Edited: I’ve amended the title as I would love to hear your thoughts on your own experiences and plans for your (future) retirement.

As many of you know, I'm about 2 years away from hanging up my stethoscope for good, and finally joining my wife in the slow lane (she hung up her calculator for good last year).

As a long overdue retirement present for the both of us, we intend to do a round the world trip on First Class travel. I have a rough idea of what I want to do, but I was hoping to solicit some wisdom from the upper crust of society that /k likes to identify themselves as (aka the min RM20k/month standard), so as to refine my itinerary.

Here are some rough sketches of the details:

First Class/Suite Class with Singapore Airlines & Star Alliance partners, departing Singapore.

Here are my continents:

East Asia:

1. Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka - but maybe also to Hokkaido, Toyama and return to Hakone)
2. Some nicer areas of China (I've never been to Mainland China per se, apart from visiting my other uncles in Shenzhen and Zhuhai) - especially a visit to my ancestors' village where my grandfather purported still has a house somewhere in Guangdong
3. Hong Kong (family visit - but I intend to do more than just yumcha for a week with my favourite uncle: wanna see Kowloon, go out to some of the smaller islands & visit the New Territories)
4. May or may not do South Korea (we're not big fans, but it may be a case of so near yet so far, so that may be on the cards)
5. Taiwan (never been to Namewee's adopted hometown, so might see what inspired him to write Negarakuku)

South East Asia:

1. Malaysia. This will be a super long overdue homecoming & goodbye of sorts. We intend to spend at least 1 month, visiting all my cousins and family members in Peninsula Malaysia, and catch up on my old classmates. No couch surfing or bunking in with family though, so we'll be living it up and finally putting all the RM we've saved up to good use - afterall, I don't think I'll keep my Malaysian citizenship after retirement, as I intend to ensure I keep Singapore as my base, even as I relocate permanently to Sydney. We might do a visit to East Malaysia as well, as we've never been there either.
2. Thailand - just to a resort somewhere nice & quiet for a week or so, to unwind after that whirlwind tour of Malaysia
3. Vietnam - I hear the barber shops are a must visit experience, and again, we've never been.

Middle East:

1. (removed Turkey - as a forumer pointed out, it's actually in Europe, silly me)
2. Dubai - a good place for me to use up my USD, and also to see what a modern, progressive Muslim country can do that Malaysia couldn't.

Europe:

1. Turkey - this will be likely via one of our journey legs to Europe. I want to visit the Istanbul Turkish Airways (part of the Star Alliance network) lounge again. Then, do the usual hot air balloon, Turkish baths, Salt lake & formation, bazaar
2 Germany (just so I can drive a Porsche on the autobahn as fast as my balls will allow me) - Stuttgart, Munich, Zuffenhausen ... yeah, you get the picture - and get a trackday pass for the Nordschleife!
3. Switzerland in style. This will be a second visit of Switzerland, and we want to do it in far better style than what we did 30 years ago as young travellers on a budget. Grab a couple of matching Rolexes (back when we did our first trip there 30 years ago, all we could afford was to get matching Swiss Army Knives)...
4. Hope over to the Netherlands to visit old friends (they were our neighbours in Singapore and we've kept in touch all these years) & Belgium to visit more old friends (old neighbours) & the retired Belgian ambassador to Singapore (who was my patient in Singapore before he retired)
5. Head over to France - may not skip (thanks to mesothelium) Paris, try to chase down a couple of Michelin star restaurants (since wife and I are into that at the moment) and to do the vinyard tours in Bordeaux. Visit the 5 First Growth Chateaux and catch up with an old Professor colleague of mine who's retired and returned to France with his Neuroscientist wife.
6. Spain - thanks to icemanfx for the tip: San Sebastián for more Michelin Star restaurants.
7. End up in the UK - this will also be a second homecoming of sorts for me, after all, my early specialization studies were done in the UK hospitals, and I'll revisit the Royal Colleges where I received my Fellowships & see if my signatures on their deed rolls is still anywhere to be found (yes, yes, small things make me happy), before spending some time south in Cornwall & retracing the steps of Doc Martin. Before that, I'll try to convince my wife to visit Anfield for an EPL match - or, she can spend time with her niece while I shout myself hoarse at the stadium.
8. Possible one or two Eastern European destinations as someone suggested - but, I think the Nordic countries are also an interesting option... so this will need a little bit more research.

America: Still not interested

1. From Europe, fly back into Australasia - but I'll try to land in New Zealand first, to spend a month there. We have a spare unit that we've always meant to live in as a vacation home, and this will be the best time to do so. Gotta drain the bank account in NZ as well, because once I'm a tax resident in Australia, that'll also be taxed by the ATO (I don't have enough money in there to warrant ring-fencing it with creative accounting, but more than enough money to know it'll hurt when the taxman comes collecting)
2. Fly back into Australia to begin our next phase of life there.

What does /k think? What would you do differently?

Edited: thank you for the helpful comments. I've amended the list (added some attractions, removed some destinations) as per some of the forum members' invaluable insights!

This post has been edited by hksgmy: May 28 2024, 08:49 PM

Envy you have a higher tier income/lifestyle/career. Good luck and happy retirement.

Thank you for your kind words. If you have any comments about the choices or any further suggestions on countries that are worth visiting, I would certainly appreciate them!

I envy too. All the best.

good luck bro. envy

This post has been edited by tonyvyp: Feb 4 2024, 01:03 PM

We /k only interested in figure.
How much you plan on spending for above travel?

Let us jelly abit plis

This post has been edited by blek: Feb 4 2024, 01:10 PM

Well, there are a couple of countries on that list that we already have bank accounts with a considerable amount of money - Malaysia and New Zealand, so we’ll have excess left over, because for example, I honestly don’t think we can burn through RM550,000 (which is all that I have left in my Maybank Premier account in JB) in a month. Same goes for the account in NZ, where all the rental income from our apartment units go into.

We don’t intend to touch our regular SGD/AUD stream of passive income for this year-long retirement travel adventure. Instead, I plan to offload my Macan and W223 S450L in 2 years time (the cars would be around 3 years old by then) and we should get (if we’re lucky) about 60% of our purchase price back, so around SGD500-600k. At worst, SGD400k for both cars.

That’s my budget for the countries listed above, apart from Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia.

Last year, wife and I already did a month-long mini vacation driving our Cayenne from Sydney to Tasmania and back. The total bill of that adventure (including fuel, hotel and fine dining meals etc) was about AUD30,000 (excluding flight tickets). With SQ first class tickets to Sydney, the bill for that month was around AUD50,000.

You can refer to this thread I posted for a snippet of that trip

So, budgeting the same, I expect to spend SGD50,000 per month for that year long retirement vacation - hence, the sale proceeds of the 2 cars in Singapore should cover that with a little bit of spare change (since we won’t need to tap into the piggy bank for Malaysia, NZ and Australia)

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Feb 4 2024, 01:30 PM

America: Not interested

Great Idea

Yeah. You’re singing to the choir, mate. Preaching to the converted

seem like quite a busy retirement life. but that's just me, as long as one is happy with it, it is all good.

Personally, would travel every 3 months or so. Since TS enjoy nice food, suggest to spend 2 weeks or so in one area like Tuscany, Barcelona, Lyon, etc.

Places in NYC, Washington DC, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, etc have many good food.

This post has been edited by icemanfx: Feb 4 2024, 02:02 PM

Thanks bro. But traveling every 3 months means I won’t be able to do the round the world trip on a single booking. Maybe I’ll just have to spend more time resting between flights to different continents.

Oh yes. Spain. That’s a great tip. San Sebastián. So many Michelin star restaurants there….

Thanks bro!

Yeah. One last push before I’m put out to the pasture to graze …

The most important thing is whether gt connection to those cities that u wanna fly.

For RTW trip, need minimum 3 stops in different continent, not hard to achieve. If time and money is not an issue, could be done yearly or half yearly.

Within continents, we’ll be travelling domestic or catching the rail. As long as SQ or Star Alliance fly to one of those countries we’ll be fine.

This is jz my personal take, having gone through the process of retirement. If spending money brings you fulfillment, then by all means go for it.
It seems to me, the trip is just do ' round the world trip in luxury' kinda thing. The emphasis on reconnecting with ppl which u mentioned will be more rewarding as in the end, it is the experience that brings fulfillment & blisfulness to both of you.
What was your bucket list b4 this " round the trip" thingy?
At the end of the trip, all the memories might be jz merged together and the little unexpected happenings that will bring back the smiles.
The only thing I see there that you have in common with one of my unchecked list is the compulsory mandatory gold standard proven MUST DO: go see liverpool play.
Hv a safe and wonderful trip.

In Europe, especially France...Beware of pickpocket & thief....even inside hotel.

R u antifan of Liverpool, because that's the only way you'll feel happy or rather glee watching Liverpool play


Kidding

Btw ts.. is there a point in time where u no longer gain satisfaction from work? Because I heard some people never retire because they always derive satisfaction from work.

Recently I saw a video of a cardiologist at 93 still working

This post has been edited by Knnbuccb: Feb 4 2024, 02:35 PM

Why don't you ask some opinion from kevin? I believe he is the richest ktard here and would be able to give you some ideas.

He is really rich, seriously. Chanel bag, multiple accounts with at least 200k inside, splurging on 6k phone, just to name a few of his achievements.

Yeah. Moving here and there every 2-3 days will be tiring for me. Unless TS plan every destination a week or 2

Well, we’ve worked and saved (we’re chronic savers - almost pathological) for all our working lives and we know we can’t take a cent of that away with us so if not when we retire, when? Haha

Your life is my dream.

And will always remain a dream lol.

At least can read your posts about your life also makes me happy

Do share with us your trips and post retirement life when it happens.

Most importantly have good health.

This post has been edited by GTA5: Feb 4 2024, 02:56 PM

How much your budget ? RM 1 million?

Approximately SGD500,000 for the whole year long trip

Good choice skipping america

Thanks for your kind words bro. But you know me… I am a slow planner. Took me 3 years to decide on which Porsche to buy, 1 year to plan the Sydney to Tassie trip… so 2 years for this round the world trip sounds about par for the course for me.

But I’ll post photos for sure

Nice, have good retirement bro.

I will just want to take up some hobby, maybe continue with my photoshoot with

Can I ask where do you get your First Class SIA tickets from? Are you getting a round the world ticket?

Many years ago the company I work for used to fly us those Star Alliance flights around the world ticket (3 stops) that's a lot cheaper, but only business class.

For Vietnam depending on the time of the year, Halong bay not bad. The barbershops kind of over rated and your wife not not enjoy that much vs us guys. lol. Also a lot of exotic islands in Vietnam/Thailand/Bali you can go enjoy. You can spend a lot of time in China alone considering you never been there. For natural scenaries China still offer one of the best, especially the mountains. Visa free now if you hold Singapore or Malaysia passport!

Enjoy your retirement trips!!!

Good budget

2 years away bro. But it’s important for a slow coach like me to get the ball rolling now. 2 years can pass in a blink of an eye before you know it!

👍 Yup true.

We intend to spend at least 5 if not 7 days in major destinations. The most moving about would be the driving that I wanna do when I’m in Germany. Once that’s done and washed out of my system, I’ll slow the pace right down and do what retirees are meant to do… ie take it easy.

That’s also why I bought myself the Sony a7c and the a7iv together with a bunch of travel lenses from Sigma and Tamron late last year.

I’m a rather deliberate person and every small move hopefully helps me manoeuvre the chess pieces into position on the chessboard that is called life.

Nice bro. Plan To do landscape shoot as well or just casual shoot ?

Right now, my target is to just master the basics and master them well. I’ve moved away from the dreaded “Auto” mode and am now enjoying Aperture priority with ISO control photo taking.

Next on the list is photo composition… baby steps for me. But it should hopefully all come together when the round the world trip starts.

Cool, take your time bro. Later once comfortable, can focus on specific genre. Yea, once you go out of auto and master manual model, you will get a different satisfaction level

Thanks for the very informative post bro! We can’t book round the world trip tickets via the website - so I’ll call up PPS concierge and get them to arrange it for us.

If you know of any other better way, please lemme know!

Ex DG Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham already set an example. There is no such thing as retirement, keep on working son, and stay cool.

Haha. Well, I’ll still be seeing patients and n Sydney but only on a part time basis. My retirement is more about walking away from my full time Singapore career and slow down the pace so I can enjoy the life we’ve worked hard to achieve.

How old are you and your wife?

Take cruise from other continents

In young days I wouldn’t consider this at all

Maybe at nearing retirement u might wanna try luxury cruise

And if I had 10 days of holiday or more I will do a China Xinjiang trip , heard from my China friends it’s amazing and beauty of nature , people and foods

Just started our fifth decade of life

Oh for sure. But that’ll be for another holiday, as I think it’ll be too difficult to juggle a round the world trip with a cruise.

I love the idea of cruise ship holidays.

cant advise much as that is a level i cant reach in this life, but good to have ur plan as reference

Don’t go, doctor
We will miss you.

Stay home safer araso
Now everywhere war

Cruise from SG to Alaska. Or HK to Japan

I can still log in from Sydney also la

You should try to hire a private tour guide for each of the destination.It helps a lot.

I hope you are not joining those tour by arrange by tour agency, with that budget I dont think you are doing that. But if you ever think of doing it, just dont, those tour are waste of time.

have you ever try Cruise? Picky something like Royal Caribbean. It is quite relaxing experience to rest & enjoy.

Hi doc!

First of all, early congratulations on your retirement! I'm surprised you have only a few countries planned for Europe. How about going further central or east Europe or down south?
- Austria, Czech Republic (Prague), Turkey... I heard they're beautiful
- Italy, I heard from colleagues they really hate speaking English but food is good.

Next about your Japan trip: I'm going for cherry blossom this year and we're making a (hopefully) decent itinerary not sure how it'll turn out yet but we're planning for a lot of pretty pinks (hanami/flower viewing) lol. I would highly recommend a long stay as we've already packed our 2 weeks full just within Kansai. Previously went Fujisan, Hakone and a few more places during the winter, I really enjoyed onsen in that painfully cold weather. You'll probably enjoy ryokan stays with private onsen based on your budget lol.

Lastly, I'm developing an itinerary planner on Google spreadsheet which I think will work well if you have a list of places you want to go and you want to optimise the route between these places, and the time taken in between. Here's a sneak peek on phone (it's not meant for usage on phone because it's intended to be a pre and post trip planner, but view only for day of execution... but I'm writing this on phone so....)

If you're interested, feel free to PM me
Grey text is all formulas/auto-calculated and how I get the values are based on Google map's direction with limited configuration... It's good enough as an estimator.

Wow. Thanks for sharing bro! I’ll definitely PM you in due time after I’ve firmed up things in my end. Enjoy your Sakura 🌸 visit to Japan!

Happy retirement. Do flex your pics and experiences here as you travel!

Thanks in advance. Ain’t retiring just yet, but it’s a step in that general direction for me!

Will definitely share the photos and my experiences when that day finally arrives, just like how I shared my Porsche purchases in Sydney 3 years after I first asked /k for their opinions, and how I went on to share my month long epic (well, it was epic for me and wifey) road trip from Sydney to Tasmania and back.

Thank you for letting me share my joy with all of you!

Thanks for the question. To be honest I really didn’t think I would be contemplating early retirement. I love my job, I love my patients, I love the challenges medicine presents both academically and professionally and even after nearly 30 years I am still passionate about what I do.

However, I also love my wife, and I know she has given up 30 years of her life to support my ambitions and my calling. Yes, she had a professional life of her own but she also wished for a richer family life with her husband. I often say that for the first 30 years she’s given me far more than I have given her. So it’s only fair that for the next 30 years (and that is if we both stay in our present good health together) that I step up to the plate and be as good as husband to her as she has been a wife to me. that she would like me for herself and not have to share me with my patients.

We are blessed to be in a position financially to contemplate early retirement. So I figured why not take advantage of it while we still have good health and we can still travel the world, enjoy smelling the roses and still have money left over for a meaningful post full time work life.

So I don’t think it’s a question of losing satisfaction from work. In my opinion, I have too much passion for medicine to ever face that concern. I think this is more a question of me wanting to be as successful and as good husband to my wife as I have been as successful and as good a doctor to my patients.

So, this new year, I’ve started the ball rolling and planted the idea of retiring in my mind. My time frame is 2 years - if I’m lucky, and I can successfully decant my patients to my other colleagues, I hit my target on time. If I’m not so lucky, I might miss the self-set deadline, but I’m determined to get there before the official retirement age arrives!

I see it as a new challenge for a new stage in my life.

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Feb 4 2024, 10:43 PM

Buy a landcruiser and do epic trip from Singapore to Europe.
https://www.facebook.com/jeremy.see.singapore

Might be a plan, but definitely only after the round the world trip happens

Watch aurora in the scandinavian countryies

Thanks for the suggestion… definitely worth a good think about it!

grats buddy! u go chase those michelin restaurants!

That is not rich. Add up total amount still cannot afford a Macan.

As a Francophile, I'd politely ask you to reconsider your decision to not visit Paris. I liked it enough to visit three times and am very seriously considering living a month or two in Paris this year before the Olympics kicks off.

Even if you don't plan to spend much time in the city, I'd put in a good word for Epicure in Le Bristol Paris, which stands out in my mind as very possibly the best meal I have ever had in my life. Now, I know we both share an interest in partaking of gustatory delights, so I would be remiss if I didn't mention this to you.

I'd also considered L'Ambroisie in Paris, but I ended up not going (for reasons I will mention later). It's an oversight I hope to rectify soon.

Anyway, I'd recommend considering two weeks in major destinations, instead of a week. Having travelled a bit post-COVID, I've found it somewhat annoying to move from one place to the next every week or so. It takes about a day to get settled in to your new location, and another day to pack and prepare for the move to the next destination. This means, in a 7 day stay, you'd spend about 2-2.5 days getting settled in, or about a third of the time you're travelling. This much "prep time" detracts from the experience, if you ask me. This is particularly relevant if you intend to "hit the Michelin stars."

The last time I was in Paris, I had the idea to do a 9-Michelin-star day, i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner in three different 3-Michelin star venues. By the time I was done, I don't know how the wait staff rolled me out of the room. I had planned on L'Ambroisie two days after the 9-Michelin-star day, except I was still stuffed the next day, so I called the restaurant to say I was unwell. I ended up going for pho instead. Subsequently, I cancelled a few other restaurants because I felt physically unable to sit through another 3-4 hour marathon with 9-12 courses.

Mind you, I was in my early 30s. I can imagine the constitution of two retirees in their early 50s would be less up to the challenge of too many Michelin-starred meals, hence the need to pace yourself accordingly.

You will also need to set aside some breathing space to accommodate other "very stupid but very necessary" choices. For instance, if you go to Lyon, and you don't stuff your face with the legendary President cake at Bernachon (unless you've had it already), you can't say you've really visited the city. Throw in the city's praline tarts, wines, and cheeses, and you will need to take very long walks to work it all off...

I'd also consider maybe renting a good car in Nice and doing the southern France route and stopping at the picturesque towns like Villefranche-sur-Mer, Eze, Monaco, Menton, and Ventimiglia (Italy). It's got to be one of the great drives!

while i envy what you have saved , but ive been to to almost all thats listed. and i guess im halfway to retirement ( so youre the role model albeit i dont have your specialty) and should be making changes.

havent been to murica so i guess its a good idea to skip. and while youre driving autobahn to swiss even. i would recommend places like Czech or the other eastern europe. to me kinda worth the stop.

other notable mention like Vietnam island phu quoc.
id skip SK too.

Thank you my friend, for the insightful replies and the great suggestions…. I’ll put some serious thought into Paris, it’s just that at our last visit there, wifey didn’t quite enjoy the people and there was a distinct disdain - almost bordering on neglectful nonchalance - when it came to service standards at some of the cafes and bistros we visited. The opposite was true when we stepped into LV at Galeries LaFayette and a PuTongHua speaking server would nearly trip over herself in obsequious obedience to our every wish and command. It was all a bit too much and we left with a rather unpleasant taste of the whole thing.

Thanks again for your input!

Middle East
- Skip Dubai, it's overrated. An artificial place born out of the sand dunes....

Instead...
Europe
- Go visit Slovenia...
- Germany, careful there. Autobahn doesn't really mean no speed limit. There are plenty of sections with limit, especially those going in and out of cities. Rather, you should go for a few laps in Nurburgring.
- France? Don't miss Mont St Michel.

So, since starting this thread, and reading the helpful responses (with my grateful thanks), I’ve already made some adjustments to my original planned length of stay at major cities.

The destinations are still pretty much as listed, but we now intend to spend at least 10 days to 2 weeks at a major destination.

That’s going to require a lot of additional planning to ensure I don’t end up lazing in the hotel room and wasting those extra days!

This post has been edited by hksgmy: Feb 5 2024, 07:42 AM

That’s a brilliant idea…. But, I highly doubt the rental companies will allow rented cars on track… I might just have to settle for a ‘Ring taxi ride in a M5.

Congrat TS on retirement direction!
U deserved a good life ahead after contributed in saving many lives as doctor....

just curious how u managed children if plan to moved to Sydney? Move along? My guess they should be 20+ now since u can plan world tour

Another question, why decide Sydney for retirement when u been familiar with SG?

My kid in SG as well so wonder whether continue university in SG or somewhere else would be better...

Thanks for ur advice in advance

I'll recommend to visit Jeju island instead of Seoul, should you decide to visit South Korea.

Overall, it looks like a wonderful plan.

Hi bro, wife and I decided 30 years ago that our kids would be better off if we didn’t have them…. So, we did the responsible thing by our definition and opted not to have children.

30 years later, we still believe that was the one single most important and correct decision we made. Our natures are excellent for our workplaces. I’m immersed in my work, and she was dedicated to hers. This would make us absent parents - or worse, parents that (because we obviously have the wherewithal to do so) splurge on their kids materially to make up for their emotional absence.

Sydney was where I spent my university years on a very generous Australian scholarship and I can’t help but feel I owe Australia a debt of gratitude. We have friends and family there, and my network is there, and I have a part time practice there which suits me fine post retirement. The country is huge, and I could easily spend a lifetime discovering it… especially since I love to drive. We intend to be active retirees in Sydney, and I still intend to contribute to society there in my own way - and the low humidity works better for me, because I hate feeling sticky all day long.

Singapore gave me everything… and I gave it the best 30 years of my life. That’s a fair trade. So, as an experienced player would say, it’s best to quit while I’m ahead.

Thanks bro.....

What field is your son or daughter pursuing in Singapore? I could help give you a better perspective if I knew the area of studies…

she is now in Secondary school under MOE ASEAN scholarship. The scholarship will be covered till A level.

she is looking forward law or medicine for university course.

Thinking which location best to build up career as countries hv control on foreign degree. My sis is eye specialist in UK NHS, she planned to relocate to SG last year and got job offer in hospital. But at the end not approved health ministry...

If your daughter is keen on either law or medicine, then staying put in Singapore (especially for medicine) is the better option. As your sister just realised, the criteria for hiring of foreign trained doctors have been tightened over the past decade or so, as we're now churning out 500 medical students locally yearly (up from 150 per year 20 years back), and there are returning Singaporeans on MOH half scholarship/sponsorships, all fighting for limited spots.

Singapore is also positioning itself as a hub for arbitration, as well as the usual financial wheeling and dealing that goes on in the Republic, so I think if she gets into law, she'll be well served in her career as well.

Do you intend for her to come back to Malaysia?

thanks bro for advice

Malaysia...... The future look bleak. So likely no

How about Canada?

Doc, you missed out on my two fav cities. Budapest and Prague.

Do a train tour in Europe or the long train journey from China to Russia. That takes at least two weeks.

I know a few guys who went through the ASEAN scholarship, they are smart, of course their careers are fine. But the one thing I notice is, they became womanizers. Yeah, a few of these friends of mine, when they returned to Msia, they have high flying careers but they have checkered record in cheating their girlfriends with other girls. They tend to work in high flying work late night career jobs that hire a lot of young smart beautiful women in their 20s.

Maybe better to space it out. Maybe one trip per year. No rush to do everything at once.

At least you will have something to look forward to next year and you can take your time at each place before rushing off to the next place on the list.

TS,
I suggest you try a challenging bucket list trip.
1- What about Annapurna or Everest trek circuit in Nepal?
2- Visit Grand Canyon but avoid doing those selfies at the side of the cliff
3- Go to London West End and do binge theatre watching.
4- Climb the dolomites in Italy
5- Go to Kenya and climb Mount Kilimanjaro

What kind of job are these?

consultancy, professional accountancy

Bro, that's got nothing to do with the ASEAN scholarship, but everything to do with the recipient's character & values.

It sounds tiring. Enjoy your retirement.

These are early days, and I'm sure the plans will change or be modified, but the general aim is there for a round the world trip in First Class.

I'll update this when I've done it in a couple of years' time, and let all of you know whether it's a good idea, or a fool's errand haha!

Personally to me, trips are tiring AF indeed because wanna go as much places as possible given limited time and money, but I think for TS, the whole point is to enjoy his retirement slowly - time and money are not the constraints but energy is (old age.. no offense uncle), so it's all the more important to plan the itinerary well.

----
I extended business trip to go on a short personal trip with a colleague to Belgium. The places were like +/-1km apart all the way, so we ended up walking a total of 12km in a day, which is a crazy feat for sedentary IT people like us lmao. So yeah, even though I planned all the route so optimised they're close to each other, problem was that I did not consider our energy levels - in hindsight I really loved it anyway because we managed it and had a lot of fun, but we were complaining to each other KAKI PATAH as we walked.

P.S. I kasi Google my location at all times, so I get to enjoy a timeline of my trip and the distance + places covered. This can be a fun thing if you don't mind giving away your privacy to Google (note that they're all private information by default anyway).

I'd travel around Japan more if it was me. Tokyo just to visit some friends there but not gonna stay long.

China i'd recommend Gui Lin, Hangzhou and Suzhou.

Rental cars in Germany allows it... because on Tourisfarthen days, the ring is considered public roads (with tolls - the entry lap ticket). Only thing is, you will need to buy additional track insurance, in case you damage barriers and run-off areas. Worth it man, once in a lifetime experience...

Sounds like a lifetime adventure.

Adding some input about driving:

1. Driving at the mountain roads of Switzerland is satisfying
2. Drive at cinque terre at Italy coastal area and to visit Manorala

For Europe, I recommend Madeira, Iceland and Tromsø. Bratislava is a small but interesting town, easily accessible from Vienna.

I did enjoy Belgium as well. Mix of French/Dutch and most people are fluent in English which is less painful than in France

Scandinavian countries and eastern eu doesn’t deserve some love?

Adding on to the reply above, i enjoyed Tromso a lot. Should try Latvia too.

This post has been edited by pjbucket: Feb 5 2024, 04:54 PM

Everyone got nice holiday plans. Enjoy and take care. But me wanna highlight, for those travelling long term overseas, better be safe and make sure got good international private healthcare insurance. Got few real stories, I pray that it won't happen to anyone. That also have to read the T&C for country coverage. When I type INTERNATIONAL private healthcare means, from Lloyd's or equivalent level for elite travellers here. Travel safe and stay healthy everyone.

Now, about Taiwan, I've only been for a week. I liked it but, as a tourist destination, it has its limitations. The effects of decades of Chinese interference means they've had limited investment and have been fairly isolated from the international community... and it sort of shows.

It's a nice place to chill and connect with traditional Chinese culture, though.