Passion for Travel, #1

Just to reiterate, I’ve started this blog so that I can express the things I love the most in life (as my title states “Jun’s
Love and Life”). So far, I’ve written about my love for photography, guitar, skiing, and thought it was about time to
write about my love for travel!

If I had to pick one fortunate thing about my life, it is that I was born into parents that love traveling and thanks to them, I was exposed to traveling since I was very little. Interestingly enough, I hated traveling when I was a kid; maybe that was because our family travels weren’t always the comfortable trips. My father, who is the advocate of all the travels in our family loves to get the MOST out of our travels, meaning, seeing and doing everything we possibly can when we are at some place. Which can be tiring for a kid, as I was. Museums were extremely tedious (and there are A LOT or TOO MANY at most places we’ve traveled to, which is Europe). But as things change, I grew out of my immaturity and into adulthood (I know some of you may disagree that I have), and began to love and appreciate the different cultures and places that I was able to visit. It’s a shame, because I look back and I wish I had paid more attention to the places I had gone when I was a kid.

So here I am, at age 24, wishing I could just give up everything and just travel the world. Wouldn’t that be a great life?? Just dropping out of school to go travel has crossed my mind numerous times. Life is so short, and why not do it? Why spend the rest of my life in an office cubicle and be sheltered from all the various beauties that God has created for us to enjoy?? I guess the better way to achieve this goal is to work hard, make a lot of money, retire early, and just travel. I guess that works as well….

On the other hand, I think to myself, “should I really be complaining?” I do agree that I am extremely fortunate to be only 24 and have been to more places than most people in the world ever will in their lifetime. If my records are correct, I’ve been to just over 120 different cities/towns in 23 countries, in 3 continents (yes I do keep track of them). But I just don’t feel that is enough…

Anyway, so there is my dilemma with my love for traveling. One way or the other, I love traveling and I try to do as much as I can, whether it’s local traveling or overseas. The latter tends to me a bit more expensive…

My next post, I’ll be talking about the book “1000 Places to See Before You Die”. Interesting book, and it’s motivated me to travel more!!!

To be continued…

Pictures:

1st (Top): Our family in Venice, Italy in August 1995

2nd: Our family in Bond Island, Thailand 2002, (where James Bond, Man Withe the Golden Gun was filmed)

3rd: Our family in the Philippines 1992

4th: My dad and I in Teotihuacan, Mexico, 2006

5th: Our family in the ice tunnel at Jungfraujoch, Swiss (aka, The Alps) in 2006