Following January’s Singapore trip, we’ll be doing Tokyo in February.
As mentioned previously, locations are determined by gentleman-of-leisure priorities rather than student density or other such practical considerations. There’s also the detail about staying close to home base, relatively, for a start. Depending on how things go I’ll be venturing to Europe and eventually the U.S. later in the year (hopefully).
I’m attempting to set future destinations with a bit of notice, so you may have a good excuse for a little trip if you prefer not to wait till I end up closer to your locale.
Among my favorite past times are checking flights on Skyscanner.com, where you can look at prices for flights over the coming months, and find interesting deals at various times and nearby airports. Pro tip, try different currencies for sometimes surprising variances in actual cost. Along with that, it can be tempting to be signed up for your favorite airline’s promotional fares. Call it mandatory outdoor, away-from-screens time, make it part of your vision improvement goals, and have a great excuse/reason for a bit of travel! ;-)
Check out the prices in April, for a round trip from Los Angeles to Tokyo and back:
As low as 477 USD, round trip. Wow. I could always be convinced to visit a second time, if you happen to find an irresistible deal to somewhere interesting (just e-mail or post in the forum, let me know).
Airbnb.com also has sometimes shockingly good prices on places to stay.
I’m with Tynan’s take on spending money, assets vs. experiences, vs. indulgences. Since hotels fall in the indulgences category for me (and I tend to not spend much on that front), I’m particularly happy to find reasonably located Airbnb apartments in Tokyo for as little as 15 USD per day (!) – which is pretty amazingly thumbs up in the reasonably priced travel escapes department.
February. Exact dates in the world tour thread in the forum, pinned to the top as always.
March is as yet undecided, it might be Hong Kong, or Bali, or possibly Taipei. I’m open to other Asian locales if you have a preference (just note in the world tour thread if you do). Vietnam is a great vacation spot, beautiful beaches and mountains, and I might be able to briefly play tour guide if we end up there (I have some occasionally useful Vietnamese language skills). As long as these excursions continue to work out with the home life front, I’ll look to keep the schedule definitive for a month or so ahead of time.
Questions, comments, meetup requests, please post in the forum thread or drop me an e-mail.
Cheers,
-Jake
