wishes | Kai Chronicles

I’ve been lucky enough to travel lots! I was even fortunate enough to work as a photographer on a cruise ship so I have heaps of cool travel pics to share. If anyone is considering such employment, do it. I only lasted 6 months (1 contract) but that was by my choice and because I got married.

So, not only will I share my entire top 100 travel wishes, I will share some of the travel that I have been fortunate to undertake. Enjoy. I hope it inspires someone, somewhere to dream large and then make the dreams reality.

Me in Singapore 2010

Rippin’ it up at Big White, Canada 2009

In St Petersburg – that’s the Church on the Spilled Blood in the background!! 2003

Us having fun in the snow at Big White 2009.

Top 100 Travel Wishes and Dreams (in no particular order)

Walk the Great Wall of China
Buy a pair of Manola Blahniks in New York City (oh so Carrie Bradshaw)
See a Broadway play in NYC
Spend a weekend in a log cabin in the wilds of Canada
Have a snowy winter wonderland Christmas
Learn to cook a Vietnamese meal in Hanoi
Work on my tan in the Cook Islands
Do the hula in Hawaii
Scream on a rollercoaster at an American amusement park with my boys
Attend a writing course at Australian Writers’ Centre in Sydney
Take Jo Tracey out for dinner in Sydney
Meet my friend Gillian in Bali for a girls week away
Spend a snowboarding holiday in Banff, Canada with my boys
Cruise to Alaska from Vancouver
Drink apple tea in Turkey
Have a smoke and a pancake in Amsterdam
Visit the Angkor temples
Shop at the Angkor night market in Siem Reap
Meet Leigh Redhead in Hanoi
Dine on street food in Hanoi
Drink a Guinness beer in Ireland
Tour a winery in Margaret River
Stay at an ashram in India
Float on a junk in Hong Kong
Practise yoga at the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh, India
Fly my body at iFly Singapore
Play for a day at Universal Studios Singapore
Stay at the funky QT Hotel in Sydney
Puff a cigar in Havana, Cuba
Get high in Malaysia by spending a day or two at Genting
Meditate in Nepal
Have an espresso and tiramasu in Italy
Splash and laugh at Adventure World Perth
Take the Sea to Sky Climb train ride to Whistler (from Vancouver)
Ride the rails aboard the Rocky Mountaineer Vancouver to Jasper
Same as above but to Calgary via Lake Louise and Banff
Spend a day at Vida Wellness Spa in Whistler
Eat chocolate eclairs in Paris (worth the trip just for this)
Retreat at Gaia Spa near Byron Bay
Temple hop in Sri Lanka
Stay at a resort in Langkawi
Have a fondue in Switzerland
Chill out at a fab apres ski bar anywhere in Europe
Sunbathe topless in Nice
Soak up the atmosphere at Bondi Beach (i’ve been several times and need more of it!)
See what Manly Beach looks like…funnily enough, I’ve never been!!
Attend a writing/yoga retreat in Byron Bay with Sarah Armstrong and Alan Close
Ride a camel along Cable Beach, WA
Attend The Taste Festival in Hobart
Rise above it all at the Canberra Festival in a hot air balloon
New Year’s Eve in Sydney for fireworks!
Be colourful at the Holi festival in India
Visit Siena, Italy during the Palio
Eat pizza in Naples, Italy (I’ve done this before and OMG…the best pizza evah)
Learn Italian in Italy
Go to Milan during Fashion Week (I know nothing of fashion but it’s so Carrie Bradshaw that I must do it someday)
Keeping with the Carrie theme……drink a Cosmopolitan & a Manhattan in…you guessed it, Manhattan
Learn to dance like they did in the 1700s in Venice so I can……
Attend a fab party during Carnival
Explore the mysteries of Luxor, Egypt
Spend a weekend in San Francisco
See the Yukon, Canada
Watch bull-riding at the Calgary Stampede
Photograph the Grand Canyon, USA
Tour the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica
Climb the Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Swim at Shark Bay, WA
Swim with dolphins at Monkey Mia,WA
Take Master T trick or treating (a proper Halloween) in North America
Eat falafel and hummus in Jordan
Learn to belly dance in Egypt
Drive a snowmobile in Canada (no, I’ve never done this…shocking, I know)
Gorge on tacos, quesadillas and tequila in Mexico
Rent a whitewashed, seaside house in Greece
Never be hungry in Hungary
Go back to Oman
Arrive to Tofino, British Columbia (Canada) by seaplane
Rent Tigh-na Clayoquot Vacation House in Tofino BC for a week with friends (Gillian, this has your name all over it!!)
Go to the Australian Open (Tennis) in Melbourne
See a quokka on Rottnest Island, WA
Spend a night in an igloo
See gorillas in the wild in Rwanda
Ride an elephant in Thailand
Snowboard in Japan
Be amazed at Cirque de Soleil (anywhere will do)
Take a learn to surf course in Hawaii (just for fun…I don’t want to surf)
Visit Sydney with my sister, Christine!!
See penguins on Penguin Island, WA
Writing course in Paris
Attend the Healthivate health bloggers conference in Sydney (aim for 2014)
Spend a month or more just “being” in Thailand
Spend the night on Halong Bay, Vietnam
Walk the Milford Track (NZ)
Walk along the Bay of Fires beach in Tasmania
Walk the Inca Trail, Peru
Return to Morocco
Teach English in Southeast Asia (someday)
Spend a month alone writing in Bali
See a moose on Cape Breton Island (Canada)
Travel around Australia on a promo tour as a published author!!

I’m quite happy to say that some of the list has already been accomplished!!! Yip yip!!

Here’s a glimpse of the world through my lens.

Cottage by the sea…Corsica 2004

A Mosque in Casablanca 2004

Portofino, Italy….I love love love this one!

Dream BIG and live LARGE

Yesterday, I received the latest edition of Get Lost! , an Australian travel magazine in the post. I have a subscription, you see. I also have a major crush on this magazine and it’s at the top of my publication wish list. In October, I got a very positive reply about a pitch I submitted. I danced around my office. I laughed. I cried. I posted the good news on Facebook (without disclosing the magazine name). I was hopeful. Then, I never heard back from the editor, even after several attempts to contact him. I was crushed. But, I’ve moved on and my love affair with the magazine resumes. As does my love for travel…..and more specifically, planning for travel..dreaming about it even.

So today, on this windy Wednesday, I will start my official top 100 travel wishes. I have many travel article ideas and must write some today but I feel the need to jot down my dreams and desires to see other grounds, meet new faces, eat foreign foods and experience life outside of my norm. I’ve been luckily enough to see much of the world (you can read about the reasons in the summer edition of BIDE digital magazine) but I cannot stop there. I have a compulsion to explore the possibilities of another life if only for a week or 2 at a time.

100 travel wishes seem like a lot and it may take me awhile to finish the list but here are a few that will make it on there (in no particular order):