A couple months back, I decided once my contract in Japan ended, I was going to take time and travel around to various countries before heading home to Chicago. At first I thought maybe I will ask a friend to meet me on each leg of the trip. But the more I thought about it, the more a realized 1. who has the time off to do something like that 2. who has the money to meet me and 3. This would be a good opportunity to solo travel. This would be the first time I would be traveling this long, by myself. I was a little nervous, majority of the countries I was looking into weren’t countries that my parents were super comfortable with me going to alone, but I assured them (and myself) that everything was going to be alright!
My goal was to go to as many countries as I could from April 1 until the day before I set off for home (April 24). I think I had made about 10 different plans varying from 2 countries to 5 or 6 countries. Finally, I decided on 3 countries in 17 days; Phuket, Thailand, Bali, Indonesia, and Cairns, Australia with a 5 hour layover in Singapore and 2 hours in Seoul, South Korea.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time in Korea or Singapore to go out and eat at my favorite places, but I did take the opportunity to explore “the best airport in the world” (Changi Airport, Singapore). Not gonna lie, it is a really nice airport. Like I said in my Singapore post, I strongly recommend everyone to visit this country.
From Japan, I flew from Narita to Seoul and Seoul to Phuket. Total flight time was about 7 hours but door to door (Japan apartment to phuket hotel room) it was probably over 12 hours. I spent eight days in Thailand then headed to Bali (with a layover in Singapore) for 4 days, then finished my trip in Australia for 5 days and then headed back to Japan for another week before flying to Chicago.
So much went on during my trip that I will have to write about my experiences in separate posts. But I will say that this entire trip was amazing. I’m so happy I had the courage to do a trip like this and would encourage everyone to try solo traveling at least once in their life.
