A Sort of Homecoming - U2

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

View more photos 

July 11, 2007 Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn NY

Home, a week now.  Can't rightly get my head around the fact that it's over.  No, that's not right.  I can't quite accept that it ever happened at all.  Just a week or so ago I was skiing the Andes but it's like some amazing dream now, like I just woke up from six months of heavenly slumber while the world around me just kept chugging along with barely a ripple of change.  I was so happy to be home, to see everyone again, that thinking about what I had just accomplished never really took hold that first week.  It was crazy hectic too, so that might account for the delay in the recap.

Mom, Sue and the girls picked me up at the airport, big neon sign and all.  It was great.  They're the best.  Nicole treated me to a first day home celebration with a night out in Manhattan.  Then it was bbqing on the 4th, Nick's wedding on the 6th and cousin Kevin's big party on the 7th.  All this after cruising the world in slowmo for six months.  So yeah, I was a bit tired the last couple of days.  However, the editors at Realtravel asked me for a top 10 list, which if you've been reading along you know was coming anyway, so I had to get my butt in gear.  Time for a trip recap and a few lists to end things right.  Maybe they'll make it easier to figure out what I really want to say on this thing.

View more photos 

BEST ADRENALINE SPIKES AROUND THE GLOBE

10 - Exploring Jungle Ruins in Ta Prohm, Cambodia

9 - Sea Kayaking Railey Beach ,Thailand

8 - Rappeling/Abseiling China's Yangshou pinnacles

7 - Longboard surfing Kuta Beach, Bali

6 - Motorcrossing the Inca Trail, Peru

5 - Drift Diving with Mantas in the Andaman Sea, Thailand

4 - Road motorycycling the switchback mountain roads of Bali

3 - Skiing and boarding a meter of powder at Portillo, Chile

2 - Ticking off a grumpy Lion in the Serengeti, Tanzania

1 - Nitrox diving a WWII wreck off the Gili Islands, Lombok

BEST BEER

10 - Kilimanjaro lager - Tanzania

9 - Tusker, Kenya

8 - Tsingtao, China

7 - Singah, Thailand

6 - Bingtang, Indo

View more photos 

5 - Sakara, Egypt

4 - Cristal, Peru

3- Escudo, Chile

2 - Victoria Bitter (VB), OZ

1 - Guinness, Anywhere I could get it

BEST FOOD

10 - Gnocchi in Rome, Italy

9 -  Tapas in Madrid, Spain

8 - Carrot Soup in Arusha, Tanzania

7 - Egg n Chive dumplings in Beijing, China

6 - Grilled Roo (yep, that's just what I mean), Alice Springs, Oz

5 -  Fish Burger - Zanzibar, Tanzania

4 - Baja Fresh Steak burrito, LA

3 - Fisherman's breakfast soup, Sea Dragon liveaboard, Thailand

2 - Falafel in Alexandria, Egypt

1 - Coconut Curry Shrimp, Thailand

MOST AMAZING ANIMAL SIGHTINGS (no relation to the food list above)

10 - Giant Guinea Pigs, Amazon Rainforest, Peru 

9 -  Scorpion Fish, Gili Islands Lombok

View more photos 

8 - Golden Monkeys, Guilin China

7- Elephants, Lake Tarangier Tanzania

6 - Zebras and Wildebeest herds, Ngorogoro Crater, Tanzania

5 - Rhinos up close, Lake Nakura Kenya

4 - Condors in Flight, Las Andes Chile

3 - Lions at dawn, Serengeti Tanzania

2- Giant Manta Rays, Ko Bon Thailand

1 - Cheetah kill, Serengeti Tanzania

MOST GLORIOUS VIEWS

10 - Sunrise over the Serengeti

9 - Full Moon over a Zanzibar Beach

8 - Sunrise over Angkor Wat

7 - Bali Sunsets

6 - Sunset over the Pyramids

5 - Sunrise beams onto Machu Pichu

4 - Snowcapped Andes in the Moonlight

3 - Where the blue of the Red Sea meets the red of the Sinai desert

2 - Sunrise at Ayers Rock, Australia

1 - My family waiting for me at JFK

View more photos 

ALL BOOKS READ

Gallic Wars journal - Caesar, Art of War - Sun Tzu, Divine Comedy - Dante, Ulysses - James Joyce, Cell - King, Blood and Gold - Rice, South Sea Tales - Jack London, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe - Adams, Dr No, Casino Royale - Flemming, LA Confidential - Elroy, Jaws - Benchley, Boca's Brain - Carl Sagan, The Caves of Perigord - Walker, The War at the End of the World - Mario Vargas Llosa, Walt Whitman poetry, The Beach - Garland, The Sheltering Sky – Paul Bowles, Out of Africa – Karen Blixen, Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad, Garden of Eden – Ernest Hemingway, Congo – Michael Crichton, Lost World – Arthur Conan Doyle, Don Quixote - Cervantes, Cleopatra- H.R. Haggard, Atlantis Found – Clive Cussler

BEST PEOPLE MOMENTS

10 - Jon my Cambodian Tuk Tuk driver for 2 full days

View more photos 

9 -  Buddhist New Year Waterfight - Ko Samui

8 - Balinese street vendor returning my lost gadgets to me

7- Partying with my dive buddies on Gili and Ko Tao

6- Taxi driver Amet taking me shopping on the back streets of Giza

5 - Skiing and hanging with Evan, Don and Michelle in Chile

4- My many Couchsurfing Hosts (THANKS!)

3 - The Huarocondo, Peru locals who fed me and gave me great directions

2 - Being treated royally by my friends and family in Sydney

1 - An LA reunion/rejuvenation with friends and Nicole

The BIG Tally

Countries Visited: 14 (17 passport stamps)

Continents: 6 (Antartica is next year)

Best Hotel/Hostal: Ramses Hotel, West Bank of Luxor - Egypt ($15 a night)

Worst Hotel: Melody Hotel, Xian China ($40 a night)

Total # of Flights: 30 (why bus or train when it cost ten bucks more to fly these days?)

Total # of Flights paid for: 16 (only the short hops and they cost me less than a r/t to Hawaii)

Total # of long bus rides: 12 (thus, the large # of flights)

Total # of long trains: 2 overnight, 6 long distance (see the above bus excuse)

Total # of metros: 9 cities, all nicer but smaller than our subway

Types of taxis: Auto, tuk-tuk, scooter, longtail boats, limo (by accident)

Total # of big ferries: 6 (Best way to travel)

Animal rides: 1 (horse)

Miles walked instead of paying for a taxi or bus: Countless (I had to act like a Backpacker once in a while)

Total Value: Priceless (thank goodness I had a Mastercard)

And without further eloquence, the final country ranking we've all been waiting for.  Obviously this is only my opinion and how much I enjoyed each place.  My mood at the time probably has a lot to do with the ranks so don't consider it gospel.

14.  LA (Can't rank it higher because I lived there for 5 years, even though I had a great time and really needed a little Americano time)

13. China - Hong Kong/Macau  (toughest language barrier, worst smog)

12. Singapore (sterile, but who am I to criticize after just 2 days)

11. Kenya (not as dangerous as you read but not easy either)

10. Spain (great but Europe isn't backpacker price friendly)

9.  Italy (amazing but I expected better from the Corleone homeland)

8.  Peru (Great place but I was burnt by month five)

7.  Cambodia (Surpassed expectations, most relaxed locals)

6.  Thailand (very high expectations, some met - Best Food)

5.  Chile (awesome skiing, but so-so on the rest)

4.  Australia (second trip so not a big wow factor, but still my favorite foreign country - Best Locals)

3.  Egypt (Amazing history, amazing scenery)

2.  Bali/Lombok, Indo (Most beautiful, Most fun)

and the #1 country visited is:

1.  Tanzania(Zanzibar) - (Nothing beats the Serengeti safari, nothing)

So there it is folks, my final lists of a dream trip.  That description is more appropriate than you know.  Like I said above, it all feels like a dream now.  My whole life was traveling.  Always figuring out how to get to the next stop, always wondering where I was going to sleep, nothing permanent, nothing real.  Now it's over and I'm back to the people I missed so much.  I'm happy.  I want to be here in NY, home, with my friends and family.  I don't want to be alone anymore.  But when I think back on the trip, it feels like that was another person out on the road, a good friend  I left behind, not the person I see in the pictures, not the person trying to understand it all right now.  Even when I try to explain the things I've seen or done, it's that dream analogy.   People nod along, say wow, and are interested for about two minutes, but eventually they realize that it is a dream I'm explaining and only one person truly cares about a dream, the person who just woke up. 

I don't expect anyone else to understand what I'm thinking.  I doubt anyone else will even read this far.  But when I read this ten years from now, I want this strange, schizophrenic experience not to be forgotten.  For six months I became a traveler; stronger, braver, more independent and resourceful than I have ever been and maybe will ever be again.  For six months I saw all the wonders of the world (four out of the new seven anyway) and experienced everything I possibly could.  I slept in hovels, saw the worse poverty in the world, argued with crooked taxi drivers over 3 cents, and overcame stress that would have popped arteries just weeks before I departed.  I also saw that we really all are the same.  Regardless of language, color or creed, every one I met was just trying to get by, just trying to be happy.  Ultimately, that pursuit of happiness is all that matters.  They cared less about my religion and politics than I cared about theirs.  None of the crap means anything.  Smiling matters, and that's all I should ever worry about again.  The traveler I shared the road with knows that well, so now the NY guy has to realize it too.  We'll see if I can keep some of these feelings.  Not sure if that's possible with the personality I have and the crazy life I lead, but I hope so.  I really do. 

And that's it, this is The End.  I have to find a job and a place to live, but I'm not worried.  I realize that one way or another, things work out.  Maybe that traveler is still with me in some ways.  I do know for certain how incredibly lucky I am.  Lucky to have been born in the greatest country on earth which enabled me to earn the time and resources to complete this dream, to see and experience all I have.  Fortunate to have completed these travels totally unharmed or harassed.  And most importantly, so very Blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to support and wait for me during such a long time away.  From the deepest echoes of my soul, thank you.  Thank you all, for all the emails, every comment posted, each single prayer whispered.  They are appreciated more than you'll ever know.  They got me through some very tough and lonely times and I once again need to say, Thank you all so very much.

Love and God Bless

Bill