My Top 10 Travel Wishlist

Originally written on June 14, 2009; updated today.

Some of these places I have visited before but I want to go there again and re-live the experience. In no particular order:

1. Catch a concert at the Tokyo Dome, Japan. Whatever concert. I just want to be in the place. I’ve watched so many concert DVDs filmed at the Dome it’s a flaming shame if I don’t get to experience it at least once.

2. Go to E for All (Entertainment for All Expo) in LA, the sort-of successor to the previously open-for-all E3, take lots of pictures with as many Booth Babes (yes, it’s a noun) as I could humanly manage and make all the fanboys weep with envy.

3. Blow a month’s worth of salary eating at Djemaa El-Fna, Marrakech. Yes, food occupies a very large portion of my brain.

4. Spend a totally hedonistic, self-gratifying (not in a perverse kind on way so take your mind out of the gutter), pleasure-seeking weekend at the Glastonbury Festival.

5. Stay up quietly til dawn to watch an Aurora Borealis over the skies of Alaska. I’m cool with Canada too.

6. Swim in the impossibly blue waters of Mauritius without caring about how fat I look in a bikini. DO NOT use your imagination.

7. Explore and discover  Europe aboard the opulent and luxurious Orient Express. Sneaking off to the train’s roof to have afternoon tea is optional. I will be broke for the next 5 years after this trip but I will deal with that when it happens. Live in the moment, yes?

8. Put on my spectacles, look intelligent and hobnob with people who make a living out of writing at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali. Then, watch the sunset at Nusa Dua with a cup of local coffee and a few slices of sponge cake (I cannot decide how many slices are too many).

9. Appease the wild and (sometimes) out-of-control-if-not-paid-attention-to shopping beast in me in Hong Kong, then trick  Snow White at Disneyland HK to speak to me in Chinese to confuse the children.

…and 10) I can’t decide on a 10. Suggest any?

UPDATE:

Thanks Ibu Wita for suggesting the 10th destination.

10.  Take one of the passengers ships from ‘Hurtigruten’ and sail amongst the fjords, almost to the Russian waters and experience the midnight sun.

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10 Things Ijah Wants To Do

In no particular order:

Tokyo Dome Entrance (c) Photopass Japan

1. Catch a concert in Tokyo Dome. Whatever concert. I just want to be in the place. I’ve watched so many concert DVDs filmed at the Dome it’s a flaming shame if I don’t get to experience it at least once. Khoo was trying to convince me to go to a U2 concert the next time they are in Japan. Say no more. DONE!
2. Go to E3 (Electronic Entertainment Exposition) in LA or wherever it’s held. It’s an invitation only event so go figure how I am going to get one.
3. Failing the above, go to E for All (Entertainment for All Expo) in LA, the sort-of successor of the previously open-for-all E3. Honestly, I am trying to shoot for this in 2009 so if you notice a marked improvement in my not-buying-any-shoes spending pattern, E for All is to be blamed.
4. Buy a Martin. And a Taylor. Ok, this doesn’t really qualify as things that I want to do, but it’s high on my things to buy list.
5. Learn to speak Japanese. Dammit. I keep on telling myself I will do this every year and I never do.
6. Go to Marrakech for a holiday. For the longest time, I have wanted to go to Morocco for a holiday. It holds a strange fascination that I cannot explain.
7. Spend a totally hedonistic, self-gratifying (not in a perverse kind on way so take your mind out of the gutter you sick b*stard), pleasure-seeking weekend at the Glastonbury Festival.
8. Catch a U2 concert (if it’s in the Tokyo Dome, even better!). I can’t remember the first time I heard “With or Without You” but I remember I had goosebumps. I watched the old music video the other day and I had goosebumps again. And also, to please Mr Khoo since he’s been so nice to me. *bodek sikit*
9. Learn how to bake and whip the perfect butter cream icing for cupcakes. If you know me, you will know how important this skill is to my survival.
10. Stay up til dawn to watch the Aurora Borealis. For some strange reason, there is a specific someone that pops to my mind that I want to do this with but that person will remain unnamed at this point.

What’s on your 10-things to do list?

Photo Credit: Joshua Strang, USAF, Wikipedia

Aurora Over Alaska

With or Without You ‘Live’ by U2