Travel Bug

A lot of people pay good money for material things – purses, clothes, cars, sofas, etc. That’s perfectly okay, it’s their guilty pleasure! So what, right? My guilty pleasure is travel. Yes, I love to travel -- so sue me.

Thanks to my parents, I got bitten by the travel bug back when I was very young. This explains how I’ve been to 107 cities and 24 countries at age 27 (peaking during my early 20s). Some of them I’ve been multiple times. I just can’t stay put in one place, I need to get away every so often. My hobby is looking at Google Maps and checking off places I’ve never been to yet, and looking at flights/hotels to see if it’s within budget. As soon as I arrive from a trip, I immediately plan the next one. It’s terrible, I know. It’s not even good for the environment (carbon footprint check).

So far this year, I’ve been to Manila (twice), St. Maarten, Anguilla, Maui and Tokyo. For the rest of the year through January, there’s Montana, San Francisco (twice), Dayton, Manila (again!), Las Vegas and possibly Prague. Thank goodness my husband is with me on this expensive passion. I’ve been lucky enough to have jobs that allow me to indulge in these travels. However, if I calculate the amount of vacation days I accumulate, I’d still say it’s never enough, but I make do with it. Which means David and I need to make our trips shorter, and take more Ambien to get over jetlag faster (think arriving at 1:00am from a 30-hour flight, and back at work at 8:30am).

The Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

Spice market, Marakkech, Morocco

Cape of Good Hope, South Africa

The Ritz Carlton, Maui, Hawaii

Plastic sushi in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan

Someday I know I will need to slow down, the amount of savings we’d get for not traveling for a year can equate to a down payment for a house, or college tuition fee for a year. This makes me nervous because I know someday our priorities will change -- house, babies and all that – which means traveling would have to take a backseat. But in the meantime, I just let the travel bug bite me hard.

So what’s your guilty pleasure?