I think we are all familiar with the concept of a commitment device—something we put in place to stop ourselves from chickening out at the last minute. That is, of course, what the blog is all about.
Before we sold our house and started to travel around the world, we told everyone we knew (and many people we don’t know) that we would. And the next step is to sell our car and head to Asia… just like we said we would.
It’s pretty tied up now; we bought our plane tickets a few weeks back. We have just a few days before we leave the good ol’ U. S. of A. And we’re going!
And I’m a little terrified.
Not of Russia specifically. Just about the whole utterly unknown thing. We start in Vladivostok, on the eastern coast of Russia. It is the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway and a four-hour drive from North Korea. We have an apartment booked there for one week, but we don’t know what we are going to do after that.
One option is to head north on the railway, though we haven’t looked into tickets yet. Or we could fly to the Kamchatka Peninsula, which it seems you can only reach by plane or boat. Because there are no roads or rails that go there. And no ferries service it. So by aircraft.
Or we could turn around and head home—oops, we don’t have a home anymore. So we have to stay in Russia.
And I’m nervous. The future looms ahead…
Fly safely! Skip Hong Kong!