I’ve planned a lot of trips in my day. Actually, I’ve gone on a lot of trips in my day. Sometimes they are haphazardly planned….but not always.

I’m probably going to take 3 weeks off in March or April and go somewhere foreign. That really doesn’t narrow it down much. It is fairly difficult to look at a map and just pick someplace to go.

You’ve got to ask yourself a lot of questions: Is there anything to see? Is it safe? Do I need a visa? Does it have tourist infrastucture? Has the government been overthrown lately? Is it the rainy season? Is it expensive? Are there any necessary vaccines and/or medicines to take? Can I get a cheap plane ticket?

It is a bitch to track down all that information. It was easier in the old days. Or at least is seemed that way. I never really had to pick destinations out of a hat like this. I travelled in Europe because I was already living there. You can’t miss in Europe anyway. If you’re already in SE Asia (which I was), go to Thailand. It is the backpacker capital of the world. Living in Israel?? Go see Jeruselum or take a trip to the Pyramids. Who doesn’t want to see the pyramids?

What I’m doing is like throwing darts at a map. And, seemingly, I’ve already been to many of the can’t miss travel spots. I’m running out of places…sort of.

I could always try to get to like Papua New Guinea or something…but I’m not so sure being surrounded by a bunch of midget cannibals with plates in their lips shooting frog poison darts at me sounds like fun.

Maybe I’m getting old though. Travel is always a mixed bag like that. You want to go somewhere exotic, but not too exotic…otherwise you’ll die of cholera in some backwater swamp in Sri Lanka.

Its just that the “exotic, but not too exotic” countries are always changing. It is those countries with a rich history that are past third world but not quite modern that are still happy for the tourists but have not yet realized that they’re all super rich by their standards and so should be swindled out of everything they own…along with a couple of other balancing acts….if you can find somewhere like that….you’ve found a backpacker’s Mecca.

Too many tourists and the locals are jaded and dishonest. Too few tourists and there is likely no infrastructure (and probably a good reason why no one is visiting). Too poor and they’ll rob you at knife point in the streets. Too rich and it isn’t an exotic travelers destination anymore (not to mention it is really expensive).

It all seems sort of ridiculous doesn’t it?

I figure this will be one of my last backpacker-like vacations anyway. It is really tempting just to pay a lump of money and have someone do all this for me and have no decisions nor worries for the entire trip….all guaranteed safe and stress free.

That used to never tempt me. But money is very good at eliminating these types of hassles….and now I have money, so why not use it?

Besides, we get more cautious as we get older. I don’t know why really. Maybe we were just dumb when we were younger. Maybe we realize that the percentages are bound to catch up with us eventually. Probably the more things we are responsible for the more things we realize can go wrong.

Whatever the reason, living here in the US lulls me with its comfort and safety. I would hate to be kidnapped in some S. American jungle. It would be humid and I’d likely be tied up…no bed, no computer, no hot shower. That sounds like such a hassle.

Maybe I’ll just stay in my apartment for 3 weeks in my pajamas, drinking beer, order pizza after pizza, and play Xbox over the Internet until I waste away into nothing.

That would require no planning at all.

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