(Projects of) Intercontinental trips

I have realised that my latest posts are quite negative, mainly related to the financial crisis. In order to have something more optimistic and not to become "monothematic", I would like today to write about some intercontinental trips I would not mind to make in the coming years. Let's try to put a little bit of optimism in the blog.

First, I have always felt some kind of fascination for Japan. I find its culture and lifestyle so different from the Western European that I definitively want to experience it in person. On this, I see two main difficulties. The first one is the food: I cannot eat sushi and many other Japanese food, so I may lose some weight while I stay there. The second problem is, hopefully, conjunctural: Fukushima. In the current circumstances I do not dare to go there and be exposed to (more) radiation. So, that mainly means that this trip is, for the time being, on hold.

Also in Asia, my interest towards Singapore has increased very much recently. One could say that it is mainly due to the Marina Bay complex and its swimming pool with skyline views. But not only for this, more than that, I feel attracted by the old colonial atmosphere one seems to be able to feel in some parts of the city, like in the Raffles Hotel. Singapore is also an interesting melting pot of different nationalities, so I can find a little bit of everything there. The new Airbus A380 also makes this possibility more attractive.

A long-standing projected trip is Canada and, more precisely, its mountains (for example, around Calgary). I have always been seduced by these beautiful pictures of snowed mountains and blue lakes, where one can feel lost and isolated from the world (together with grizzlies, needless to say). Nevertheless, the mountains in High Tatras are very similar to them and one does not need to take an intercontinental fligth there, so the option of Canada is losing momentum...

Finally, in all my flights with Lan to Madrid, I read with interest the information about the Chilean Patagonia. In this case, the trip is more adventurous as it would involve, together with long hours of flying, some glacier walking, whale watching and so on. I must admit that the constant reference to the attractions of this part of Chile is working on me, slowly, but working on me, since I am feeling a bigger need to visit this corner of the world.

I sincerely do not think that I can manage to make any of these intercontinental flights in the short-term. I could try to make my way to a statistics conference in Hong Kong next year, but the place is not so appealing to me... Anyway, I think it is good to have dreams and illusions, not only crisis and theories about the crisis and stupidity surrounding us.