Now What?

How, after 24ish hours of travel home, did I not find the time to write a final blog entry about my trip?  Absurd.  As far as I remember I was too busy freaking out about the prospect of going home to focus on anything other than freaking out about going home.

I actually did start to write something, but got only as far as this:

Wow. Ok.  So I’m just leaving South Korea, fully on my way home. WHAAAAT? If you could see my face right now, it would be the face of total denial and disbelief. 

I never thought this day would come and I would always massively freak out just thinking about what it would feel like to be going home after over a year of traveling.  I’ve done and seen some mind-blowing, life-altering stuff and I would never trade this experience for anything.  I am SO GLAD I made this happen, despite the insane difficulties in setting it in motion - i.e. completely abandoning my comfortable, secure life as I knew it.

But what’s the point in living a scripted life?  Seeing as though we’ve only got one shot, I figure why not max it out and embrace the unknown in order to avoid the ole “I really shoulda/woulda/coulda done that” nonsense?  No risk, no reward, right?  The riskier, the rewardier, in my book.  Perhaps I should actually write that book…

And that’s about when the stewardesses came by serving something akin to a meat asteroid sealed in plastic (steaming hot on the outside, frozen on the inside) to pop all my thought bubbles.

I’ve been back for about 4 weeks now, and I still get the feeling that I’ve just awakened from the most amazing dream of my life.  Hot damn, what a trip.  But it wasn’t just a trip.  It was an adventure, an experience, a journey.  No words will ever describe it to anyone.  Nor pictures.  Nor videos.  I had read and seen other people’s blogs and photos before I set off and, although cool, they never fully soaked in and I couldn’t put anything into context until I’d experienced such things first-hand.  I’ll never watch the news, Discovery Channel or NatGeo the same way again.  I relate to it all in an entirely different manner, now. 

Yadda, yadda, yadda.  Rambly, rambly, rambly.

Really what everyone wants to know (or doesn’t actually care about but is just being courteous in asking) are the all-important questions below that I’ve been asked many times since returning.  So I’ll go ahead and give you the abridged version of my answers here:

• What was your favorite place?  Ok, if I had a gun to my head and I were forced to choose ONE favorite…and this is like asking a mother to choose her favorite child.  Nepal.  I love Nepal.  Honorable mentions include: Ethiopia, South Africa, Malawi, Madagascar, Indonesia
• How long did you travel for? Nearly 400 days
• Where’d you go? I technically went to 21 countries across eastern Africa, southern Africa, central Asia and southeast Asia.  But, realistically, I “spent time” in about 13.  Check out http://sites.google.com/site/spontaneish/faq-s for the full list.
• How much did your trip cost?  4 years’ worth of busting my ass at university followed by another 5 years’ worth of busting my ass in a corporate job.  Ok, if you really want to know, I opted for the trip of a lifetime vs. a new mid-range car.  It can be done for much more or much less, FYI.  See the same link above for advice on saving and budgeting.
• What was the craziest thing you ate? Silkworm larvae. And poo, probably.  There’s likely been traces of it in most things I’ve eaten.  Right.  I’ve also had warthog, ostrich (meat & eggs), kudu and goat. 
• Where was the best food? Ethiopia, Nepal and Thailand.
• Were you ever scared?  95% of the time, no.  Ask me in person for the stories of the 5%.
• How did you get around?  Bumpy ass rides on dusty ass roads.
• What was the longest you stayed somewhere? 1 month in Mossel Bay, South Africa.
• What was the craziest thing you did? Probably that time I free-dived with a ton of oceanic, bull and tiger sharks.  Best dive ever.
• What was the most memorable thing you did? I stayed with a family in a tiny village in the Ruhengeri region of Rwanda. 
• How did your trip change you?  Wow, good question.  I’ll save getting deep for close friends and family members…and those seriously interested in a quality conversation over a beer, assuming you’re buying.  I’m still the same person, but with different perspective.  I think about things differently.  I engage with the world a lot more.  I just feel more “in touch”.
• What will you do now?  Well, it’s probably going to be a multi-step process that goes something like this:  A) revel in the fact that I actually just “did that.”  B) continue to have fun and pursue things that make me happy.  C) earn a living.  D) figure out a way to intertwine B&C as much as possible.  In order to do all of that I’ve got to get a job.  Or dust off that meth lab in the basement.  I’ll shoot for a job first, though.  But not just any job.  A cool job.  For a respectable company whose sole purpose isn’t just making money.  Easier said than done, yes.  But so are a lot of things.  No reason to not aim high.

So there we have it. 

Any more questions?  Want some travel advice?  Let me know.  I’m happy to help.

I’m not totally abandoning my blog now that I’m back.  I plan to keep posting things as I continue to re-adjust to life in America.  Most likely they will be reflections on things we take for granted, this so-called “American Dream” we all aspire to and miscellaneous dumb stories or observations.

Until then, toodles! 


Here's my final RTW adventure map.For a larger version and to see a full list of all the stops: http://bit.ly/qncUPy