Category: Post-Trip
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I Need Your Vote
Not too long ago I was asked to participate in a contest sponsored by the French Tourism Office of Martinique. The idea was to have 25 bloggers write a 500-word story about their “most exciting, astonishing, funny, special holiday experience.” Once I confirmed that they wanted a story about my vacation and not my favorite…
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Reclaim Your 1%
The Sunday travel sections of the paper are rarely of interest to me, mostly covering B&Bs in Wisconsin or Caribbean cruises. But, to my surprise, last week’s Chicago Tribune ran an interesting article that might just save frequent travelers like myself some money. The article, titled Foreign fee refunds may take a while, was the…
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Around the World in Tiny Drawings
From reading my blog some of you may have discerned that I’m a visual person. It’s true that when traveling I probably can’t tell East form West but I do remember how many barber shops we passed or that we need to turn at the giant chicken statue. I’m also very detail-oriented and keep track…
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Phase I Videos Online
Now that everyone has had time to look at my Phase II videos I’ve added Phase I. The majority of these videos are from Myanmar, although I do have a fondness for the one video I took in Thailand. Possibly my favorite video from both of my trips is this mob scene when I was…
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Travel Links
Travelers I met along the way I’m sure there were more over the 14 months, but these were the ones I had written down. Victoria from Northern Ireland whom I traveled with almost a month in Mongolia. She’s just finishing her trip about now. David, who I connected with online before meeting in Ulaan Bataar,…
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Phase II Videos Online
A while back a reader asked if there was some way to view all of my videos. At the time there wasn’t—I had been uploading videos to my own server in appropriate posts. Because of the requests and the realization that I have a lot of videos from my trip that never made it into…
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$21,625.45
Those of you who have been waiting, the new finances page is up. Until a few hours ago I thought my total was around $18,000 but after clarifying some discrepancies on my spread sheet the total has come to $21,625.45. Just to better solidify my OCD with all of you I’ve added more details, including…
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Final(ly) Expenses
When I first returned home it was obvious that most of my readers were anxious for that big number—my total expenses over 14 months. It’s been a struggle to motivate myself to step up to the demands and tally my expenses but I’m finally almost done. It wasn’t an especially difficult or time consuming task—most…
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An Amazing Race?
In college everyone would go on and on about how I should be on MTV’s The Real World. Of course, this is back when the show was cast with average-looking but interesting people. I don’t fit the mold of a Real World-er anymore, but ever since The Amazing Race came out I consistently hear about…
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A Hairy Predicament
I have a problem, a souvenir from Zanzibar that’s lasted longer than I’d anticipated. Two months after the end of my trip I still have zebra-striped arm hair. One of my favorite traditions in Swahili culture is henna. On my bus from Arusha to Dar Es Salaam I saw women with henna-covered feet and hands…
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Kyrgyz Confession
I feel horrible that I’ve been keeping such a huge secret from all of you loyal readers for so long. There’s a reason why I didn’t write much about Kyrgyzstan a year ago—I was in a pretty bad car accident somewhere between the Chinese border and the tiny town of Sary Tash. A year later…
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Me-go Featured in Local Paper
I was recently interviewed for a piece on “travel bloggers” for a local paper, The Daily Herald, and it came out in today’s paper. You can read it online here if you’re interested but my contribution was very small. Despite the way the online version is organized, my cartwheel photo from Giza, Egypt ran across…
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The Gallery is Open
Everyone seems to have a different idea of what they want to see updated first on this site. I think it’s telling that all the people who wrote me emails or left comments asked for sketchbooks or souvenirs but the winner of my anonymous poll was finances. I’m not surprised, “how much did you spend?”…
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Safely Home
Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been home for a few days now. Thanks for giving me time before demanding more updates! Since I’ve been home I’ve spent my time eating food that I like and staring in dismay at the piles of souvenirs I’ve sent home. I shipped at least eight packages…
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Six Months Later
Can you believe it? Although I was away for six and a half months during Phase I, by month number five I had a plane ticket home. Now that I’ve finally made it to India mainly by land, I don’t even know which town I’m going to next, let alone which continent. I’m badly in…
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Money Matters
I’ve finally put up my expenses! You can get to the jpg from the planning page, or go directly to the file. Below are some fun monetary facts from my trip–all denominations roughly converted into U.S. Dollars. Total money spent: $10,188.29 Total money spent on all transportation: $2,642.24 Total money spent on flights: $1,468.32 Total…
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A New Beginning
I usually call home once a month when I’m traveling. My parents wanted to hear from me more often, but with email and expensive international phone connections anything more often seemed a bit silly. When I called home from Bangkok in February my parents gave me the horrible news that my dad had been diagnosed…
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New Route Maps
One of the suggestions given to me was to increase the readability of the maps in the “route” section of the site. Sometimes, because I know exactly where I was and which route I took, I forget that most people don’t even know where countries like Myanmar are. Now the “route” section includes a detail…
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The Little Things
Things I Miss From Asia Markets Fresh, cheap, good fruit People smiling Two people carrying one bag People telling me I?m beautiful People yelling ?I love you? from moving vehicles Water Buffaloes Pop in glass bottles Knowing that the hair in my food is mine because it?s not black Taking photos Motorbike taxis Making decisions…
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Best & Worst
If you think of something else you’d like added here drop me a line in the comments. I haven’t sorted out money details so I can’t tell you how much I spent on anything quite yet. Days gone: 185 Countries visited: 7 Photographs taken: 9,303 Average photos taken per day: 50 Cartwheel photographs taken: 42…