Hi all

Im, fantasizing a bit about the trip I want to take once I submit my damn PhD thesis (because you definitely need a touch of escapism at this stage), and whats surprising me is so far my plans involve a trip to Australia/ NZ and the Pacific (probably something like Cook Islands one way, Fiji going back). The reason this is surprising to me is Ive been to all these places but Fiji- I studied a semester abroad in NZ, back in 2007, but the world is a big place so somehow I never headed back to that corner of it.

It does make me wonder a bit though, because its the first time in a long while Ive had a few months spare, and there are still a ton of places Ive never been- never been to Central America or South America, India and Indonesia are complete unknowns, etc. All places I have wanted to visit in the past if Id had the same opportunity, but right now arent speaking to me. And I guess my paranoia is Im more just in a bit of nostalgia right now for my first real trip abroad (though thank God this time I will feel no obligation to take an electromagnetism textbook to the Cook Islands), and once I show up Ill find it boring but Ill be out of a few thousand bucks.

So have any of you long term travelers faced the same thing? How did you decide to go back or go somewhere else? And how did it feel to return for an extended period of time to somewhere you traveled before?