This has been a truly epic journey for me, exactly four months long and the longest trip I've ever taken. It's definitely one of the best if not the best trip I've ever taken. In fact I run out of superlatives when trying to describe it to friends and find it difficult to convey just how great this trip really was. I saw so many new things, went to so many new places, met so many new people, made so many friends, and had so many great experiences that I will certainly never forget it, and I feel that my life has been so very much enriched because of it.
In some ways it was also a personal test, to see if I could handle being away from home for so long -- and I passed the test! Four months seemed like a long time to me, but then I met several others who were traveling for much longer periods of time: 6 months, 8 months, 1 year, even 2 years!
On any trip of this this length there are usually things that go wrong, such as losing important or valuable items, losing luggage, getting sick or injured, getting robbed or pick-pocketed, getting scammed, major delays in transportation, or having bad experiences with other people. But I was extremely lucky not to have any significant mishaps at all! I did have several close calls, but they all turned out OK in the end. I lost several items, but always recovered them. In Vietnam my camera fell out of my pocket in a jeep and I didn't notice it until I got back to the hotel and the jeep had left. Fortunately I was able to get a hold of them and get it back. In the same place my phone stopped working when I was caught in a heavy rain and it got wet. But the phone magically came back to life after a couple days. My camera broke in Thailand, but I found someone who was able to repair it (something unheard of in the US)! Twice I left my card in the ATM machine, but was able to recover it later each time. Parts of my suitcase broke a couple of times to the point of becoming unusable, but I was able get it repaired each time. Except for getting sick once near the beginning of my trip, I was in very good health for the remainder of the trip. In fact with all the activity I did, I was quite a bit more fit and in better physical shape than normal.
Here are some statistics regarding my trip:
- I traveled well over 25,000 miles (greater than the circumference of the Earth) in total.
- I touched 11 different countries, of which: 2 were merely in transit; 9 I spent a significant amount of time in; 7 were new countries I had never visited before.
- I took over 2400 photos and videos, including about 200 underwater.
- I made 38 hops (point-to-point transfers), of which: 20 were by plane; 9 by bus (including a sleeper bus); 6 by boat (of which 4 were ferry boats); 2 by train; and one by car
- Besides the above modes of transportation, I also rode:
- tuk-tuks
- elephants
- motorbikes
- jetskis
- cable cars
- mountain bikes
- kayaks
- inner tubes
- ziplines
- swings
- bamboo rafts
- a skywheel
- tuk-tuks
- I ate the following: buffalo, crocodile, fried insects, ant larvae eggs, hundreds of hot Thai peppers
- Visited at least a dozen islands
- Met 3 friends from before: one in Chiang Mai, one in Langkawi, one in Fiji.
I started my journey with a quote from Science Fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin. I now end it with another quote, from architect Anthony Lawlor:
The pleasure of the soul appears to be found in the journey of discovery, the unfolding revelation of expanded insight and experience.
--Anthony Lawlor, "A Home for the Soul"
2 comments:
Sounds very interesting and exciting. Glad to know that you made it home safe and sound after such a long travel.. :)
those are some interesting statistics!
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