Howdy all. Well, as the year winds down it’s quite traditional to do a reflection post, and that’s what I am doing here! Christmas and New Year are all but upon us, but I’m looking backwards over the year that has been today. 2025 will, all things going well (touch wood) be a year that brings a lot more travel than this year has.

In fact I pretty much took one single trip this year and that was to Japan and Korea in April/May. It was a three week getaway which was nice, but otherwise I have not had any other travel for the year, not even locally in my state of Victoria. The main reason for that has been my wife and I finally bought our own apartment in July and moved in in September. It’s meant a lot of saving, visiting places, organising finance oh and putting new furniture together. It’s been worthwhile and we’re happy with where we have ended up, but it has been a primary focus for 2024 and hasn’t meant much time for much else.

I need to learn to sleep again too, I’ve been going to bed too late for no good reason, on top of doing as many shifts as my mind and body will let me. All this with a mind looking forward to 2025 and the chance to use my long service leave and really get out and about and see some new countries and parts of the world I haven’t been to before – so stay peeled for that but remember, I generally don’t give away what I’m doing until I’m there because … well I’m worried I’ll jinx it!

My wife and I headed to Japan in the second half of April in 2024 and spent a week in Yokohama and Tokyo before heading down to Kyushu to discover what this part of the country is like. The answer – beautiful! Got to see a bit of nature which was nice, a walk or two, and a very rainy day in the city of Fukuoka.

At the start of May I took the ferry to Korea and my only new country for 2024. It was pouring in Busan on my first day there, then sunny and cloudless skies the next day. Then to Seoul for a week where I was super busy visiting palaces, a theme park and the DMZ from which I glimpsed into South Korea’s notorious neighbour, North Korea. I flew home via Taiwan where I had one day to shoot a vlog before returning home to keep looking for an apartment to buy.

Total number of flights was a mere THREE in 2024, and three NEW airlines too – Japan Airlines, Korea Airlines and the Taiwanese China Airlines (in Business Class). Look out in early 2025 for my reviews of Korea Airlines and China Airlines.

I really amped up the vlogging over those three weeks. I’m not sure how many vlogs I shot whilst away but it was more than one a day on average. As a result, it felt like some sort of business trip! I will need to carefully consider how much vlogging/content creation I do when I travel going forward because it often does NOT feel like I’m on holiday.

I stayed in three budget-ish guesthouses/hotels, an Air BnB and my mother-in-law’s house whilst I was away, and that’s all the accommodation I stayed in all year away from my own bed. So compared to my usual routine, well, I’ve been very grounded in 2024.

The year as far as the rest of the world is concerned has been pretty depressing with far too much war and no real understanding or sides coming together and putting aside their differences. Not sure when we as a planet are going to learn… possibly never.

BUT – I don’t want to finish on such a negative note. So here’s to 2025 that brings YOU happiness, peace and a bit of relaxation. We could all use it!

Thanks for following the blog this year! Take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!