Planning for 2012

part of the BootsnAll Indie Travel Challenge Project

share with us your indie travel list – part resolutions, part bucket list, the list should help you focus your travel plans so you can take concrete steps to achieve your travel goals this year (and beyond)

i’ve been dreading writing this post (and thus starting the blogging challenge) because i don’t want to set my goals too high and be disappointed later. but, i suppose if you don’t aim high, you’re not going to get very far, and in the world of indie travel, that’s no good. so, here goes. (more about the whole hesitation to aim high thing later.)

there are so many items on my bucket list that i could attempt to tackle this year, and lately i’ve started to think of the list in terms of a timeline, organized into what i can do now (as a 34-year-old) and what i can do later (say, as a 54-year-old). 

as such, i think the best ones to tackle are the ones involving ibiza. ha, yes, ibiza.

watch the sunset from café del mar while listening to adios ayer

watch the sunrise while listening to one perfect sunrise*

the legendary sunsets from café del mar (and their line of chillout albums) and the island’s history as a rave epicenter alone make me want to visit it (just to say i have?), but add in these songs which aurally define those moments? ding ding ding. somehow that whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. i figure, might as well attempt this one while i’m young just in case i want to attempt to stay up all night, something i can barely do nowadays. that said, i reserve the right to expunge these items from list if the sunset and sunrise from santorini (a planned trip around memorial day weekend) are mind-blowing.

if i can manage an ibiza trip (or a santorini trump), my secondary goal will be one that involves travel to a hot/humid destination, which i’m just not a fan of, so i figure better get this over with while i’m less crotchety/apt to bitch and moan about the horrible weather:

launch a sky lantern in a foreign land (perhaps loi krathong)

the more i think about it, the more i like this whole young/old way of prioritizing my bucket list, since i am not able to say one of my list items is more important than another in any more subjective sense. they’re all goals i have, all equally “must-do” in my eyes. 

just a quick note about why i kept putting off writing this entry: the great frenemy, my job. yes, i earn miles flying because of it and it has taken me to some great destinations i probably wouldn’t have otherwise visited (argentina, south africa), but i cannot take long periods of time off and it’s hard to plan ahead due to the sometimes last-minute project-oriented nature of what we do. i didn’t want to say “i’m going to do this and this and this” and then not do it, because i’ve long since learned to under-promise and over-deliver and i just don’t want to disappoint myself. on the other hand, i think that lends itself into a new resolution: don’t let work get in the way. find a way to work around it, and pray to the travel gods for great last-minute travel deals. 

i guess that’s what it all boils down to: time. making the most of what i have (before time begins to take its toll on me), when i have it (an escape from work).

here’s to a great 2012, hopefully chock full of adventure and discovery (and, if all goes well, one or more bucket list items crossed off) for all of us!

* this is my new favorite video for this song, having just been to tokyo and odaiba this past fall (which itself was a bucket list item i was able to cross off!). i miss japan already!