Oh, the places I'll go...

Now I'm happily and securely visa'd up in Australia my mind is free to wander even though (with a full time job that I have no desire to leave and a boyfriend who is only just warming up the idea of real, proper travel) my itchy feet aren't able to follow.

To quell that feeling for a while I thought I'd make a list of all the places that I want to visit - as a priority. As I started to write my list started to grow, and so some things have been condensed in to more manageabley discussed journeys. Like...

South East Asia 

Now, I could list all of the places I'd like to visit in SE Asia separately but this blog will be long enough already.

The Yi Peng lantern release

I want to experience the Yi Peng lantern release, dive the Simian Islands, find dragons in Komodo, stay on a tiny Thai island, sleep in a hammock on Otres beach, feed monkeys in Bali, watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, ride a scooter in Vietnam, eat unidentifiable street food...and these are the few things that I just thought of in the last two minutes.

Many friends have lived and traveled around and no one - I mean no one - has ever said, "ah, it's ok".                                    

Otres Beach, Cambodia

My original travel plan had me doing the classic backpacker route and arriving to Australia after a few months of travelling around SE Asia. It still features highly (as you can tell) on my "must do" list. In fact, If someone told me I could do one last trip before I had my passport confiscated forever I wouldn't think twice before booking my flight to Bangkok.

One day, one day...


The Great Wall of China



Do I need to explain this? Really? A wall, some parts of it built over 700 years before Jesus was even a twinkle in God's eye that stretches for literally thousands of miles. That's still standing! I have to go.

At some point in my life I want to do a little trek, and then I want to look on a map and see how tiny the bit that I walked seems in comparison to it's entirety and then smile about human accomplishment.




Longyearbyen

Lets be honest, is there a single person who wouldn't jump at the chance to see the northern lights? How about seeing the northern lights in a place that requires you to carry a rifle to protect yourself from polar bears that roam the streets? How about seeing them from the most northern city on the entire planet?

Welcome to Longyearbyen, capital of Svalbard and somewhere I fully intend to visit in the depths of winter with nothing but a suitcase packed with thermals and a decent torch to counteract the whole 'eternal night time' thing.


Santorini

Want to know why I'd like to visit this place? Simply google image it and then weep at the beauty. That is all.







Ireland


Erm...yeah. So despite living only a tiny distance from the Emerald Isle for the majority of my life I never made it over. Now I live in Australia where we'll happily drive for a couple of hours for an afternoon at the beach, this seems like an absolute travesty.

I want to see beautiful castles, rugged landscapes, the giant's causeway, kiss the blarney stone and dance the night away in some low ceiling-ed pub. But most of all,  most of all, I want to drink proper Guinness. Mmm.


Istanbul


The bridge between east and west, wouldn't you love to breakfast in Europe and dinner in Asia? Aside from the novelty transcontinental opportunities it also happens to be one of histories most important cities and is packed full of beautiful architecture and amazing stories

I'd like to spend a day wandering around and getting lost, staring at the architecture, occasionally stopping to smoke a shisha pipe and sip on heart stopping Turkish coffee.



Queenstown

Another place that I hear nothing but good things about is often called the adventure capital of the world. It's colder climate can almost be acceptable because it means you can ski, snowboard or simply admire the snow clad mountains.

I have more than a few friends living there right now and I'm getting sick of them posting pictures of the views they have from work, views that people would pay thousands to look at from a hotel room.

The main downside of Queenstown, according to most reports, seems to be that if I go there I'll never want to leave again.


Korea - North and South

What N.Korea looks like at night from space...creepy.

Korea had never been on my list of places to visit until I met a very nice Canadian girl called Tammy who had lived in Seoul for 5 years. After hearing numerous anecdotes I realised that Korea sounded HILARIOUS, and this was confirmed by two long stints in Seoul airport.

But North Korea? Totalitarian state? Well it turns out you can totally do tours to Pyongyang (all government assisted and supervised, obviously). After reading two accounts - here and here both definitely worth a read - I put a trip on my list.


Red Centre and Australia's West Coast

The 'stairway to the moon', a phenomenon observable
in Broome, WA at certain times of the year

Ok, so this one is going to be a big trip. I've explored what seems like a big part of Australia. For the past two and a half years I've lived, worked and traveled between Cairns and Melbourne. Distance wise, it feels like I've covered a lot of ground; take a step back, look at a map and it soon becomes clear that I've not even scratched the surface of this incredible country.

 My little sister constantly makes me jealous of her west coast adventure with tales of white sand beaches stretching for miles with not a soul to be seen, red dirt roads, prehistoric creatures from the time the earth began, scuba diving incredible reef right from the beach and...eating kangaroo road kill? Hmm maybe I'm not jealous of the last bit.

Especially after reading the novel "Tracks" (readitreaditreadit) I want to explore the outback; the 'Red Centre' and all it has to offer. Not just Uluru, Kings Canyon and the like, but to also sleep underground at Coober Pedy and make it up to Darwin to explore Kakadu and Litchfield national parks.

Yeah, it's a pretty big trip, but thankfully now I can call this country home I'll get to do it someday. Even if I have to do one bit at a time...

New York

There can be no city more iconic, more recognisable, more exciting than New York. Surely? So many TV shows, films and the like are set there that I already feel like I know the place despite not setting foot on a single sidewalk.

I want to go. I need to go. This is a definite non-negotiable one. I'd even go as far as to say that New York might be number 2 on my list after SE Asia...


A Las Vegas- San Francisco Roadtrip

This has been on my wish-list ever since I attended a 'camp America' talk at Uni and realised you could travel after you'd worked. Never mind that at the time I wasn't old enough to hire a car or drink, I was going to drive a big red mustang from the bright Vegas lights, through death valley, have a Thelma and Louise moment at the Grand Canyon, check out monument valley, cruise past the Hollywood hills in LA and get myself all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is still my exact plan. Unless, of course, I win big in Vegas in which case I'd hire a driver, sit in the back seat and drink my winnings in champagne while I took in the sights.

Machu Picchu/Amazon/Galapagos

I've always had a fascination with old civilizations. As a youngster I was obsessed with the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. There's just something magnificent about the things people achieved thousands of years ago. So hiking the Inca Trail up to Machu Pichu is absolutely something I need to accomplish one day.





It also seems rude to visit South America and not make the effort to trek through the Amazon, especially as God knows how much longer it'll be around for. Oh and how could I be so near Ecuador and not dive the Galapogas Islands, famed for being the place where Darwin's theory of evolution finally clicked in to place and absolutely teeming with incredible wildlife?

A Serengeti Safari

After me....'a whim ba way, a whim ba way...'

Speaking of wildlife...how could anyone brought up on David Attenborough documentaries not want to do a real life safari? I've heard many stories from friends who have done them and seethed with jealousy hearing about watching cheetahs on the hunt, elephants stealing their drinking water and hyenas creeping through campsites at night. To see creatures in the wild rather than being locked inside enclosures (I've spoken before about how much I dislike humanised animals in Zoos) would just be an absolute joy. I will probably cry if I see an elephant.

I just hope whoever comes to do this with me doesn't object to me singing 'The ciiiir-clllllle of LIIIIIIIIFE' at the top of my lungs for every second of every day. Because you knows that's going to happen.

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Shit. This isn't even an extensive list. I need to win the lottery don't I? I would also ideally like to add 'Space' to this list, that but seems a little overambitious right now. Even for me.