Taiwan and China are only a couple hours away, but the parts of China I would want to go to are farther still and may not be that accessible. Japan is very close and Takamatsu, where my friend Erin is teaching English, is only an hour away. However, the flights don't run that often so it would be hard to find a timely schedule. There is Hong Kong and Macau, both places I have been dying to visit so thats a option. A little farther out is Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, all of which have various ranges of attraction for me. I had a friend who studied abroad in Chang Mei, northern Thailand, and the pictures she brought back were absolutely beautiful - all lush green forest and clear blue skies. Cambodia has Angkor Wat, something I've always wanted to see. Laos and Vietnam are both reportedly beautiful like Thailand.
All the places I really want to go, however, are either too far away, or have no flights from Seoul. Australia is a minimum of 10 hours away; Calcutta is about 15 hours. Ulaan Baatur in Mongolia has zero flights coming from anywhere... probably because its in Mongolia. Papua New Guinea, somewhere I feel I need to visit because of all the books and case studies I read about people there over my four years in college, is really far away and has few flights - a double whammy. Hungary is clearly too far and Nepal, of which I only have the fondest memories, unlike its neighbor India, is about 15 hours as well... But it may be worth it for a week or something.
Which brings me to my second frustration in all of this - I only get seven days off the whole year and those days are national holidays. That means only one day off to celebrate Christmas, I'm not even sure if we'll get a day off for thanksgiving. We certainly didn't get a day off for Easter. Normally, this wouldn't bother me except for all the traveling I could be doing.
I guess I will have to content myself with the knowledge that I will take the slow way back. The really slow way. The sometimes-going-backwards way.
Doesn't matter where you go, it's all the same. Really. Just go with a good friend and have a good time.
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