From workaholic to world traveler

After slumming it with a large tour group of college-aged Australians for my Europe trip, I decided to take on Asia with the polar opposite of an approach. I’ve come to the realization that tours cater to the young and the old, and not much in between. My demographic tends to be too busy with work or family, and if they do travel, it may just be with their immediate family and not on an organized tour. For those reasons, I decided to travel solo for this part of my adventure. Prior to traveling solo, I consulted with a friend who’d recently embarked on a similar, solo trip. He ultimately cut his trip short due to loneliness, so I knew that I had to go above and beyond to make friends at the destinations that I was going to. To that end, I’ve booked several group tours and even signed up for a Tinder account, and I will attempt to make friends to go on adventures with.

I was expecting and prepared for my opulent travel plans to be extremely costly, but fortunately, my former company was kind enough to gift me 1,000,000 Marriott points, which was more than enough to cover ostentatious hotels for all 24 nights of my intended trip, with some left over. Special thanks to Josh and Rafi for their generosity and Lisa for actually booking my hotels. Knowing that I don’t have to cover the cost of hotels for a month gives me some extra flexibility with regards to spending on activities and such.

My Asia trip was to begin on 2/10, ending on 3/7, in time to celebrate my birthday with friends. This trip will include stops in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Phuket and Singapore. Should be a great time.

PS- For those of you that ask why there is no profile on Amsterdam, it was not an oversight. One day I may want to run for office and it may be prudent not to detail everything. Suffice it to say, t’was a nice time.