public schools get over a month off for summer break in late June and August.  On the other hand, the private institutes (like the one I work for) often have much shorter breaks.  During the summer break from public school parents sign their kids up for extra classes at our school, so we actually are busier!  What a great vacation for the students – a full day of English classes!  My break was four days long (well six if you coun...
Read more