Vacation Planning Pensees

Coming back to Canada, I actually had to negotiate to get 3 weeks vacation to start which is probably the only bad thing about my job (I really do miss those statutory 5 weeks I had in Europe ). So,my vacation time is a lot more precious and I can’t just be taking long weekends for short juants. Not only that, flights from North America are so expensive compared to Europe, I need to be a lot more careful with my money as well (and, um… there are not as many good budget airlines either… sigh… ).

So, this is the current thinking on the holiday I am thinking of taking at the end of the year.

1. Angkor Wat in Cambodia
   I have yet to set foot in Asia and I’ve been sort of fascinated with visiting this place since seeing pictures of it as a kid. The section of sacked artwork in the Musée Guimet when it re-opened a few years ago also made me want to see it again, and perhaps for purely show off reasons, I’d like to tick off another continent from my world travel adventure list…
2. Egypt
   Who wouldn’t want to see the pyramids and the temples ? Cairo in particular and the rest of the fruits of the civilization that cradled the Nile and also would get to practice my rapidly deteriorating Arabic. I still can’t believe I never made it over there when I was polishing off the rest of North Africa back a few years ago. Bad points : Terrorism seems to be on the rise in the region so getting a likely travel companion to go would be even harder than usual. Also, things seem to have gotten much more expensive there.

3. Mexico City and the Ruta Maya
   A good friend and her brother stayed at my place a while back and extended the invitation to go to Mexico City which I am interested in because I have never seen Teotihuacan despite studying quite a bit about the Aztec (and Olmec, Toltec and Mayan cultures) as well as the National Archaeological Museum which has a number of things I would like to see. I’m also even thinking of taking a MesoAmerican Archaeology course at UBC if I can swing it with work which would be quite the dovetailing (though I think my boss will scoff when I mention it). Oh, and I currently have enough AirMiles to get down to the wonderful land of Mexico as a freebie which is a big bonus as I pay off my MSc debt. Also, my friend, who has never seen a great deal of her own country may be interested in going though nothing there is for sure. I do like the idea of going to Mexico City, making it down to the Yucatan and doing the Ruta Maya/Hummingbird highway trip I had planned prior to leaving Canada several years ago.

That’s the shortlist so far, though friends in Brazil, a return trip to Morocco, or France all seem fantastic alternatives at the moment now (and in fact, India seems like a great idea but need to save pennies and time before that happens). Just kind of braindumping right now and trying to get my thoughts straight. Trying to balance off things like archaeology, travelling, work and financial concerns as well.

Hmmmm…. too many places, not enough time and money.