My dreams of backpacking Asia are actually coming true. My mom and I often talked about backpacking across different parts of the world, Europe, Asia. At the time, I barely knew where these places where on a map, but they sounded exotic and breathtaking. Thailand, Japan, China. I’m not sure what I was envisioning at the ripe age of 12, but I’m sure I dreamed that I would see giant panda bears and elephants at every turn. Fast forward a decade, and here I am with a one way ticket to the Philippines in hand, and the ultimate backpacking adventure ahead of me. The time has come.

I had formerly toyed with the idea of being an English teacher in South Korea for a year. I figured it would give me the change of scenery I was looking for and provide a new challenge for me to tackle. But the timing and the logistics were proving it to be an unwise decision for the time being. With that in my back pocket (it is still something I would like maybe like to pursue, still) I still had a rumbling of an idea that I should get out of town, get that change of scenery and see some of the world. And I went back to this dream. This vague notion I had been carrying around of ‘backpacking Asia.’ So over the next few months this idea got bigger. I started running numbers, doing research, looking up places. This was turning into some tangible, something attainable. And now, I’m here!

Here’s the ultimate dream map I cobbled together for nights on end, holing myself up in my attic of a bedroom, perfecting my master plan. It’s wayyy too many places I could realistically visit, but I think of it like a vision board, its everything I want to do, but maybe I won’t get to it all, and I’m okay with that.

full map can be found here

The next item to tackle was packing a bag. I spent months meticulously cultivating items for this trip. I agonized for a literal month on what shoes I wanted to bring. And then settled for the same two pairs I wear anyway. Suffice to say I spent far too much time on this bag, watched far too many packing videos on YouTube, and cared way too much if my shoes matched. I’m normally pretty good at packing light, and being realistic about what I’m going to wear, but trying to pack for such a long time away was intimidating.

I finally pulled together a bag that I’m pretty happy with, and I no that no matter how much I try to account for everything, there’s no way for me to know exactly what I’ll need until I start this adventure. But for now, here’s everything I’m bringing. It’s pretty crazy to think that is all I’m going to own for the next 5 months (minus the fins, couldn’t get those to fit, no matter how hard I tried, sad face)

One of my main goals of this trip is to scuba dive in as many of these amazing places that I can afford to. Scuba diving in Belize kind of opened a new world to me that I cannot wait to explore further. My bucket list of places I want to dive just keeps getting longer and longer.

I am so freaking excited for this trip. I’ve surprised myself many times at how confident and excited I am about this. This isn’t some kind of vision quest and I’m not trying to ‘find myself’ per se, I’m just really excited to get out into the world, meet some new people, see some cool fish, eat some amazing food, and relax. I think those are pretty attainable goals.

To all my family and friends reading this, thank you all for your well wishes and support as I step out of an old chapter of life and pause, before taking another step into a new one. That’s how I see this trip, as a bridge between something old and something new. But that certainly doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of adventure in between!

-Natalie