The end
Trip Start
May 06, 2007
1
166
Trip End
Jul 24, 2008
Lafayette,
California,
United States
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Since I've been back stateside, everyone seems to ask one question: "What did you learn on your trip?". Well, here's the short answer: I LOVE paved roads. Especially the kind that go straight and stay completely flat. Although I've had some problems with motion sickness in the recent past, I never would have thought I would need the mass quantities of Bonine that I managed to go through throughout my trip.
I also discovered that mosquito bites itch the most when they're on my ankles or elbows. Asian mosquitoes will bite me even through layer upon layer of DEET while both North and South American mosquitoes avoid me if anyone else is nearby.
I also have a strong affinity for Western-style toilets. Even though I eventually figured out how to effectively use a squat toilet, I like to sit when I pee. Enough said.
As for food, I learned that Japanese food is the least vegetarian-friendly of anywhere I traveled, and that Thai food is still my favorite cuisine. Bolivia had the worst food of anywhere I visited - I went on a ban of all things fried for almost three months after leaving there. Mangosteens are my new favorite fruit, though they are followed closely by Ecuadorian blackberries. The best fruit shakes were in Ecuador, though the Asian fruit shakes weren't too shabby.
Bus windows provided the most "authentic" look at local life. I visited very few places that are not regularly traversed by travelers, but whenever I was one of only a few Caucasians to visit somewhere, including bus rest stops, all of the locals would stop their daily lives to stare and try to figure out what theses strangers were doing in their town. When I was hiding behind the anonymity of a bus window, no one stopped to stare because they didn't even notice I was there. In most of the developing world, the buses drove right through the only "street" in most of the towns they passed. Looking out the window as the bus rolled by (typically slowly because you can only go so fast on uneven dirt roads) I could see what daily life without any interruptions was like for these people.
The second most common question people have been asking: "What was your favorite place?" My four months in South America were my favorite chunk of my journey. It had the right mix of outdoorsy things (like hiking), cities, and history for me. I loved the both the cloud forests and the rain forests. I found the traveler's network to be stronger there than anywhere else I visited, making it the easiest place to meet people to hang out and travel with. The local culture was also very open and welcoming - every person I came in contact with wanted to know everything about me and tell me their life story. Maybe some of the other countries I visited would have felt more welcoming if I could speak the local language, but with most languages specific to just one country it wasn't ever worth the time and effort to learn more than thank you before I crossed the border to the next country and next language. That being said, there were some other places I visited that I loved - Berlin, Krakow, Vienna, Sarajevo, the Croatian and Montenegrin coastline, the Cappadocia region of Turkey, Laos, Japan, southwest China, and the Perhentian Islands and Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, to name a few.
I know you're all concerned that I'll lose my travel bug now that I'm back in the US and settling down into a regular, everyday life. Not a chance! I already have a new dream trip. Now that I've already gone around the world, that kind of trip has lost its glamor. ;) If I make the opportunity to take another large trip I want to travel from the US through Mexico, Central, and South America all the way down to the tip of Argentina riding buses, trains, boats, and various other forms of public transport. At this point it's just something to dream about, just like traveling around the world was not all that long ago...
