Well ladies and gents, this is it, my last blog post related to my travel. I’m running out of fresh material, and I’m feeling ready about tackling life back home. The travel bug is still in me, but it’s been eased into a dormant state… for now… I’ve had the time to vent, to get rid of my jet lag (whatever of it there was), and to prepare myself for an epic return! Haha!
So a couple of stats about my trip:
- Number of countries visited: 4
- Number of cities visited: 28
- Number of bandannas lost: 4
- Number of motorbike accidents: 2 (Although I wasn’t actually ON the bike for one of them. Nevertheless, the scooter still ended up in a ditch)
- Number of times I avoided paying for ANY motorbike damage: 2
- Number of times I thought I broke my camera: 3 (Both scooter accidents, and water damage when hiking the mountain on Koh Pangan, Thailand)
- Number of times overcharged for products and/or services: WAY too many!
- Number of missed ferry boats: 1
- Cheapest beers: China – ~75 cents per beer (local)
- Best massages: Thailand
- Best metropolis: A tie between Chengdu, China and Bangkok, Thailand
- Best rural village: Songpan, China
- Best shopping: Bangkok, Thailand! Custom-tailored suits baby!
- Best nightclub: Club 88, Chengdu, China
- Best island: Koh Tao, Thailand
- Best climate: No brainer: the paradise islands of Koh Tao. But, in a strange sense, the Thorung La Pass on the Annapurna Circuit is high up there too!
- Best food: Hmm… really tough call between Japan and Thailand. I’ll just call it a tie!
- Best girls: I’m going to have to go ahead and say Japan
- Best boys: Thailand… I mean, they DO dress up like girls and can easily fool an untrained eye, which are NOT mine!
- Nicest people: Japan
- Best cultural experience: Nepal
- Biggest culture shock: China
- Best natural scenery: Nepal! Hands DOWN! I mean, Annapurna FTW!
- Best man-made attraction: Rinnoji, Ryuku, and Chuzengi in Nikko, Japan
Hmm… maybe people can recommend a couple more categories in the comments here that I can later add on. As for this blog and Flickr, here’s what you guys delivered:
- Total individual views: 8,722
- Busiest month: July, all of you people slacking at work! Reader count dropped dramatically once September came around.
- Posts: 104
- Comments: 297
- Flickr photo views: 11,956
- Number of photos: 3,100 (Help me pick the top 100!!! Check them out here on my blog and on Flickr, here. Post a comment on the ones you think are the best!)
- Number of videos: 29
Not too shabby if you ask me! Definitely a lot more reads than I was expecting, so thanks to all of my loyal readers!
I’m still set on the idea of going to work in Japan, but I’ll need something really creative to get me in there. It goes without saying that Japan is a country that I would definitely live in, Nepal is a country that I’d go back to over and over again to do some trekking, rafting, mountaineering, and so much more, I’d work in China temporarily, annnd I’d go back to Thailand to see what I missed, like the North, and then go chill out once again on the islands. Speaking of the islands (and ultimately scuba diving), I shopped around for some scuba diving here in Boynton Beach, Florida. The cheapest price: US$130 for TWO dives! Geez! That’s half of what I paid for my entire course in Thailand, and that was something like 6 dives! I didn’t bother going, considering the fact that, well, I’m broke! Flat broke! Damn traveling took all of my money away… But you know what? I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat! So instead, I went for a run across Boynton Beach, went for a swim in massive waves and tides (there’s a hurricane hitting Louisiana) that residents say they haven’t seen in a very long time, and just unwound in the nice, warm, sunny weather. Tomorrow, it’s golf time, and more beach time. I wouldn’t have any other way before going home!
I don’t want to stop writing this blog, it’s been a great part of this whole experience… but I’ll be cliché and say that life must go on, but this is something I have a lot of trouble letting go… I’m forcing words right now just so that this blog can keep going, and I think it’s pretty obvious. I’ll probably be coming back over and over again just to make some small updates just to satisfy my craving. I keep saying that I’m ready to go back home, but this will always be in the back of my mind, but it won’t make me sad, it’ll make me happy. I was fortunate to have these experiences, and I was a little depressed when I immediately got back home, but now I’m smiling!
I wish I had something bigger to go out on, but I feel as if I’ve already said everything that I had to say. Hell, some people might say that I said more than what I should have said, but like I’ve said before, I started writing this blog expecting to write about absolutely everything that came out of this trip, and that’s exactly what I tried to do. So, rather than force my content for this blog post, I’m going to cut it short and say one final goodbye to everyone (however, if you do need the urge to read about the travels of some of my fellow companions, you can check out Tony and Lindsay’s blog here or Max’s blog here). I can’t say it enough, I’ll never forget any of you, and once again, thank you. It won’t be long before I’m back on the road, and I hope to have all of my readers following me then as well. Give me about, say, one year! It’s only going to get better! Look forward to it as much as I am!
Sayonara, Bai-Bai, Sawatdee Krup, Namaste, Aurevoir… Goodbye… Actually, “see you later” is more like it!
-LL
P.S. To be continued…
Journey of Discovery 