Saturday, August 19, 2006

If Only I Had More Than Three Weeks of Vacation


I've been to 15 countries. It sounded like a decent number until I saw in on a map. As illustrated, 15 countries is a piddly amount and it drives home the point that the world is a big place and I've hardly reached out to see it. With the exception of Vietnam and Thailand, I haven't ventured to many non-Western, non-industrialized countries. And I've never been to the southern hemisphere. We are hoping to change all that this year with a trip down south. We've recently looked into visiting Chile at Christmastime. How wonderful would it be to ring in 2007 in Patagonia?

On the other hand, I've visited 38 of our 50 fair United States. This country is vast and beautiful. Mr. Octopus and I were blown away during our cross-country trip last year (we took the northern route). He liked South Dakota and I liked Wyoming best. A few years back we got engaged in New Mexico, which is a quietly magical place (they don't call it the "Land of Enchantment" for nothing). A must visit for desert lovers.




create your own visited country map

11 comments:

junebee said...

I'm very impressed! You are so well-travelled. For some reason we considered Chile for our honeymoon. Due to the fact that the Citizen wasn't a citizen at the time, we went to Hawaii. All the thrill of an exotic location handily in the same country!

MK said...

Are you seriously going to Chile this winter? I've been wanting to go for a long time. My cousin just went last winter and loved it.

PS: Don't worry. Your map is quite decent. Mine isn't much better. Just Europe more filled in, plus Turkey and South Africa, but zero Asia.

chanchow said...

Junebee: We considered going to the southern hemi for our honeymoon as well, but due to time constraints, we ended up going to Mexico (Zihuatanejo and Oaxaca, both lovely).

MK: Chile is definitely a possibility. It all depends on the work situation. We would probably take 10-11 days. The travel agent I spoke to gave us an itinerary covering Santiago, Puerto Montt and Patagonia. Easter Island will have to wait for another time. Mr. Octopus and I are itching for a good vacation.

Anonymous said...

Are you sure you weren't in Montana? Isn't part of Yellowstone in Montana?

dn

chanchow said...

I don't think we ever made it into Montana. We went to the northern part of Yellowstone, but not north of the state border. I could be wrong though.

Anonymous said...

possible, but if you were at the lodge, i think you were less than one mile from montana--i'd be surprised if you didn't sneak over the border at some point

MK said...

Are you planning anything for Memorial Day w/e? We are thinkiong of a hop to Seattle or San Francisco.

chanchow said...

We have no plans for Memorial Day. Let me discuss with Mr. Octopus. Any interest in meeting up on some other long weekend? Say, Presidents Day? I only say that because Memorial Day is so far away.

Octopus Grigori said...

He must be thinking of Labor Day.

MK said...

I meant Labor Day. I always get those two mixed up. Makes no sense to me why Labor Day isn't May 1st, as it is elsewhere in the world.

Creative-Type Dad said...

Nice!

I'm sad to say (or maybe not) that we've been to more foreign countries than to states.
I like places that don't speak english. Well, I guess Texas counts too.