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🎶We’re off to see the Wizard, 🎵The wonderful Wizard of ...
Why...
Is looking forward to a holiday nearly as good as going on one?
We have not travelled outside of the U.K. and European time zones since December 2020! I don’t think I have spent two years in the same time zone since I was six!
However, we have taken the plunge and planning to go to Cambodia at the beginning of next year. It’s months away of course, but the mere fact we have an itinerary to exotic sounding places has lightened my footsteps and my spirits.
...and another thing
Life is experience, not things. When I gasp my last breath, I doubt I will remember which phone I currently have at the time, let alone each and every model over the years. But I will sure as hell be able to remember every trip I have taken. Granted, not every memory will come with rose tinted spectacles, a night in jail in Indonesia, an airport official in China convinced I had Covid two months before the world knew about it, industrial strength dysentery in the Philippines, earthquakes in Turkey and New York on 9/11 seeing the planes hit the twin towers; but the memories are as vivid now as if they just happened.
My wife thinks I am getting loopy but despite over 120 countries visited I still yearn to go to Bhutan, Antarctica, Madagascar, Jordan and Greenland.
...and another thing
Travel has got immeasurably better, even if some customs and immigration officials think they have been handed a sword instead of a shield.
Remember people smoking on a plane, only one movie with earphones like a doctor’s stethoscope and chairs stuffed with chipped steel that reclined like they had arthritis ? Only airline food has deteriorated but then you can easily stuff a few goodies in your carry-on bag to turn a charabanc-type plane into feeling like a super-yacht. A small pot of caviar, decent smoked salmon, foie gras, parma ham and a decent bottle of booze are all available to buy once past check-in. These are far more useful than the normal dross you buy in Duty Free.
One issue worries me.Who are these people who say to themselves:
“Oooh, I’ve half an hour before boarding, I’ll just splash out €20,000 on a wrist watch, a fountain pen and some diamond earrings.”
Of the last places on earth I would consider making a purchase of these trinkets, an airport is only just above the waiting room for a colonoscopy or my accountant’s reception. But judging by the fact every airport is trying to make me buy such baubles, someone must be. If you know who they are, why are they not on a private jet?
...and another thing
Right now I am torn between Googling everything I can about Cambodia or letting each surprise, delight and of course shortcoming, develop before my very eyes. On balance the surprise of the unknown wins out. I just hope when I land in Siem Riep I don’t see a poster telling me my life is not complete without a Rolex.
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