Plans for the Next Ten Years

While roaming around in the likes of Paris and Rome last year, I became convinced that I want to visit some of the most prominent cities of the world. I had in mind a number of 30, as the number of cities I wanted to see by the end of 2015, though I had not done any precise enumeration. I still have not done so, but my hope (it's not exactly a binding resolve) is to see most of the great urban centres of the world over the next 8-10 years. A list follows (selected on the basis of my preferences and limited knowledge):

Asia

• Bombay (done)
• Tokyo (done)
• Hong Kong (done)
• Delhi (done)
• Singapore
• Beijing
• Shanghai
• Tashkent
• Seoul
• Baghdad
• Damascus
• Jerusalem

Europe

• London (done)
• Berlin (done)
• Paris (done)
• Rome (done)
• Vienna
• Copenhagen
  
• Moscow
• Prague
• St. Petersburg

N America

• New York
• Boston
• Los Angeles
• San Fransisco
• Chicago
• Miami
• Toronto
• Vancouver

S America

• Rio de Janeiro
• Beunos Aires
• Lima

Africa

• Cairo
• Johannesburg
• Durban
• Cape Town
• Nairobi

Australia

• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Perth

Wow! That's a list of 40 already, and I did not even refer a map! Let's do the maths here. 40 cities, 8 finished. Including 2007, I have 9 years to visit 32 cities - 3 to 4 every year on average. This year I will hopefully cross Singapore and Sydney off my list. Will try to do Vienna, Prague, Moscow and St. Petersburg next year. Don't want to think beyond that :)

I have in mind many non-metropolitan environments that I want to visit as well, and fitting them into this city hopping plan is going to be enjoyably challenging :)

In any case, I have decided to have atleast one foreign and one Indian vacation every year. This year's domestic trips are over, of course - both Kerala and Arunachal (also Kaziranga NP in Assam) were awesome. For the foreign jaunt, I will head to Australia in the first two weeks of December (with short halts in Singapore on both legs of the journey). Should be fun!