South Korea & Japan - Autumn 2022

Ah, isn’t it great to be able to travel internationally again after two years stranded in our home countries? It was certainly great getting to Europe again this spring. Now I’ve set my sights on an ambitious trip to Asia for three months at the end of 2022. That will include South Korea, Taiwan, and six countries in Southeast Asia. Those are all places I’ve long wanted to see, several of which like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia are among those hit quite early in the travel careers of backpacker types like me. I’ll be getting to all at a spry 55 years of age. I have been to Asia several times before but those travels were mostly Central Asia, China, and South Asia, leaving much of East and Southeast Asia left to be explored. Given the distance and flights between the different countries on my three-month trip, I’ve decided to break my travels into three separate blogs. South Korea is a country that interests me for its culture, history, and food. I will soon see if it is as modern and as easy to travel around as they say. Like the rest of this trip, most of my time will be on a guided group tour. I will be arriving in Korea about a week early for some independent explorations before I join the tour group. South Korea is not that big a country physically, so I am hoping my 18 days there will be enough to see a good part of the country. I originally booked a trip to Taiwan for about ten days between South Korea and Southeast Asia. In late August, though, I was informed by the tour company that they had to cancel it because Taiwan’s Covid restrictions were still too limiting to run a tour. Luckily, I was able to substitute a nine-day tour to Japan during that time instead. The Japan tour will cover just a few highlights of Tokyo, Nikko, and Kyoto. I always assumed that when I finally got to Japan it would either be a city stop in Tokyo for a week or so or a more comprehensive trip in the country. This will just be a taste of Japan, but if I really like it I can always go back and see more.

Planned Dates

2022-10-06 to 2022-11-06

Countries

2