MB Meets World

The idea started small: visit my brother and sister-in-law while they visited her family in Taipei. Perfect timing, when I was newly retired, newly alone, and wanting to spend time with Johne and Ya-Huei. The idea grew when I looked at a map of the Asian continent. Dang, such a big place, so far away from Ithaca, New York, our home for nearly twenty-five years. Why not get more bang for my buck and add on a few more countries? I quickly identified six countries where I have friends. Based on availability of the friends and flights, I established my itinerary: Qatar, India, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

My planning started with shopping. I am not a hot weather person, and the temps would be warm in February and March in Asia. And, I wanted to be sure I was appropriately covered in more conservative countries. I wanted to travel lightly. My ideal would be to fit everything into one oversized purse. For ten weeks. Yea, well, a girl can dream. My medicines alone took up the oversized purse! But the new clothes, the borrowed items, and my comfortable staples fit in a small carryon, with meds, snacks, books and journals in the oversized purse- no checked baggage! Pat on the back!

Mani-pedi: check! Short, easy haircut: check! International credit and debit cards so I don’t get charged exchange fees: check! Hat to protect from sun: check! Make-up that works as eye shadow, blush and lipstick: check! Electric converters: check! Arrangements for home and dog in my absence: check! (Although, in fairness, that one was easy because my daughter Sammie lives at home as she pursues her graduate education.) I plowed through my unrealistic to-do list, met up with friends for good-byes, edited my to-do list, packed and re-packed, ate through my jitters, bought travel insurance. 

I felt like I was going to throw up when, just before my departure, we put the last box of Henry’s clothes in the car for a drop off at a thrift shop. I knew this wasn’t necessary for my trip and I was already behind my self-imposed schedule, but I wanted folks in need to get his warm hats and scarves to better brace themselves against Ithaca’s cold winter, and those looking for work to wear his snazzy suits and ties. And, I felt like it was responsible to get a big chunk of hard work done before I started having fun. With Sammie’s help, we got that sad, important task completed.

Finally, in the late afternoon of January 27, I said good-bye to the dogs and Sammie, completed my ritual of saying “road trip!” in the car, sent a selfie to my kids of me saying “road trip!” in the car, and off I drove!