I left Chicago heading west in the beginning of April '07 and continued going west until March 1st, 2008 when I returned to Chicago having confirmed that the world is indeed round.

The stops along the way - Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Nepal, India, and Tanzania.

Now the gig is over and I'm back in the States.

Believe it or not, I've posted my final entry about this journey. They're all still there for your reading enjoyment. Remember, the entries are shown newest to oldest.

Cheers!

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Explore.Dream.Discover...
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We're beginning our final approach to Chicago. Please return your seat-backs and tray-tables to their full, upright position and turn off all electronic devices. We'll be landing as soon as you finish reading this entry...which might take you a while as this is now my longest entry. (Really, it's the summary of A YEAR, I've got some rambling to do). It's been written over a long period of time and I think somewhere in that time the entry lost its way a bit and is a bit random. But here you go... Well, my friends...that's it. I traveled for 11 months [View Full Entry]

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I've been home for a long time (since March 1st) & have been quite delinquent in getting these summary entries posted. Apologies. Here you go... I've decided to do a two part summary to this fiasco of mine. This one is meant to satisfy all those questions out there regarding the "stats" of the trip. I'll hit up some of the typical questions...and then I'll prove just how dorky of an engineer I really am. The second entry will be more of a final summary of thoughts about the whole gig. Everyone wants to know..."So what was the best place?" Well, [View Full Entry]

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Game Over As I wrote about before, it first hit me way back in September. That little enemy of long-term travel...weariness. But back then I thought - correctly - I had the cure...change things up - location, climate, scenery, activities, etc. So I decided to press on. I got to Nepal and all was well again. Having spent 3 months in Nepal in relative stability - meaning a long period of limited new inputs, not un/packing my bag every day, not meeting new folks all the time, and generally settling down a bit - I expected to be fully charged and [View Full Entry]

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"Life's greatest adventure is finding your place in the Circle of Life..." ...Or so say the creators of The Lion King. Whatever life's greatest adventure may be...after Kili, Dad and I were off for yet another adventure - this time into the animal kingdom of Africa. As for the story about this adventure, there are no tales of high-altitude dizziness or exhausting climbs...it was largely an experience of oohh-ing and ahh-ing at some of the most beautiful creatures that nature has to offer. The animal encounters were too numerous to fully cover here, so I'll hit a few highlights and then [View Full Entry]

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I thought about starting this one right from the time I landed in Tanzania. If I did, I could talk about how a thousand jumping, cheering, arm-waving people were at the airport to greet some politician guy...then piled into/onto cars & trucks and drove away while blasting Ludacris ("Move! Get out the way...") in a brutally-slow moving procession that blocked the whole road into town. I could talk about the oppressive heat and humidity of Dar-Es-Salaam that was reminiscent of Vietnam in the summer. I might even talk about how one of the other guys in the 4-bed dorm came in [View Full Entry]

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Yes...India has chai...lots of it. And I consume my fair share. Don't give me a breathalyzer test...I'd fail. For someone who was never a tea drinker of any sort back home, I'm making up for lost time. Note - 'Chai' means 'tea'...so for those of you who go into the coffee shop back home and order a 'chai tea'...yeah, you're ordering 'tea tea'. It's right up there with saying 'PIN number' and 'ATM machine'. The People's Court I made a bad decision. I figured that the 4-5hr bus from Bodhgaya to Varanasi was a good plan rather than a 1hr bus [View Full Entry]

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I've gone over this blog in my head about a dozen times. But have generally not felt like sitting at a computer...or when I have felt like it, the internet isn't working. One day I started writing a sentence in an email to a friend that then turned into a long string of descriptive terms/statements. I kinda liked it and decided to add more and start off that way. All the comments have purpose & stories behind them...so feel free to ask me about them if you like. But there's just too much to tell in detail about this place and [View Full Entry]

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One final quickie Nepal blog to wrap things up. The Eve I celebrated Christmas Eve with a crew from VIN. I had the usual Christmas dinner of Chicken Tikka Masala & Butter Naan...then headed out for a couple of cups of Gluh Wein (any German speakers out there can feel free to correct the spelling of that) while listening to a mix of Christmas music, Green Day, and James Brown. Again...the usual, right? The Santa hat with flashing lights I had purchased for Rs30 was a hit and added at least one element of familiarity to the scene. (not that I [View Full Entry]

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The title isn't as random as it seems. Wait for it... I briefly touched on this back in my first Nepal entry...but to revisit...I wanted to stop somewhere in this journey of mine for a while to volunteer and what I came up with was an opportunity to teach English at a Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu. I have to confess...knowing that it's hard to accomplish much in a month, the motivation was largely selfish as I simply thought it would be cool to spend a month in that environment. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend a month living with a [View Full Entry]

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As I've mentioned, after finishing my trek, my plan for Nepal is to volunteer with an organization called Volunteers Initiative Nepal. For the full rundown, click here. But basically it's an organization based in Kathmandu that has a variety of projects...including an orphanage and other community projects for children and women - focused on health and education. To get to the point...organizations like this (and the people it supports) can always benefit from some additional funding. If you're interested and would like to make a contribution, here's a chance to help out. Bhupi, the organization's founder and director, sent me this [View Full Entry]

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