My family and I are familiar with traveling and travel quite often. In fact, my family and I have been to a total of about 100 countries all over the world. My parents also wrote a book about it and a few of the places we have visited so far. I love travelling and visiting brand new places and seeing the culture. I also have a weird obsession with planes and just the experience of being on a plane.
My favorite place to travel is hands down Hawaii. The reason why is because my grandparents live there, it’s beautiful, and we have an apartment there. I consider Hawaii to be my second home because I love it there and my family and I basically live there. I’ve never lived in Hawaii but my siblings and parents did. Even though I’ve never lived in Hawaii, I have this attachment to it. There’s something so special about Hawaii for me that makes it better than any other place I’ve traveled to.
Now aside from Hawaii, Maldives would be another great place I’ve been to. Though Hawaii is my favorite place to go to, the Maldives is by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited. I remember telling my parents and myself over and over again it was the most beautiful place ever. The clear water and amazing atmosphere really makes it feel like you're in heaven. Oh how I’d die to go again later in my life.
Vietnam is definitely high on my list. Not because of its beauty, but because of its people. Every year for the past couple of years, my family and I have gone to Vietnam with friends and my uncle to visit an orphanage. We always bring some donated clothes and toys for the kids. We play with them for a total of two days, one day we visit a waterpark and play with them, and the next day we eat with them and play at an arcade. The kids there are about 1-15 in age and I’ve been able to be friends with a couple of them. I’m so glad I know them now and I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.
Alaska had such an effect on me ever since my family and I visited there a couple of years ago. When we visited, I was just a child and was always afraid of sleeping in the dark. However, the first night we slept there, I noticed that it never really went dark outside during the winter. It felt unreal, like only the outside and I were awake together. I remember opening the curtain a bit to see shining light. I made sure the light did not disturb my sleeping sister and just sat on the wooden floor taking it all in.
This was a hard decision to make. It was either South America or South Africa. Both had their ups but I just had to include South America. I was only a few years ago when my family and I visited. I remember we had arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil and in the airport was my old friend and her family. She had lived in Korea when we were in first grade. We were best friends and I was devastated to hear that she had to leave. However, when I first saw her I was extremely shy. Thankfully that didn’t last long as we slowly opened up to each other and became best friends again. We were in Sao Paulo for about a week and every single day, my family and I would hang out with her family. Her family led my family through Sao Paulo and its culture, it was amazing. We even watched the world cup together. We still talk every now and then and I can’t wait for when we get to meet again.