As of today, I have checked off exactly one thing from my Bucket List. Here’s my list (and, for context, many of these things require that I a) have a ton of money; b) outlive Mrs. Homie; c) both a and b)
MY BUCKET LIST
Ride in a motorcycle sidecar. This I can probably pull the trigger on any time, I’d just need to ask around of Fiverr or Craigslist or what have you.
Lie in a coffin. Will require a bit more effort, since I’m to understand that the funerary industry doesn’t let people just lie in coffins just because. And prop coffins don’t count; I want the real deal.
Get my Scuba diving certification. I’m cutting this from the list. I’m way too old to make it happen.
Get my pilot’s license.
See a ghost. a) It’s not like they keep them in museums, and b) Ghosts don’t exist. What I actually want is to be in a situation where I think I’ve seen a ghost.
See (not climb) Mt. Everest. Just want to see it, like from a plane window.
Tour Angkor Wat.
Achieve a top rank (e.g., a black belt) in a martial art. I’m also probably too old for this one. I’m changing it to Achieve a 1500 Elo in Chess.
Join the mile-high club.
Drop opium. This will have to be something that I do when I know for certain that I only have a few months or less to live, for obvious reasons.
Drive a powerful car like a Porsche, a Viper, a NASCAR stock car, etc. Again, should be rather easy to pull off; there are websites that allow you to book an experience. I’ll need to convince Mrs. Homie that the price is worth it, though.
Drink kopi luwak. Again, another one that I could easily pull the trigger on today, but Mrs. H will shit her pants at the price, and I also want to make sure that it’s not counterfeit or fake, and that it was harvested ethically. Might be a big ask.
Tour an abandoned hospital or prison.
Have sex with an Asian woman.
Have sex with a Black woman.
Eat at a 3-Michelin-Star Restaurant. I’ll almost certainly be doing this next year when Mrs. H and I take our once-in-a-lifetime dream trip to London.
As for the one thing that I’ve had on my list and that I’ve actually accomplished: Ride a zip line. I checked that off the list about ten years ago. It was … fun, but not life-changing. I’m glad I got the chance to do it, but I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.
There were a whole load of places I wanted to go and most of them I have, to have it as a suingle bucket list item or 2 I had to visit all seven continents (achieved) and ot eligible for the century travellers club (I am currently on 49 and realised there are not another 51 countries I have an interest in visiting). The main places I still want to go to are all of which might happen I tend to go somewhere long haul every 2 or 3 years though Galapogas in particular would be very expensive:
Galapogas
Petra
Raja Ampat
Like you learning to scuba dive was also on my bucket list and finally got it in 2019 at the age of 52 (in order to tick off a travel related bucket list item of seeing the great barrier reef). I now have over 200 dives. Other items I have achieved are a bungy jump and seeing the Northern lights (possible where I am in Scotland but seen in Sweden and Iceland.
Not sure if I would call it a bucket list item but I would like to eat in a Michelin star restaurant (I’d be happy with 1) though I don’t know anyone who would not regard it a total waste of money.
Lots of travel-related items on my list. Last year I got to check off Cape Reinga on the northernmost tip of New Zealand. Had it all to myself on a beautiful morning after a week of bad weather due to Tropical Cyclone Tam.
This year’s bucket-list item is visiting da yoop (aka Michigan’s Upper Penninsula).
When I was a kid I was fascinated by photos of the pyramids, the sphinx, Petra, Victoria Falls, the wild animals in Nat Geo, Disneyland and other things that, for an Alaskan boy, were beyond reality.
Well, I’ve seen all of the above (except for Petra) and much more in a life I never thought I’d live, so I think my bucket list was pretty much emptied. Much as I’d like to see Petra and Machu Picchu, it’s a remote notion at this point in life.
My niece has been there, her report was that it was beautiful and amazing to look at, but the hike, the aggressive vendors, and the fact that the beautiful carved facades hold nothing of any real importance inside, made it underwhelming.
Good to know. There are few things that live up to the hype. The vendors were the biggest nuisance in Cairo, also. They would hand you something, then drop their hands and refuse to take it back. And heaven help you if you agreed to have someone claiming to be a “guide” take you on a walk. You’d end up being threatened and shaken down for cash once out of sight of local police. But many places are worth the trip. Victoria Falls took my breath away, as did Mesa Verde and the Serengeti.
I skydived at age 22. I figured that since it was so common a thing on people’s bucket lists, it would make more physical sense for me to do so when my body and bones, muscles, etc. were 22 rather than 72.
Getting a book written and printed out is also on my list, and I’m in the process of that.
I’ve also long wanted to try psychedelic drugs but my sister is possibly bipolar, so I have to figure in the genetic risk of it because it may mean I have a latent bipolar gene myself waiting to be triggered.
Did you do that thing the tourists do where you’re in some deep-ish part right near the precipice that’s actually safe even though it looks terrifying?
Oh, hell no. We did sundowners on a boat on the Zambezi River upstream from the falls, and hiked down the trail near the falls the next day. Interesting factoid, though: Dr. David Livingstone first measured the falls in 1860 by dropping a weighted rope off that precipice.
@HeyHomie I’ve done most of your bucket list along with some other members items.
Most if the drug things were done early. I did acid, magic mushrooms, peyote and “dropped opium” before I was out of college. Just about every other drug as well. The sleeping with black and Asian girls thing soon after college, after achieving reds, blondes, brunettes and green/pink/blue haired ones. Also a member of the mile high club thanks to my ex wife.
I am in the Philippines now and drink civet coffee everyday, not that expensive but it taste good, I’m drinking it now. Also scuba diving.
I lost interest in getting a black belt at age 17, did achieve a brown belt. Driven several Porsche’s and not overly impressed, I like Corvettes more and drove both while I developed audio systems for both when I worked for Bose.
We broke into the old Ohio State Pen in downtown Columbus when I was in college. Also an abandoned asylum in Northville Michigan.
Road in my brothers side car and laid in a coffin in the back of a Hearst at a Halloween party years ago.
Ive eaten at Wolfgang Pucks and was not impressed.
My present list includes becoming an expat living in SE Asia. And scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef.
Huh. Mrs. H and I ate at a Wolfgang Puck-branded counter service restaurant at Walt Disney World and we were quite impressed. To each his own, one supposes.
Otherwise, my god man, what a life you have lived! Weird that two strangers would have these things in common. Still no ghost though, huh
I hope no one is really leaving the experience of extraordinary places to their niece (or anyone else) and calling it good!
I can’t get my head around the idea of Petra being “underwhelming” to anyone with eyes and smidgen of interest in the doings of mankind!
On the other hand, I do admit that the trappings that have grown up around most popular tourist destinations have severely reduced their appeal. That is a frustrating disaster.
