Daily Prompt: The Happy Wanderer

What’s your travel style? Are you itinerary and schedule driven, needing to have every step mapped out in advance or are you content to arrive without a plan and let happenstance be your guide?

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. I need to have a plan. There’s no way I’m going to be travelling anywhere, well, anywhere I’ve never been, and not having some idea of what I’m doing or where I’m going. If I’m going there for a reason, I need to know where the airport is, how far it is to the hotel, the best way to get there. Then from the hotel, where’s the closest supermarket? Can I walk there? What time does it close? etc etc.

If I’m going somewhere for a specific purpose, then I don’t really need to do much planning, because I already know what I’m going to be doing when I arrive. If I’m going on a holiday then I…

…hang on… I’ve never actually HAD a holiday, so I can’t really finish that sentence. I guess when I actually manage to have a holiday, I’d much prefer for it to be unplanned. I’ll still do my background research, but there won’t necessarily be a daily itinerary (take note, Hulk!!) of what to do each day – it will all depends on what’s available, and what the weather is like. Why plan to go snorkelling one day, only to wake up and discover that the weather is miserable. Suddenly you can’t reschedule your snorkelling adventure because you’ve got all this other stuff planned every other day, and, what’s that? You can’t get a refund on the tickets? Oh, what a shame!!

That’s not how I roll. When I go on holidays, I’ll be going somewhere to relax and maybe play tourist. Maybe.

Hulk, on the other hand, is the person who will want a complete itinerary for every hour of every day, because that’s how he rolls. But let’s just say that whatever decisions are made… I make the final say. hehehe.

I’ve always wondered how everybody around me is always managing to afford to regularly go overseas. Even people who work part time… and they somehow manage to head on over to Bali or Thailand etc three or four times a year. How?? Sometimes I can’t even afford grocery shopping and I make a decent wage. Granted, I know that I am so completely hopeless with managing my money, whereas these other people clearly aren’t.

…or they have wealthy parents.. ??!!

I’d love to be able to come back from one trip, and then start planning my next trip a couple of months later. I couldn’t think of anything more exciting – at least that would always give you something to be looking forward to – especially if you happen to have a very unfulfilling and mundane job. I’d love nothing more than to go home tonight, and say ‘fuck it. Let’s book a holiday. We’re going to for 10 days in June…’ but unfortunately, for us, life doesn’t work like that. There’s waaaay too many variables to consider… not to mention my work more than likely turning around and telling me ‘NO’.

…granted, the same work that also get on my back about not taking my leave. *sigh* oh it’s a never-ending contradiction.

You know what I need… a holiday!!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/daily-prompt-the-happy-wanderer/

Daily Prompt: Keeping Up with the Jones’

Tell us about the one luxury item you wish you could afford, in as much detail as you can. Paint a picture for us.

I wonder how many people are writing about the same things in response to this prompt? You know, things like bigger TV’s, flashy cars, the latest iDevice, expensive jewellery / clothing / shoes etc.

Well, I’ve got one thing. An overseas holiday.

I’ve never actually had a holiday. Yes, I have travelled, and I’ve even been overseas to do so (although, that was only New Zealand and it’s only been twice!) but still, it counts (although not according to my passport that still remains stamp-less!). Anywhere I’ve travelled to has been for either two reasons: family and / or work.

But what about me?! What about travelling for me?! I know of far too many people who are always banging on about how they’re off overseas for x-amount of weeks, or they’ve just come back from such-and-such a country, or they’re planning a 2 week trip to Thailand (again) for the third or fourth time this year, or how they’ve just sent their child off overseas for a six-week trip to Europe.

Are you fucking KIDDING ME!?!? How on earth do people afford these things? Seriously, how much money are you making if you can afford so much travel?? Even if you are lucky enough to get cheap flights and possibly, cheap accommodation, yes, that makes it much more affordable, but some people seem to just have money coming out of their ears, and those are the people who love to flaunt it in everybody’s face.

LOOK AT ME!! LOOK, DAMN IT!! LOOK AT WHAT I’M DOING WITH MY DISPOSABLE INCOME THAT YOU CLEARLY DON’T HAVE!! LOOK AT HOW THIS MAKES ME BETTER THAN YOU!!

…fuck off.

I want to travel for me. And Hulk. But mainly for my own self-indulgent pleasure.

I want to find myself on a beach somewhere. Don’t necessarily care right now, those details are secondary. A beach with white sand and crystal clear waters. Massages by (or on) the beach twice a day. Copious amounts of sleeping and lazing around in the sun to work on getting a fabulous tan (instead of this pasty-white skin that I’m rocking at the moment). Fresh produce everyday, fruits and vegetables and seafood. Lordy, so much seafood!

I want to go canoeing, and snorkelling on reefs, and taking underwater photos of beautiful fish and turtles. I want to go swimming with dolphins, and then end up crying uncontrollably from the onslaught of raw pent-up emotion. I want to find myself in paradise; in a place where the rest of the world doesn’t even exist. I want to completely forget about the stresses of work, and working two jobs. Forget about the stresses of being constantly tired, and being time poor, and having late nights and late dinners. I want to be able to eat dinner at a normal time, and eat it at the beach!!

But the worst part of it all, is that some bitch out there is going to turn around and tell me that they’ve just come back from 3 weeks in the Maldives, and tell me about how utterly ahmaaaahhhzing it was, and that I ‘simply must go there sometime’.

Oh should I? Thanks for confirming that one for me.

 

 

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/daily-prompt-jones/