Our Trip of a Lifetime

August 25, 2008

Final Blog Entry - The End of the Road

(Amber)

Matt and I experienced more on this trip that I can ever even wrap my mind around. We hit so many world wonders, but we also walked down random alleys, up random mountains, and through random small towns that were just as enlightening as the Pryamids, the Taj Mahal, or Maccu Pichu in their own way. We met wonderful people, ate all kinds of food, challenged our bodies and our minds, and honed our ability to look for resilience and beauty in all things no matter how different or demanding. We became pros at just going with the flow and appreciating everything for what it is. Not that there aren't some hassles or irritations, but even those are a part of the learning and evolution that occur on a trip like this, and I think we did a good job of seeing them that way.

Matt has listed some highlights, and I can't say that I disagree....but I also don't think I can do rankings yet or maybe ever. I would feel like I was cheating on safari if I said that the Red Sea diving was the best, for example. So I just can't do it.

A crude list of top-of-my-head highlights are as follows.....safari in the Serengeti, all of Zanzibar, Ajanta and Ellora in India, Inca Trail in Peru, Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina, Cuenca in Ecuador, Red Sea diving in Egypt, food and Petra in Jordan, Cairo, the skyline of Istanbul, sailing in Turkey...I just started to list the things above, and I realized that I could easily add several things from each country, which would essentially recap the entire blog. I loved this journey. The world humbles and amazes me. People all over the world humble and amaze me. Travel is something for us that's in our blood. And as long as we live, we will continue to explore the world.

I especially love that Matt and I did it together. We had all of these life-changing experiences together, and we get it. We know how it was, what we saw, what it felt like, and what we learned. And, most importantly, we had fun doing it. I think one thing is clear. I married well.

(Matt)

Well this has been a great trip. With the exception of Tibet, which we had to cancel because China was not allowing foreigners in, I feel that it was a complete success and that we accomplished all that we set out to accomplish and then some. It didn't end how we had planned, and I wish that Amber had been able to stay with me until the end and fly back with me. But really I've only been alone for about 12 days of a 237-day journey. It just seems like much longer.

Admittedly, I'm a little tired at this point and will not mind sleeping in a comfortable bed and eating at home. Eating out continuously (when not camping) for 237 days makes eating a sandwich at home seem really luxurious. Amazingly, I've lost at least 38 lbs on the trip, which speaks more to the total disrepair that I had fallen into before we left than anything else. I think most people could lose almost 40 pounds if their only job was to walk around all day, everyday for 237 days. Maybe I should patent that as a diet. Amber lost close to 20 pounds herself. So the diet definitely works.

Though tired, I think I could continue traveling for a while longer if I had the money and no mortgage or other responsibilities. Traveling the world, to me, is the most enlightening and educational thing that one can do. It is a life-long addiction for me.

I have put together some summaries of the trip that I think are interesting and kind of show how much we have seen by traveling in a very dedicated manner, continuously for 8 months. The first lists are not ranked, just listed as I remembered them. For example, the first list is comprised of places that we swam. The second is a list of places that we have taken a boat, and so on. For the lists that are ranked, #1 is the best.

Swimming

1. Indian Ocean, Zanzibar, Tanzania

2. Arabian Sea, Goa, India

3. Arabian Sea, Varkala, India

4. Aegean Sea, Pamucak, Turkey

5. Mediterranean Sea, Fetiye-Olympos, Turkey

6. Red Sea, Sharm el-Shiekh, Egypt

7. Dead Sea, Amman, Jordan

8. Ionian Sea, Corfu, Greece

Boating

1. Lake Titicaca, Peru, from Puno to Taquille Island and

2. Straits of Magellan, Chile

3. Beagle Channel, Argentina

4. Indian Ocean, ferry from Tanzania mainland to Zanzibar

5. Rio de la Plata, ferry between Argentina and Uruguay

6. Rio Iguazu, Argentina

7. Arabian Sea, Goa, India

8. Gulf of Aqaba, ferry from Egypt to Jordan

9. Red Sea, Egypt, dive boats

10. Mediterranean Sea, Turkey, the Blue Cruise

11. Dardanelles Strait, Turkey, ferry from Thrace to Anatolia

12. Upper New York Bay, the Staten Island Ferry, New York City, USA

13. Ionian Sea, ferry from Saranda, Albania to Corfu, Greece, ferry from Corfu to mainland Greece

14. Indian Ocean, Hassan's boat from Jambiani Beach, Zanzibar, Tanzania

UNESCO World Heritage Sites Visited

1. Old Town Quito, Ecuador

2. Cuenca Historic Center, Ecuador

3. Cuzco, Peru

4. Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary, Peru

5. Arequipa Historic Center, Peru

6. Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina

7. Iguazu National Park, Argentina

8. Colonia del Sacramento Historic Center, Uruguay

9. Statue of Liberty, USA

10. Stone Town of Zanzibar, Tanzania

11. Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania

12. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

13. Agra Fort, India

14. Ajanta Caves, India

15. Ellora Caves, India

16. Taj Mahal, India

17. Churches and Convents of Goa, India

18. Group Monuments of Hampi, India

19. Group Monuments of Khajuraho, India

20. Elephanta Caves off coast near Mumbai, India

21. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus Train station) in Mumbai, India

22. Historic Cairo, Egypt

23. The Pyramid Fields from Giza to Dahshur, including Memphis and its Necropolis, Egypt

24. Petra, Jordan

25. Goreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, Turkey

26. Istanbul Historic Areas, Turkey

27. Archeological site of Troy, Turkey

28. Gjirokastra Historic Center, Albania

29. Ancient City of Butrint, Albania

30. Old Town Corfu, Greece

31. Acropolis in Athens, Greece

32. St. Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Building, Kiev, Ukraine

33. Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region, Macedonia

NOTE: A couple of things here. First, this list is not even close to an exhaustive list of all the places we went in these countries, natural or historical. We went to many, many more. It does show you how busy we have been though because these are just those few that UNESCO deemed worthy of (or necessitating) this designation. So just keep in mind that for every one site on the list that we went to, there are lots of others not on the list that were great also. Second, look how many UNESCO sites are in India! We worked really hard to see everything we could in India. But this list shows you why travel to India is worth any of the hassles. About 24% of the UNESCO sites that we went to in our 8 months were in India.

The Rankings: The following rankings are mine, and Amber likely has her own rankings and will not agree with me.

Top 5 Cities

1. Bangkok

2. New York City

3. Cairo

4. Buenos Aires

5. Istanbul

Honorable Mention: Kiev

Top 5 Food Destinations

1. Jordan

2. India

3. Thailand

4. Argentina

5. Greece

Top 5 Activities, with a tie for 5th place*

1. Diving the Red Sea in Egypt

2. Hiking Patagonia in Chile and Argentina

3. Safari in Tanzania

4. Blue Cruise in Turkey

5. Hiking the Transylvanian Alps in Romania

5. Exploring Cappadocia in Turkey

Honorable Mention: Kayaking and Snorkeling in Corfu, Greece

*NOTE: With a trip this long, with many cool activities being done every single day, coming up with a list of only 5 things is painful and kind of unfair to the other 100,000 things we did during the course of 8 months, including mountain biking in Baños, Ecuador, and watching the volcano erupt there after a beautiful hike, playing guitar and eating great pie in Otavalo, exploring Stone Town Zanzibar, walking through markets all over India, Jordan, Uruguay, Chile, etc., etc. It feels like choosing your favorite child to pick only 5 experiences from an enormous amount that were all special and life-changing in their own way. Plus, I think that I am prone to pick the most recent things because they are fresh on my mind. I kept struggling with that. Nevertheless, these are probably my top 5, with a tie going to Fagaras hike and Cappadocia, though saying "hiking Patagonia" is clearly cheating because that encompasses about a month of activities and 2 different countries....but oh well.

Top 5 Historical Sites*

1. Ellora and Adjanta, India

2. Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

3. Machu Picchu, Peru

4. Petra, Jordan

5. Hampi, India

Honorable Mention: Khajuraho, India

*NOTE: Interestingly, the Taj Mahal, India's most famous historical monument, is not its most impressive. In my opinion, the ones mentioned above are far better, both for their antiquity and level of artistry.

Places Visited That Have Been the Sites of Recent Terrorist Bombings*

1. August 8, 1998: Dar es Saalam, Tanzania [and Nairobi, Kenya] (truck bombing of U.S. embassies killed 225 people and injured more than 4,000)

2. September 11, 2001: New York City, USA (2 planes flown into World Trade Center killed over 3,000 and injured many others)

3. August 25, 2003: Gateway of India and the Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai, India (bombs killed 48 people and injured 150 others)

4. April 7, 2005: Cairo, Egypt, Khan al-Khalili market, (suicide bomber killed 3 foreign tourists and wounded 17 others)

5. July 23, 2005: Sharm el-Shiekh, Egypt (car bombs explode killing at least 88 and wounding more than 100)

6. November 29, 2005: Amman, Jordan (3 bombs at hotel killed at least 60 and wounded 120 others)

7. March 7, 2006: Varanasi, India (bomb killed 28, injured 100)

8. July 11, 2006: Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai, India (multiple bombings on commuter train killing 209, injuring 714)

9. July 27, 2008: Istanbul, Turkey (2 bombs killed 17 people and wounded at least 150)

*NOTE: Though the contemplation of this is kind of scary, I thought it was notable that we going to places that were often picked as targets to scare tourists like us away. It didn't work.

The following is my own travel summary that I wanted to put together while I had time sitting here in Kiev waiting to fly out. I've wanted to add this up for a while. The following is a list of all the countries that I have traveled to (41 in all), beginning when I first left the United States at 22 years old to visit Mexico for 2 weeks with my cousin David and continuing through today. Next to the country, I will state the number of times I've visited the country, not counting multiple border crossings on the same trip, followed by the total amount of time I've spent there with a grand total time abroad at the bottom. I've tried to be as accurate as possible and have tried to err on the side of too little time in a place rather than too much.

Travel Summary

1. Mexico, 5 times, 2 months, 1 week

2. Ecuador, 2 times, 3 months

3. Peru, 2 times, 1.5 months

4. Bolivia, 1 time, 1 month

5. Great Britain, 3 times, 3 weeks

6. Ireland, 1 time, 3 days

7. Thailand, 2 times, 2 months, 1 week

8. Cambodia, 1 time, 2 weeks

9. Vietnam, 1 time, 1 month

10. Laos, 1 time, 2 weeks

11. Malaysia, 1 time, 3 weeks

12. Singapore, 1 time, 3 days

13. Belize, 1 time, 1 week

14. Guatemala, 1 time, 1 week

15. Portugal, 1 time, 3 weeks

16. Netherlands, 2 times, 3 months, 2 weeks

17. Spain, 2 times, 2 weeks

18. France, 2 times, 1 week

19. Italy, 4 times, 2 weeks

20. Montenegro (Serbia), 1 time, 1 week

21. Croatia, 1 time, 4 days

22. Austria, 2 times, 10 days

23. Switzerland, 1 time, 4 days

24. Germany, 2 times, 2 days

25. Chile, 2 times, 14 days

26. Argentina, 1 time, 24 days

27. Uruguay, 1 time, 5 days

28. Tanzania, 2 times, 1 month

29. Kenya, 1 time, 2 weeks

30. Malawi, 1 time, 1 week

31. Pakistan, 1 time, 2 weeks

32. India, 1 time, 1 month

33. Nepal, 2 times, 1 week

34. Egypt, 1 time, 11 days

35. Jordan, 1 time, 1 week

36. Turkey, 1 time, 22 days

37. Macedonia, 1 time, 10 days

38. Albania, 1 time, 8 days

39. Greece, 1 time, 10 days

40. Romania, 2 times, 1 month

41. Ukraine, 1 time, 5 days

Total Time Abroad: ~2.43 years

What is interesting about this number is that since first leaving the U.S. at 22 years old, I have spent ~22% of the last 11 years abroad. I guess I was hooked on travel.

If you allow me to include my time at sea fishing on the F.V. Shackleton in Southeast Alaska as being "abroad," though technically I was not, that takes me up to ~2.8 years, or ~25% of the last 11 years, if not abroad, at least away from home.

I think travel really opens your mind and forces you out of certain paradigms created by living in an environment that you completely understand and that doesn't challenge you, at least not culturally. Americans are not the only ones in the world guilty of this. Most people living in rural communities in every country looked at us like we were from the moon and were not interested in being challenged culturally. They'd just assume we return to where we came from a lot of times. Ukrainians, for example, are not particularly tolerant of my inability to speak Ukrainian or Russian. But without significant language or cultural differences anywhere in our very large country, Americans have to work a little harder to cross an international border and to seek out an experience that is challenging culturally.

Unfortunately, most Americans don't leave the States because a challenge is exactly what they don't want on a 2-week vacation. But I really encourage anyone reading this blog from the States to pick a country someplace on the globe, buy a ticket there, and just go. That's really all it takes to be a traveler. Be patient, remind yourself that you are going to a foreign land and will be subject to foreign laws, get on the plane, and go. It's that easy.