The Dalai Lama says that all people should be sure to spend time alone each day for reflection. Teaching English in Korea for a year and a half gave me plenty time for reflection, and too much time to dream. I spent hours scouring my atlas and conjuring up schemes to conquer the world. Volunteer work in Chile? Find religion in India? Sail the ocean blue? Hitchhike across Canada? All the questions any sane twenty-four year old will ask himself at some point.

I was still undecided until I stumbled onto the blog of a man who was cycling around the world and it hit my like a bad case of the runs - I will cycle around South East Asia. The fact that I hadn't ridden a bike since I was twelve never seemed to enter into the equation, oddly enough.

The original plan was to start in Bangkok and do a loop, riding through Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, respectively. But my growing dislike of airlines and the fact that I was heading back to Korea again, anyhow, I've decided I will head north to China and one of her port cities to catch a ferry back to Korea and employment.

How? You ask yourself. Why? Are you completely insane, man? The answers to these questions, dear reader, lie in the following blogs...


"They have their worries, they’re counting the miles, they’re thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they’ll get there—and all the time they’ll get there anyway, you see."

—Jack Kerouac, On the Road

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