Wrapping Up the Trip – Some Final Thoughts

At any given time, I was carrying around 55lbs between two bags

Some quick stats from the trip…

• Away for 8.5 months or 250 days or 6000 hours or 360,000 minutes
• Visited 13 countries
• Took 15 plane rides
• Needed five visas (India, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia)
• Spent the Most Time In: India (92 days) … Second place: Thailand (45 days)
• Spent the Least Time In: Macau (26 hours) with Singapore a close second at about 40 hours
• Favorite Country: India, though Thailand was a close second because of all the things we did there
• Favorite Experience: Two weeks volunteering on the vegan hippie commune in India
• Craziest Experience: Getting robbed by the naked Thai guy at 3am in Thailand
• Longest Commute: 31 hours from Khajuraho to Puna including sleeping on the floor of an Indian overnight train
• Total Bedbug Attacks: Three confirmed, one highly suspected

Final Country List and Time in Each One: 8 days in England, 6 in Holland, 92 in India, 16 in Sri Lanka, 45 in Thailand, 12 in Indonesia, 18 in Malaysia, 1 in Singapore, 16 in Laos, 8 in Cambodia, 20 in Vietnam, 7 in Hong Kong, 1 in Macau and 1 hour in the Tokyo airport waiting for a connecting flight.

Final Clothing Count: 5 boxers, 4 socks, 5 tee shirts, 2 button down teeshirts, 1 shorts, 1 zipable shorts/pants combo, 1 pair hiking shoes, 1 flip flops, 1 very sun-faded Mets hat, 1 towel, 1 long sleeve shirt, 1 rainjacket, 1 pairs of glasses, 1 pair sunglasses, 1 bathing suit, 1 pair scuba goggles

This and That Since I’ve Been Back

These four bags contained everything we needed for 8.5 months of travel

Even before landing in LA, I saw Costco, Safeway, Target and CVS out the window. Welcome home!

On our first night back, Carrie and I slept for 16.5 hours and woke up at 5pm

After dreaming about it and tasting it in my mind, my first Chipotle back was amazing and a two pieces of tinfoiler!!!

Because we flew home in an eastern direction, we crossed the International Date Zone and literally went back in time. By the time the day ended, August 17 had lasted for 37 hours.

I’ve always wanted to go to Japan, but the hour layover in the airport when I didn’t even have any Yen was the biggest tease ever.

The flight from Tokyo to LA served sushi as a dinner. Awesome!

It took a little while for my stomach to get used to American preservatives and processed food and I got sick once as a result.

It took coming home to be scared while waking up in a strange place. One morning in California, we were abruptly woken up by Carrie’s cell phone alarm and I looked around and had no idea where I was for a second before realizing that I got scared in the safest place we had been in the past eight months.

One package from India was opened by US Customs

In total we shipped 4 packages from India, 1 from Thailand, 1 from Malaysia and 1 from Vietnam. We’re still waiting for the one from Vietnam to get here…

One package from India was lost. Another was opened at customs and pashmina and blankets were stolen.

With all the things we bought in Bangkok and along the way, our bags weighed 42kg (92lbs) on the flight home…and that’s not including my camera or laptop or our carry ons.

Erin, who Carrie and I met in Laos doing the Gibbon Experience, came and visited me on Roosevelt Island. It was little weird because she’s still on her trip and I want to be. Still, how cool to meet back up in New York after meeting in Laos!

At my lowest I had lost 33 pounds after being sick in Malaysia.

Now that I’ve been back a month I’ve been asked “what was the best part” more times than I can count. At first I said Sadhana Forest, or Thailand…but in reality it was being able to say “wow, that’s like nothing I’ve ever seen/done/experienced” on a daily basis.

Finally, thanks to everyone who followed along in the adventure. Thanks to everyone who emailed…there’s nothing quite like hearing from home when you’re so far away. Thanks to my Mom and Donnie for their eternal support in this crazy lifestyle I lead.

Now, what to do next….