Why I Want to Quit My Job and Explore Asia

The author in Bangkok at ancient temple

The travel itch has resolutely lodged itself within my being again. Growing up, my family finally found financial security, but perhaps due to our humble beginnings as my dad struggled through law school, my parents never spent money on things ordinarily wealthy people would indulge in. Expensive clothes, the newest electronics, fine home decor were not of value to them, and I thank them for teaching their children frugality and shunning materialism.

Travel was our main indulgence. We went on at least one family vacation every year, and so as a child I was blessed to visit most of the United States, the Bahamas, Mexico, the Caribbean, Switzerland, Disney World. We visited Disneyland, and Hawaii many times, and every year we always rented a beach house up on the North Coast of California.

Personally, I have also had many opportunities to travel. As an adolescent I participated in a touring performing arts group that took me to New York City, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. In college, I studied abroad one spring term in France, where I got to live in Paris and see much of that beautiful city, as well as Normandy in the north, the Loire Valley in central France, and Nice, Monaco and the more rural southern coast. I took a weekend trip to London, where I developed a lifelong loathing of and aversion to youth hostels (horrid, dirty hovels!).

My church mission took me to Hong Kong, and I later got to visit Beijing, and Bangkok, where I fell in love with Thailand. Our family took a cruise to Tahiti and the surrounding islands in 2008, and in March of this year, we visited South Africa in order to pick up my brother from his church mission.

The author on a private motu off the coast of Nuku Hiva

You would think this would be enough for me, but the trouble with traveling is, the more I do it, the more desire I have to do so again. It’s embarrassing to admit that I just took a week-long cruise to Mexico 6 weeks ago, and I’m already aching to hop on a plane again. Since foreign travel isn’t in the cards for the time being, I decided to reflect on what traveling I have done, so as to satiate my desire with the memories of and gratitude for the places I have gone.

But India, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, New Zealand, and others are still calling ... Who's with me?