Another Trip
Among New Year’s resolutions I will bet that most people our age are telling themselves that they will finally get down to seeing the world and traveling more. Inertia certainly increased with age (is that part of Newtonian physics?) and our bodies at rest tend to want to stay at rest. But we have more of different physics equation with which to contend in this household. A few years ago after a very nice cruise through the Baltics where we visited eight countries, preceded with a visit to Iceland, and then the next month followed by a motorcycle trip through Greece which we preceded it with a stop for several days in Istanbul, we went ahead a booked another cruise for the next year to fly out to New Zealand, which we circumnavigated and then covered the east coast of Australia including a stop in Tasmania. In a nutshell, we had overdone it. We did not so much enjoy the NZ/OZ cruise, not because of any deficiency from Viking Cruise lines or anything of distaste in the places we visited, but because we broke a cardinal rule of life. We did that cruise on our own (our planned comrades were unable to join us) and as much as we enjoy each other’s company, we felt somewhat bored by the whole trip. It was then that we made a new resolution for ourselves to travel less.
Traveling less as a personal dictate may sound funny to some, but both Kim and I have really seen most of the world. I especially, due to my global upbringing (6 years living in Latin America, three years living in Europe and two years living in Canada) and my extensive business travel that took me often both in the east/west developed markets corridors and the north/south emerging markets regions, have literally seen it all. Kim had the benefit at a young age of an older sister that was nice enough to share her global flight attendant travels with her younger sister, and then, as an adult, her travels included a trip chaperoning a girls school trip at the invitation of the King of Morocco and a trip through Spain and Italy filming an Italian movie with Daryl Hannah. Naturally, we still have a short bucket list of places we haven’t seen and would like to, but they tend to be more might like to places rather than must do places.
Kim has never been to China. This was ingrained in her psyche when my youngest son, Thomas, who was taking Chinese at his West Village private school, went to China not once, but twice, and was shocked that she had never been to China. I mean who in the Twenty-First Century has not been to China, right? And no, Hong Kong alone really doesn’t count. Back in 1990 I was on tap at work to get assigned to Hong Kong and was willing to go, but instead took a two-month trial assignment in Tokyo instead at my boss’ urging and then turned down a permanent tour there in favor of a two-year tour in Toronto. I found life in Tokyo stultifyingly uninteresting, but that may have been more due to my personal circumstances since I was just recently divorced. I did go to mainland China in 2014 for two weeks and did a tour of many of the inner cities of the country, the equivalent of touring the American rust-belt, and I found China and the Chinese people to be fascinating. I don’t know what other places are on Kim’s bucket list, but I have told her that with geopolitical relations with China being what they are in 2024, I’m not so sure it will be on the favored vacation spot list for us. We’ll see.
As for my personal bucket list, I have what I would call quirky spots on it that are all sort of hard to get to and not so big as to deserve an entire destination travel program. Top of that list is Easter Island, which is truly a bitch to get to since you can only do so from New Zealand or Chile or perhaps a cruise of the South Pacific where you are willing to spend vast days on the open water, imagining yourself as Mr. Christian or Captain Bligh, looking for and perhaps also finding Pitcairn Island. Islands are most of my bucket list and they include the Azores and Canaries, but also the island of Malta, which I find mysteriously interesting and which is so close to where I lived in the Mediterranean for three years and where I have traveled otherwise like during our circumnavigation of Sicily a few years ago. None of my bucket spots burn in my soul, but are rather places I would list if forced to make a list. The most annoying haven’t-done places are the Stans and Mongolia that form the Asian steppes that are hidden in the interior of the largest continent. The Silk Road has always fascinated me and I have read all there is to read about Marco Polo accordingly. But alas, that Asian inner sanctum may or may not ever get fulfilled since I suspect it takes a heartier constitution than I may have when I get around to thinking seriously about doing it.
Just this month we went through the fire drill of talking about a Christmas Market tour of Europe, something Kim really wants to do. There are actually nice river cruises that do that in style and comfort and I was game to try since I have a very fond recollection for the Christmas market in Prague. We have two couples where the wife really has an interest but the husband is not so keen or has other constraints that make this specific seasonal sort of trip impossible. SO as quickly as that thought began, we dropped it. Perhaps the best part about the “We must travel less” program is that when we dropkick another trip idea, we don’t feel so bad and have a laugh that we really did want to travel less, didn’t we?
Yesterday, out of the blue, Kim got a message from her talent agency asking if she would be willing to submit for a shoot aboard a Mediterranean cruise in late March. We are back from SE Asia in early March, so there was no immediate conflict that precluded that timeframe. It seems that Carnival Cruises is doing some promo shoots and wants a woman of her demographics to send on that cruise and shoot active onboard scenes. But wait. They also are looking for couples if they are available and have up-to-date passports and look photogenically appropriate for what they are trying to accomplish. Kim asked me if I was interested and I said, why not.
So, we took a one minute video together per the agency instructions, telling the viewers who we were and why we were such world travelers that would be fun to watch on some commercial. I know I am nowhere near as photogenic as Kim, but at least I still have my hair and still have enough button-down shirts to look presentable. I find it hilarious to think I might be on a cruise commercial showing people what a fun guy I am to travel with. My buddy Mike, who has travelled with me, knows better of course, so I did not list him as a reference for the gig. But getting paid to travel sort of changes the “We want to travel less” equation, so I must admit I hope we have a shot at this. I know its a long shot, but I guess we’ll see. I am thinking of looking up the Carnival cruise roster for the dates mentioned to see if this particular cruise is going to hit Malta. I’m a lucky guy, but am I that lucky? Does getting paid to visit a bucket list place still count”