Reflections on the Journey
My Year of Travel Around the World
Reflections on the Journey
My Year of Travel Around the World
2008-09
During the past twelve months I journeyed overland through the wilds of Africa; dodged terrorist bombings and political uprisings throughout Asia; saw the Sphinx and the Pyramids in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and the Great Wall in China; and cheated death on a dangerous two-lane highway with no name in Nepal. This year has had one exciting moment after another. It's been everything I hoped it would be and more, far exceeding my expectations. And it all passed so quickly. It seems like I left for Paris just last month.
It’s been refreshing--liberating even--to take a break from the more, more, more American lifestyle that is so easy to get caught up in and travel with only what I need--a few changes of clothes, some light camping equipment, some trekking equipment, toiletries, sunscreen and a good camera. What more do we need in life? I also brought along an iPod so I could tune in to my favorite jazz and blues and I packed a laptop so that I could create and add to this blog. I didn't miss any of my possessions back home and although it's nice to have those things I found that I don't really need them.
A couple of my friends back home didn't understand why I would want to travel alone. For a year. What they didn't understand is that I was never really alone. I stayed at hostels with other backpackers and because we are like-minded we often traveled together on adventurous side trips and we shared expenses for the more expensive excursions like traveling within Tibet.
I never thought I'd carry a backpack around for more than a weekend camping trip let alone a year, but just as surprised as I was at myself for living out of a woven vinyl bag on my back was the incredible diversity of other people from all over the world who were doing the same. Some of the most interesting people I know are long-term travelers who have lived and worked in several different countries while gaining a better understanding of the world.
People like DiPesh Patel, an American medical student of Indian descent who spent the summer of 2008 working with a few of his classmates in hospitals and clinics in the small towns and villages of Northern Malawi. He saw how malnutrition and malaria, medical conditions which aren't even major threats to the United States' population, have caused catastrophic problems in Malawi and are the leading causes of infant mortality.
Then there's Alain from a small village near Toulouse, France who, after graduating university, traveled throughout Australia on his bicycle and earned money along the way by picking fruit in the dozens of vineyards that dot the Australian landscape.
And there are Richard and Malcom, too affable English blokes from Leeds who became bored with their careers in the telecommunications industry and left to spend a year teaching English in various African countries in exchange for free room and board. A great way to see a continent.
The backpackers I met are well educated, ambitious, good with their money, adventurous, and they know what they want in life and they aren't afraid to go for it. They don't lie around at the hostels all day drinking beer and watching movies. They get up in the morning and get out and experience as much as they can. They are good people who I am proud to call my friends.
I was older than most of the backpackers that I met and traveled with, but I didn't feel old. I felt young. In the back of my mind I still believe that I'm 22 years old and that I can do the things that I could do at that age. Most days I could pull it off, but my body would bring me back to reality from time to time, particularly during the latter part of my 10-day trek through the Nepal Himalaya.
I learned something from everyone I met and from every place I visited. As Anita Desai said, "wherever you go becomes a part of you." I enjoyed a wonderful exchange of ideas, culture, and ways of doing things from the native people in the countries that I visited and from my backpacker mates.
I learned a lot about myself, too, both during the good times and during adversity. The good times were plentiful: riding a camel around the Great Pyramids in Egypt, climbing to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at 19,000 feet MSL, witnessing the wildebeest migration into Southern Kenya, exploring the majestic Taj Mahal in India, and walking along the Great Wall in China.
I also faced some adversity. Getting my only credit card stolen when I was pickpocketed in Kampala, Uganda and having my laptop stolen on an overnight bus ride between Livingstone, Zambia and Winhoek, Namibia, were two incidents that tested my mettle as they forced me to do a lot of footwork in Third World countries where modern conveniences like good telephone service for international calls, a good Internet connection, and fax machines are hard to find. Although I received no help from the corrupt police who wanted money from me to investigate my losses, I persevered and eventually I found an official who would complete a report so that I could file a claim with my travel insurer.
But the most dangerous incident that I experienced occurred when I was riding on a ramshackle bus on a bumpy two-lane Nepalese highway between Pokhara and Khatmandu. I had just finished the 10-day trek along the Annapurna Circuit in the Himalaya and my guide, Ram, and I had scored two of the last seats on the 40-seater bus for the seven-hour bus ride. About 50 kilometers outside of Khatmandu our bus had a head-on collision with a dump truck while negotiating a curve. Fortunately Ram and I were sitting in the back of the bus and, even though Ram lost a tooth when his face hit the seat back in front of him, we came away without serious injury. Several passengers weren't as lucky as we were and the bus driver was killed.
After the accident, I flew much more often in the Third World instead of taking buses. I had seen too many dangerous accidents on highways in Africa and Asia and now I had lived through one. It increased the costs of my trip, but I'm still here to tell you about it.
There's a lot that Americans can learn from people in other parts of the world like the people of Southeast Asia. They have very little but they always seem to manage a smile and a kind word. They work very hard, they live within their means, they have strong and supportive families, they honor their elders and they live happy, fulfilling lives.
It’s no secret that most of the world is poor and always has been. The Gypsies living at the foot of the mountains in rural Kashmir where I trekked are some of my favorite people. They are among the poorest people in the world, living without electricity and running water, but they live in absolutely gorgeous surroundings and their beautiful children seem happy and unaware of their economic situation. They live off the land and scratch out a meager existence the best they can, all the while carrying themselves with dignity and grace. I'll never forget them.
Whatever problems we may have in the U.S. seem pretty small compared to what many of the people I’ve met experience everyday. Some Americans are worried about how they will pay expensive mortgage payments and loan payments for their cars while the people in rural Kashmir are concerned about whether they will have enough food to feed their families tonight and whether they will survive another harsh winter with only firewood to use as fuel for heat and mud huts to shelter them from the weather.
A continent away in Malawi the native people have little or no access to medicine and medical treatments and they worry whether their young children will survive bouts of malaria and malnutrition, the two conditions that claim the most lives. They are also concerned that their children don't contract HIV which is so prevalent there. It's thought that Malawian families have so many children to make up for the high number of children who will die. The infant mortality rate and the HIV/AIDS statistics are higher per capita in small Malawi than almost any other African country.
It's not all sad. There are parts of the world where people are making a difference and improving the lives of their countrymen. Uganda's president has helped make great improvements in his country economically which has lead to a better life for many Ugandans. Vietnam has also seen tremendous improvements economically. India which has so many impoverished people among its one billion citizens saw a very impressive upsurge economically before the global economy tanked. So did China.
It's been a very interesting time to travel throughout the world. Besides witnessing some political uprisings and changes in governments firsthand, particularly in Thailand, I watched as the global economic crisis spread like a disease, seemingly following me as I traveled east around the world. Australia was just beginning to experience economic changes when I was there in January with unemployment rising from a traditionally low 3.5 percent.
Traveling through the different countries, I saw how the world is connected economically. Once the volume of China’s exports decreased dramatically, the effect was immediately experienced in Australia where China buys a third of its raw materials to make its products for export.
And the whole crisis started from one small tic in the U.S. housing/mortgage industry.
Much of the world is looking to the U.S. to lead the rest of the world out of the financial muck because as the U.S. goes, so goes the rest of the world in so many ways: economically, culturally and just about any other way that you can think of.
My only regret this past year was having several blog entries erased off of my laptop when it was stolen. The entries were for Greece, Egypt, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania (with the exception of the Kilimanjaro entry that Fraz Gruenwald of Germany made a copy of and sent to me), Malawi and Zambia. These are great places to visit and I have a lot of good memories of my travels in these countries. I'm optimistic that Apple will find a way to help me retrieve these entries. I've discussed it with their technicians at length on a couple of occasions.
I visited cities with over 10 million residents (Cairo, Delhi and Beijing) and I visited the smallest villages and settlements. It was the less populated areas and natural settings that I enjoyed the most.
A few things that I have learned and have tried to live by:
-- Showing appreciation to the people of the country that you are visiting and being thankful for everything, even the little things that add to your enjoyment and comfort, goes a long way in making your and their experience better;
-- You should travel with an open mind and leave any preconceived thoughts at home;
-- Leave any problems and concerns that you have at the airport. There's nothing that you can do about them on your trip anyway. Make up your mind to have a good time and let go of anything that is bothering you;
-- Being fair to others goes a long way when dealing with the people that I've met in the different countries. And fairness is a two-way street. If you don't feel that you are being treated fairly, speak up. When you're traveling alone, no one is looking out for your best interests but you so don't shy away from being assertive and asking for what you think is fair. I had to do this many times (sometimes with heated arguments) and in some cases I think that I ended up winning the respect of the people that I was dealing with;
-- Be patient. When traveling in a foreign country, you are subject to its language, practices and customs. It takes patience to understand someone who doesn't speak English well and it takes patience to wait in lines for travel, for meals, and to exchange money. Be flexible and adaptable to all situations;
-- Respect the traditions and ways of life of the people that you meet. It means a lot to the people of the country you are visiting just as you hope that visitors to our country would do the same; and
-- Most importantly, have fun and enjoy your trip. It's not worth undertaking an endeavor like long-term travel--or anything else--unless you are having fun. Not everything will go as planned and as you may have hoped but find the positive in any situation and learn to laugh at the things that you don't have any control over. It all adds to the overall travel experience and you'll be laughing about it anyway in the months and years to come.
There were very few times that I feared for my safety on this trip despite traveling through some unstable countries during some dangerous times. The Connaught area of Delhi where I stayed was bombed repeatedly by terrorists just hours after I left the city. Government protestors exploded bombs on the other side of Bangkok during my visit there. The city of Syrnigar in Kashmir had to be shut down while I was there because of dangerous protests against their government. And I was forced to skirt around massive wildfires in Southern Australia. I seemed to leave violence and natural destruction in my wake wherever I went!
I found it all very exciting. My philosophy is that when it's your time to go, it's your time to go. While you're here you might as well do what you love, whatever that may be. Don't get me wrong. I don't live recklessly and I don't look for ways to die, but being mostly fearless made me an ideal person to travel through many countries in the Third World.
You can read all you can and watch all the documentaries you can about a country, but nothing compares to experiencing the country firsthand where you live with the native people, eat their food, participate in their culture and feel what it's like to live in their country.
I saw few Americans traveling through Africa and Asia. That's a shame because there are great countries and wonderful places to see in those continents and it's more economical to travel there compared to travel throughout the Western world.
One of the most meaningful experiences that I had over the past year was when Paul Janson of Heidelberg, Germany, Cynthia Tiwow of Amsterdam, Holland and I stayed in a Tibetan family's guesthouse in a small village the evening we made it to Mount Everest Base Camp. It was the hangout for the villagers to have homemade beer and a bowl of soup. We were greeted kindly by a man wearing dusty black pants and a tattered coat. A red headband traditionally worn by rural Tibetan men held his thick dark hair in place. He was in his mid-thirties but the effects of a harsh life and environment made him appear to be fifteen years older.
The family who ran the guesthouse and the other villagers spoke very little English and we didn’t speak Tibetan, but we communicated well by exchanging hand signals. Just a few days away from a Christmas that I would spend away from my family, it was nice to stay in another family’s home a world away from Little Rock and share good company, a drink and some laughs. We’re all a lot alike all over the world. We may look a little different from one another and speak differently, but we all have the same fundamental feelings, dreams and humanity.
As for Tibet, the irony of being at that paradise at the top of the world with thousands of armed Chinese soldiers surrounding it, never allowing but a very few to cross out of its borders, was not lost on me. I had the freedom to cross in, but they had never crossed out. That cross-cultural perspective has an incredible impact on you.
I thank those of you who I have spoken with throughout the year for your support and your enthusiasm for this trip. Your emails and your comments listed on my blog meant a lot to me and they were my link to my homeland and to my new friends throughout the world.
Some of you told me how you'd love to take a short trip abroad but that you felt that you had family obligations, financial issues or other obstacles that kept you from doing so. If you pick a place that you would love to see and start planning today, you could be there this time next year.
And for those of you interested in long-term travel, go for it. You don't have to spend a year traveling like I have. You can spend a few weeks or a few months, whatever you can afford to do and whatever you're comfortable doing. The only thing keeping most people from traveling long-term is getting up the nerve to do it which may involve quitting your job or selling your home, sacrifices that I made. Once I reached a place in my life where I could take this trip, it was the third break-in of my home in a year that gave me that extra little push to pack my bag and follow my dreams. Blessings do come in disguises.
Also my life had become a little too routine. This trip gave me a chance to take life by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shake and fulfill a long-time dream. It was a little scary when I first committed to the trip, stepping into the unknown and not having a safety net to catch me if I fell, but I decided to feel the fear and do it anyway. Now that I've completed the trip, I can tell you that this has been the best thing that I've ever done.
While traveling for a year throughout the world, you believe in yourself like never before, mainly because you have to. There's no one else to lean on and you have to be a strong person and confident with the decisions that you make. You also gain a better understanding of who you are. You go beyond your life experiences and become self-reliant, more outgoing with others, and able to cope with stresses and fear that you would not experience in the safe and settled life that you left behind. Most importantly, you learn how to get along with people who are different from you and you gain a perspective of the world that few have.
If I had it my way, I'd leave tomorrow for another year-long trip abroad. I absolutely love long-term travel and the backpacker/vagabonding lifestyle. And with the global economic situation today, backpacker travel makes more sense as a travel option.
It’s never too late to follow your dreams. It's a big world. Get out there!
Next stop: Little Rock
Never give up on what you want. Life is full of possibilities and there’s always a way to make what you want happen.
-- Scott Lauck
There is only one problem with saving your dream for someday. Someday will always remain in the future.
-- Anonymous
My favorite places:
-- The mountains of Kashmir
-- The South Island of NZ (the West Coast, Milford Track, Mt. Cook Village and Golden Bay)
-- The Tibetan Plateau and Mt. Everest Base Camp
-- Cape Town and The Garden Route, South Africa
-- Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
-- Mt. Field in Tasmania
-- Vietnam (Things have come a long way in just 34 years when I, an American, can walk on the same battlefields where U.S. troops fought North Vietnamese troops.)
My favorite cities:
-- Cape Town
-- Sydney
-- Nelson, NZ and Queenstown, NZ
-- Barcelona
-- Vienna
The most dangerous places that I visited:
-- Kashmir (Pakistan and India have been at odds over this land for years)
-- Pakistan (I was only there for a day but it was very tense.)
-- India (terrorist bombings)
-- Bangkok (the government was overthrown while I was in town)
-- Bali (Three Islamic terrorists who set off bombs in 2003 killing 200 people in Kuta were executed the day I arrived in Bali and the entire country was placed on high alert. Do I have good timing or what?)
The people I most enjoyed:
-- Germans (they're everywhere--they love to travel)
-- Dutch (I met so many pairs of Dutch girls. I call them the duchesses.)
-- Spanish (I love the Spanish. They're so romantic with their dark eyes, olive complexion and the way they speak.)
-- Aussies (great people with a great outlook on life)
-- Kiwis (adventurous and full of life)
-- Zambians (very gracious and hospitable)
-- Japanese (lovely people)
The kindest people I met (who also happen to be among the most impoverished):
-- Cambodians
-- Tanzanians
-- Tibetans
-- Zambians
-- Laotians
The people who got on my nerves at times:
-- The English when they'd had a lot to drink
-- A small group of hard-to-please Israelis who I met while tramping
along Milford Track
If I lived outside the U.S., I would live in:
-- Cape Town
-- Sydney
-- Christchurch, Queenstown or Nelson, NZ
-- Tasmania
The numbers:
-- 51,550 miles traveled
-- 41 flights
-- 6 long train rides of 5 hours of more
-- 16 bus rides of 8 hours or more
-- 15 guidebooks read
-- 23 books read for pleasure
-- 26 countries over 4 continents (not counting Pakistan and Cook Is.)
-- 93 cities and towns visited
-- hundreds of new friends made
-- 1 unbelievable year
The end of the road... for now.
Apr 12, 2009
Arrival in Little Rock on April 12. I’m receiving greetings from the welcoming committee, my nephew Harris.
Paris
Nice as seen from the top of Castle Hill
Barcelona. Enjoying dinner with (l to r) Alexander, an Italian living in Brussels, Sophie and Kat from Perth, Australia and Lee from Ottawa, Canada.
Poble Espanyol in Barcelona
With Ulli Gruber in Eggendorf, Austria. Ulli is a filmmaker who I met in Hot Springs five years ago at the documentary film fest.
Biking through the villages near Eggendorf, Austria
Split, Croatia
The island of Hydra in Greece
The Sphyinx and the Great Pyramids in Giza, Egypt
A Jackson Hardebeest seen while on safari in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
A pair of giraffes and an acacia tree, Masai Mara, Kenya safari
My visit to a Masai Mara tribe, Southern Kenya
Group photo with the Gruenwalds and the Stadlers, all from Germany, during our trek to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro which is in the background.
I made it! Standing at Uhuru Peak, the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, at 5,895 m./19,000 ft. MSL. It’s Africa’s highest point. This was the biggest highlight of a year filled with them.
Walking along the sand dunes at Sossusvlei, Namibia at sunrise
In Namibia with two of the many duchesses from Holland that I met throughout the world
The Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
The Taj in Agra, India
Here I am somewhere along the Tropic of Capricorn in Namibia
Havemack Mountain and Gabal Lake, Kashmir. This part of the world is the most beautiful that I’ve seen.
Two wonderful gypsy children that I met in rural Kashmir. The sweet girl on the right was a favorite of mine.
Phewa Tal Lake in Pokhara, Nepal
A tiny village along the Annapurna Circuit that I trekked for 10 days in Nepal. My guide, Ram, is on the left.
Bangkok. I’m the one on the right.
A girl uses a loom to make a shawl in Chiang Mai, Thailand
A young boy at a small village along the Mekong River near Luang Prabang, Laos. He is one of my favorites that I met.
A woman guides a boat down the tributaries of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
Kuta Beach at Bali, Indonesia
Tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. The rainbow magically appeared when I stopped to take this photo, like it was supposed to happen.
The Arab Quarter, Singapore
Hong Kong
Angkor, Cambodia
A girl sells souvenirs outside one of the Angkor temples, Cambodia
Meeting a monk at Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet with Paul from Heidelberg and Cynthia from Amsterdam
A Tibetan pilgrim at Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet
Mount Everest and the Himalaya as seen from Tibet
Mount Everest Base Camp at 17,000 ft. MSL. I’m a little tired but very happy to have made it there.
A Tibetan man with his dog at an overlook of pristine Yamdrock Lake
The Great Wall, Beijing
Beijing
Sydney Harbour
King’s Canyon in central Australia (the Outback)
Snorkelers at the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Tasmania
Trying not to get blown off of the overlook at Tongariro Crossing on the North Island of New Zealand
Tongariro Crossing on the North Island of New Zealand
With Ella Salt near Nelson, New Zealand
A beautiful area along Highway 6 between Fox Glacier and Queenstown, New Zealand. It’s the most beautiful drive that I have driven. The runner up would be Route 45 between Paarl and Franschhoen, South Africa (near the Garden Route).
An overlook of Clinton Valley during my tramp along Milford Track, New Zealand. As usual, I’m above the clouds.
Milford Sound, New Zealand
Mount Cook, New Zealand
Rarotonga, one of the Cook Islands
Mala Mala Island, Fiji
I’m reflecting on the past twelve months.