Vacation Anxiety
Yesterday, we picked up our foreign currency from the bank, so we are armed with a stack of Japanese Yen and Chinese Yuan. We never seem to have enough cash on hand, since we always hope that credit cards will be more widely accepted in foreign countries. This time we aimed high to make sure we don't come up short.
We leave next week, so the vague feelings of anxiety are settling in. So many things to worry about and so much is out of our control, like....
1. Good glory, PLEASE do not let there be any flight delays. Please, please, please, weather gods and airplane mechanic gods. We have been lucky to have only had one flight delay that caused severe issues. That would be the time we landed in LAX at 5:00 PM to catch an 11:30 flight to Fiji...and then were given hotel vouchers because our flight had been postponed until the following day. The plan was to sleep on the plane and wake up in Fiji...instead we spent the day on the plane and went to sleep in Fiji. We lost a whole day out of our two-day stopover on this tropical island. Disappointing, but we still had time to do a cultural tour of a traditional Fijian village and visit the Mud Baths.
For this trip, we fly out of LAX at 1:30 AM after arriving there at 8:00 PM, so we have a few hours cushion in case there are any delays domestically. Of course, we will be flipping exhausted by this point since this is 4:30 AM Eastern time, but that's a whole other issue. :-P
2. Am I going to go hungry in Asia? Breakfast is included all days, but most lunches and dinners are on our own. I think most of our hotels have restaurants, so those will probably have some international cuisine. I really want to try the local food while I'm there, but I have not heard good things about their understanding of vegetarianism. Plus, there's the fact that I've never been a huge fan of Asian food...but I'm ready to step out of my comfort zone. Kinda, sorta, anyway.
3. What if we forget something...like PASSPORTS?! Or international adapters? Or what if our luggage gets lost? I undoubtedly have all kinds of checklists to try to keep us organized and minimize the chance of us forgetting something. Of course that all goes out the window if someone else forgets to make sure our luggage gets on the plane. :-P
4. We plan to venture out on our own at least a little bit, and I'm just hoping we don't get completely lost. There is a substantial language barrier. While visiting Francisco's family recently, his cousin had asked about our trip and we had mentioned that we would be traveling with a tour group. The majority of the other trips we've been on have all been self-planned. He had asked if that bothered us to not have done the planning ourselves...and honestly, for countries like Japan and China, I feel so much more comfortable working with an established tour agency. Domo arigato and sayonara are about the extent of my Japanese vocabulary...and can you imagine driving there and trying to interpret the signs? But definitely, when we get the opportunity to explore more of Europe, I imagine we will do all the planning ourselves to maximize our visits!
Don't get me wrong - I love traveling, but it's not all fun and games. Even working with a tour agency, there's a lot of effort that needs to go into the planning process. I'm sure I won't truly relax until like 2 weeks after we're back in the States, but I'm ready for the adventure!
1. Good glory, PLEASE do not let there be any flight delays. Please, please, please, weather gods and airplane mechanic gods. We have been lucky to have only had one flight delay that caused severe issues. That would be the time we landed in LAX at 5:00 PM to catch an 11:30 flight to Fiji...and then were given hotel vouchers because our flight had been postponed until the following day. The plan was to sleep on the plane and wake up in Fiji...instead we spent the day on the plane and went to sleep in Fiji. We lost a whole day out of our two-day stopover on this tropical island. Disappointing, but we still had time to do a cultural tour of a traditional Fijian village and visit the Mud Baths.
2. Am I going to go hungry in Asia? Breakfast is included all days, but most lunches and dinners are on our own. I think most of our hotels have restaurants, so those will probably have some international cuisine. I really want to try the local food while I'm there, but I have not heard good things about their understanding of vegetarianism. Plus, there's the fact that I've never been a huge fan of Asian food...but I'm ready to step out of my comfort zone. Kinda, sorta, anyway.
3. What if we forget something...like PASSPORTS?! Or international adapters? Or what if our luggage gets lost? I undoubtedly have all kinds of checklists to try to keep us organized and minimize the chance of us forgetting something. Of course that all goes out the window if someone else forgets to make sure our luggage gets on the plane. :-P
4. We plan to venture out on our own at least a little bit, and I'm just hoping we don't get completely lost. There is a substantial language barrier. While visiting Francisco's family recently, his cousin had asked about our trip and we had mentioned that we would be traveling with a tour group. The majority of the other trips we've been on have all been self-planned. He had asked if that bothered us to not have done the planning ourselves...and honestly, for countries like Japan and China, I feel so much more comfortable working with an established tour agency. Domo arigato and sayonara are about the extent of my Japanese vocabulary...and can you imagine driving there and trying to interpret the signs? But definitely, when we get the opportunity to explore more of Europe, I imagine we will do all the planning ourselves to maximize our visits!
Don't get me wrong - I love traveling, but it's not all fun and games. Even working with a tour agency, there's a lot of effort that needs to go into the planning process. I'm sure I won't truly relax until like 2 weeks after we're back in the States, but I'm ready for the adventure!
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