It's like *right there*! How can we not go?!

The world is brilliantly massive, yes - but also excitingly small...while scoping out a map to better direct my inquiring father as to the precise geographic surroundings of our next stop (something I am notoriously bad at off the cuff) I realized that we have the opportunity to eat Chinese food (an all-time favorite since I was old enough to chew) in China...how fabulous is that?

While once on a trip to Spain my friend Alana and I realized North Africa was literally just across the water. I mean we could see it from where we were, and it's Africa, and how could we not go?! Of course we couldn't resist a quick jaunt to Morocco. The same is true for this scenario as well...I mean, it's China for goodness sake. Not a chance to be missed with Hong Kong, Macau, and the amazing mountainous village regions near Nepal's border all within easy reach.

A quick check of visa requirements brings fantastic results with a high likelihood we could quite easily acquire the tourist visas we'd need to travel at will for any number of days. Hong Kong apparently needs it's own visa, by the way - so if we leave China-proper to enter Hong Kong, we will need another visa to get back out into the rest of China again - but this is the kind of thing I live for...travel planning. In any case, I'd be happy with a week, let alone the 30 to 90 days any tourist can apply for.

So, China is now on the list, as well as the horizon - and I'm all about wonton soup.



The problem comes though, with this 'eyes bigger than the stomach' affliction I am plagued by. I can also see Russia, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos...the list of possibilities is endless and the only thing keeping me from putting Afghanistan and Pakistan in there as well is the daily reports of gunfire. The truth is though, when all is said and done, I'd go there too, given the opportunity. But since we're not looking to end up on the six o'clock news we'll play it cool.
I'm just saying....

These lines we draw on the world, they're just lines, just borders...a tiny little figment of human invention to be crossed (albeit most with sub-machine gun armed guards but that's just part of the deal these days) to reach another country, another culture, another way of life - and I quite seriously want to experience each and every one - at least those that are handing out visas.