San Jose, California I climb on a plane for Auckland, New Zealand in six hours. I am ready to get on the road again. Arriving in New York in August for a wedding and a one month rest from part one of my around the world trip, I found my stay in the US tripled as a result of my sister's near fatal bicycling accident. The entire month of September found me in the hospital with nary twenty-four hours in a row away from my sister's bedside. With a near miraculous recovery after five days in ICU, my sister spent the second half of September in rehabilitation, learning to walk and talk again. Now with a month spent recovering at home, she resembles her old self again and I feel ready to leave her in the care of her husband and my doting mom. Looking over my itinerary, I decided to switch direction to give myself better weather throughout the trip. Instead of heading off to Eastern Europe and following winter around to the East, I chose NZ as the new starting point and will chase spring westward. The trip take me broadly through Australia & NZ, then South East Asia: Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Philippines (as the gateway to Palau for a diving trip); then India, Nepal, Tibet and onto Beijing. From Beijing the Trans Mongolian train carries me to Moscow and St. Petersburg and then through Eastern Europe then finally to Morocco, Scotland (golf) and back to New York City in September 2003. I guess that's not "broadly." I envisioned a two-year total time off from work when I first started this endeavor; which has morphed into a nearly three year journey. It?s been worth every moment and every penny (and the opportunity cost). |
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Packing differed little from the first time. I cut down my medical kit, after replentishing my Cipro/Flagyl antibiotic stock for an outrageous $270! (I now understand why we need drug coverage in our insurance ? DOH!) Otherwise, I found my original kit pretty suited my needs and everything still fit into my worn-in Eagle Creek convertible pack. I added a dedicated camera bag (waistpack) to carry my equipment, including a new Canon 3.2 megapixel digital camera. So hopefully, you will see more photos online this trip.
I want to take this leg of the trip in a more relaxed and laid-back ?come as you are? manner. In other words, totally opposed to my personality type and normal tendencies. But already I found myself stressing out in the last couple of weeks over flights, dates, and myriad other planning issues ? which I really did not need to do.
My budget targets fell apart with the unplanned three months here in the US (a three day golf trip to the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg Virginia and a weeklong seminar with my teacher Brugh Joy being the main culprits.) It amazes me how I can live for a whole day in a third world country, including hostel bedspace, for the price of a bagel and coffee in New York City. So I expect to run about 15% over budget for my three year sojourn. But that does not really matter in the long run (when we are all dead anyway).
Slowly I expect to settle back into backpacker mode and my coffee and adrenaline fueled past months will fade away and give me time to reflect on the personal events of September. I grew much closer to my family than I ever have been in my adult life. Friends showed so much compassion and sympathy; and my bonds with you deepened also. Of course, I learned a great deal about myself, which is what this whole silly existence is all about; and what this whole silly "trip" is about.
So I hope you look forward to reading about my trip as much as I enjoy experiencing and writing about it. I cannot wait to go. I cannot wait to come back. It?s only in the contrasts that we can see the gradations of life.