Anniversary

I have now been on the road for a year. I am only counting the time from when I flew to China but have been out of work for around 16 months. I have spent all of the year in Asia and still feel I have only scratched the surface of the continent. I would love to go back to a lot of the places I have been but also to visit some places in countries where I only saw a little of the country. There are still a huge number of Asian countries that I have not touched and I think I could spend a lifetime in Asia just traveling. During the year there are only a few places that I really have no desire to see again. For some reason these places I hated are the ones that stick in my memory more than the places I really liked.

I wonder at times how much of that time has been spent waiting. I seem to always be waiting for something. I wait often in line to buy a ticket or ask a question. I am always waiting for a bus, a boat, or a plane and of course all the time waiting to get through security or check in. There is also the waiting for a visa or waiting at immigration. On flights there is also the waiting for my bags. I sort of feel at times of the year of travel I have spent 2 months of the time waiting for something.

In all it does not feel like it has been a year and when I look at the time I think I may be ruined for travel when I am working again. The idea of doing a week vacation and trying to see everything in a country now does not appeal to me at all. I really like just going with the flow and not having a reservation anywhere. Finding a room or getting a ticket to the next place has only been a problem in a couple of cases. This being said I still do not like getting into a new place after dark with no reservation. Everything looks better in the light of day.

I have seen a few sites that where on a sort of must see before I die list but the strange thing about it is that after a year of travel the list is longer than when I began. Talking to people about the place they have been and the things they have seen just makes the list grow and for every place I sort of mentally check off I have add 2. I guess it is a good thing that I don’t really keep a list or it would seem overwhelming.

Of all the amazing things that I have seen and places that I have visited the highlight of the trip has been the people. I have enjoyed the people along the way more than anything I have seen. I think that traveling is more about the journey between the attractions and the experiences while getting there than actually seeing the sites.

In a lot of ways I am tired of traveling but I also have the travel bug and I think it is really going to be hard to go back to a job. That is still a ways off since the money has lasted a lot longer than I would have ever guessed. Even though quitting my job for a year of travel was really scary it is best decision I have ever made in my life.