The trouble with having a very exciting childhood is that the rest of your life feels dull by comparison.
I filled a passport by the time I turned 20. I stay in a floating hotel and rode on an elephant’s back in rural Thailand. I participated in Songkran – driving around with our squirt guns sticking out the windows of our car, and Loy Kratong – setting our floating candles on the river with hundreds of others. I built houses in Cebu, Philippines and slept in a hut with a rural Pilipino family – they let my friend and I take one of the two beds in their house and the five family members shared the other bed. I got my hair braided in tiny cornrows in Phuket, Thailand and Bali, Indonesia. We traveled by rowboat through crystal clear waters to the most gorgeous island I’ve ever seen. We stayed in a room filled with geckos. I ate pain au chocolat in Paris two summers in a row in middle school. I shopped in street markets and sipped watermelon juice from the vendors in Malaysia.
On a river in Thailand in our Floatel on the River Kwai. I won’t tell you which is me. Except to tell you that I have hideous round glasses.
I have more amazing memories from my years in southeast Asia than many people are lucky enough to acquire in their entire life.
How am I supposed to live up to that as an adult?! Mike and I like to travel, but we visit neighboring states and countries, not tropical destinations at this point in our life.
After a summer of very little travel, the travel bug has bitten us and we’re headed to Toronto for the first time this weekend and I’m so giddy I can hardly wait. Instead of buying gifts or throwing parties for Gabe and Mike, we’re spending that money traveling this year. My friend Aditi described Toronto as a “Brooklyn without being so pretentious.” It’s only 5 ½ hours away – a very doable road trip. I’m surprised we’ve never been before!
I am beyond happy with my life, but I blame a lifetime of moving every three years for my extreme wanderlust. I want to see every corner of this world and experience every culture, but here are some of the travel things I’d most like to do:
My Travel Life List…Right Now.
- See New Zealand
- Eat pastries in Paris
- Go to Seattle and Portland
- Eat Thai food in Thailand
- Cross country road trip again
- Try poutine in Canada (SOON!)
- Live abroad for at least three months
- Take a train somewhere domestically
- Sit on the Hawaii shoreline with Mike
- Visit my schools in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur
It might be quite some time before some of these happen, but I love the idea of traveling internationally with Gabe. Adventure! Terror! But I always tell myself if my parents moved across the entire globe twice with five kids, surely I can travel with Gabe, right?
What is on your travel bucket list? What is your favorite place you’ve ever visited? (Me? Hawaii, Zion National Park, all of Thailand, Bali, Malaysia Timur)
I am poutine’s biggest fan. In Toronto, you can find plenty of poutine places that serve vegetarian gravy (I recommend Smoke’s Poutinerie). Let us Canadians know what you think!
I love your travel bucket list. I’m not sure I have such a specific one, other than to take Gavin out west (Sweets and I both have a love affair with the mountains). However, before we do that, we’ll likely take Gavin to Europe. Yes, Europe! My parents will be spending an academic year in Milan, so we’re thinking we’ll go to London, Milan and likely one other destination (Spain? Germany? TBD!) in the fall of 2013 or spring of 2014. Cannot wait!
I can definitely recommend London – being a Londoner by birth! I keep trying to persuade Ashley to come here too :)
Have so much fun this weekend! I am finally getting to Istanbul this December (as part of a very delayed honeymoon) which has been number 1 on my list forever! Getting back to Bangkok and Malaysia are always up there too!
Well I like the Portland one of course! ;)
Driving both islands in New Zealand and exploring for a month. Maybe if I am lucky I want to spend a month going through Spain, Italy, and France at my leisure with no real itinerary. *sigh* Your young life sounded magical!
I love how your travel list includes food, as mine does, too! France is always at the top of my list (pain au chocolat=happiness), but right now Italy and Spain are pretty high up there, too, as I have not been to either country. Have a fun trip!
I’m exactly the same! I’ve been to about 23 countries I think and mostly when I was younger (before I turned about 20). Thankfully I have passed my travel bug to my husband so we’re off to Malta in October! Looking forward to doing a bit more travelling this coming year, although also wish there were more countries easily accessible by road from London!
Have an amazing time! It would be so cool for you to go back to your old stomping grounds–I wonder how you perspective will have changed. It’s so strange to go back to places that seemed one way when you were a kid, and then so different as an adult!
YOU’RE GOING TO TORONTO? That’s my favorite Canadian city other than my own, Montreal! Which you have to visit, by the way, one day! We are FOUNDERS of poutine and make the best kind. I’m actually not entirely sure you can get it in Toronto? In any case, if you ever come to Montreal (AKA best Canadian city, really!) I’m always around to help you plan things out :)
You’re gonne have a blast in TO though, I love the hockey hall of fame, the Eaton Center (there’s an intersection at the Eaton Center and it’s the coolest. Dundas Square area, it’s just so busy and bustling and I don’t know why, but it’s one of my favorite areas of the city!)
I can definitely sympathize with severe wanderlust, as I’m going through it now that I’m back home from 2 months abroad. I didn’t have a childhood anywhere near as awesome as yours, but I really want to make my 20’s a traveling kind of decade. So far, so good I think!
I hope you don’t judge our poutine by what you find in Toronto! You’ll have to go to the province of Quebec for REAL poutine (and Montreal is way more interesting than Toronto, anyway!). ;)
I would LOVE to visit Montreal, but it’s twice as far away from us as Toronto!
You have been to so many amazing places! How Awesome! I really want to visit Seattle and Portland as well! Alaska is also top on my travel bucket list! I did however ride on an elephant last week, though it was at a fair in Ohio. (Not year as exciting as I imagine it would be in another country!)
I didn’t even HAVE a passport until I was 19, but since then I’ve visited 9 new countries, and many more places in the USA. I definitely, definitely have the travel bug and it’s one of the many reasons I am hesitant to have a kid haha- as I’ve told you before your parenting style does motivate me :) Have fun in Toronto!
Right now, the places at the top of my list are Boston, San Francisco, and San Juan (PR). Eventually, I’d love to show Joe around my neighborhood in Rome, and Santorini sits at the top of my bucket list, but I feel like Boston, San Fran, and San Juan are doable in the near future.
oh have so much fun in toronto!
i love traveling so so much and cannot wait to go abroad again. right now my travel list consists of:
eating chocolate in switzerland
going back to our favorite bar in florence, italy
a trip to hawaii
drive through ireland
i mean i just want to put: GO EVERYWHERE and call it a day, ha.
Poutine in Toronto isn’t quite on par with that of Montreal. Enjoy Toronto and try to check out a Bluejays game if you can, it’s a city staple.
Travelling around New Zealand for 6 months, because of previous short visits I have become enamoured and want to lose myself there for a while. Im in Australia, so spending a year or two travelling around Australia is also on the list. Possibly India/Mexico/Canada?
I would love to go to India again, see how much it has changed in 20 some years–and hasn’t changed. Does Mike ever think about going back? I’d also like to travel around Europe and spend at least a week in Ireland. Pretty much I’m willing to go anywhere ;-)
New Zealand is amazing! went there while I was studying in Melbourne.
top of my list at the moment:
1) Vancouver (ratings saying one of the best cities to live in..and due to twilight!)
2) Seattle
3) Portland (my childhood friend from ND lives there)
4) Alaska
5) Maldives
6) Dubai
and many more..i love to dream..hihihi
I’m so excited for you and your family! I was born in Toronto, raised in the city and surrounding suburbs, later went back to university in the city, and now live there, and know of a few nice places you should check out.
Fresh off, I recently went to a (vegan) bridal shower at a restaurant called Vegetarian Haven on Baldwin Street, in a very cozy, student/young person friendly downtown area. I know that your family is vegetarian, and even as an omnivore myself I loved the food there. Ask for the tofu drumstick (the “bone” is actually sugar cane) and the unbelievable tofu cheesecake.
The Canadian National Exhibition is going on until Labour Day as well. I just went there on the weekend with my husband to see the SuperDogs show (too cute). There are also lots of rides (on which I can’t comment because they were a little pricey), as well as buildings with tons of foods/crafts/gifts.
Other places I recommend:
– St. Lawrence Market
– Port Credit (part of a neighbouring suburb)
– Yonge and Dundas square
There are also a bunch of places I’ve heard great things about but haven’t yet seen:
– Toronto Islands
– Kensington Market
– Scarborough bluffs
Enjoy the weekend! I can’t wait to hear about your adventures.
Anna
Hooray! This advice is fantastic. THANK YOU. I really appreciate it!
I lived in Toronto until I moved to Chicago two years ago. You’re going to love it! I agree with the recommendations from Anna above. St. Lawrence Market is a must and I think you’d really like the Kensington Market neighbourhood. You should spend some time along the lakefront, it’s lovely. Perhaps stop into the Harbourfront Centre, there are always events going on there. Have a great time! The poutine isn’t as good as what you’d find in Montreal, but still delicious!
Hope you’ve had an amazing time in Toronto! :) It really is a beautiful city!
Interesting website here Ashley. Keep up the good work. You’re going to love Paris!
Travel bucket list? God, I don’t know…EVERYWHERE?!
Hah, but definitely Ireland, North Africa, Thailand, and Costa Rica.
My favorite place I’ve ever been was Israel, HANDS DOWN.