In New Zealand.
I have been reflecting on that very question since I returned home May 14th and frankly, I still don’t have the answer. This may or may not be my final post. I don’t know yet. I’ve also contemplated what to do with this blog. Specifically, will the blog take a different form? Maybe.
So as I look at my monitor, I reflect on the 10 countries I visited (13 actually, if you count layovers) and am dumb founded on what to write. Maybe just dumb. Ha. I’ve seen a lifetime of memories in 4 months. I have traveled across 40 time zones, the international date line and equator on an epic voyage of over 28,234.069 miles. I’ve experienced tropical and sub-tropical heat, as well as severe cold, icy rain, and snow. Mosquitoes have been my dinner companions and bed bugs have slept with me.
Me in front of the famous Sydney Opera House.
While traveling the world, I have taken over 16,000 photos, but only recorded a very small fraction of what my own two eyes saw. Moreover, I have only seen a minuscule part of our planet . . . I read recently, “The world is not becoming homogenized, as critics love to assert. The world is bigger than it ever was, because it is now within reach and no longer a pipe dream. We can now actually travel to its most remote corners and experience its most exotic charms.” I absolutely agree with this assertion. Yeah, I saw McDonald’s hamburger joints and Starbucks in just about every locale I visited, yet the real differences – the ones you can discern by chatting and interacting with the locals remain palpably different. For example, when was the last time you saw a pack of dogs roaming your neighborhood? How about cows and goats on a major metropolitan street? How does your tap water taste? In Nepal, it can be lethal to a foreigner (seriously). Somewhat ironically, I have a hundred other places on my bucket list to see before I die, but the reality is that there will be thousands more I will never see.
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Would I do it again? Knowing what I know now, yes and no. Sorry to equivocate, but it’s as honest as I can get. Unless you have gone on a trip like this – visit ten countries solo, with no more than 2-3 weeks stay in each – then you really have no idea about how much energy and motivation is necessary to complete something of this magnitude. I have mentioned in previous blog posts, that it would be relatively easy to complete if I was still in my 20s. I still believe that. However, at 58, I struggled at times to “wrap my mind” around the length of this journey. The first few countries I visited were easy to complete because my energy level was so intense. In New Zealand, I recall doing multiple hikes in a day. No sweat.
In Bangkok, Thailand with Paul.
However, after I got sick with a chronic cough in Nepal and caught the flu in Istanbul, I was dragging for quite awhile. I really didn’t feel good physically until mid-April, when I SCUBA dived the Mediterranean in Greece. Fast forward a couple of days later – I had my wallet stolen. I accepted what had happened, knowing that I still had my passport, no money had been stolen from my financial accounts, and I still had a couple of credit cards to get me through the rest of the trip.
Jigme and I in the Shambaling Hotel lobby, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Yet, I would be lying if I didn’t say that thoughts of “chucking it in” and returning to my home in Colorado didn’t cross my mind. My wallet being stolen numbed me and I prayed about what I should do. As most of you are aware, my wallet was returned to me by a good Samaritan, Tzonny Sipsas. This single incident buoyed my spirit, whereby I was able to not only complete my journey, but to again, have a wonderful, joyous time while doing so.
Mosaic Museum in Istanbul, Turkey.
I guess what I am trying to articulate here, is that any journey, like life in general, has an “ebb and flow” to it, i.e., high and low points. This is what I am left with – I am so humbled for the unbelievable honor it has been to travel around the world. I was exposed to a wide variety of people, places and cultures that no book, documentary or class could ever equal. Other explorers took decades, if not their entire life, to accomplish such a feat. I have fulfilled a dream only others can imagine. I met and made many new friends during my trip, both locals and fellow travelers. Likewise, I made many more new friends via this blog. Last, but not least, I was able to keep my family and friends informed along the way . . . reassuring them that I was safe during my journey. I am grateful beyond words for this experience and I will cherish it for rest of my life. Thank all of you for keeping me company! 🙂
In Athens, Greece.
In Rome, Italy.
Rodin museum In Paris, France.
Around The World With Steve 
Great summary post! I have similar feelings from my RTW last year : I still have so many stories and photos to share. I’ve concluded that I’m still going to write about my experiences, even if I have to write about them slowly; I’ll do them in my own pace. In fact, I’m still writing about my pre-RTW travel; tons to share from those travels, too! I hope you find a direction that suits you best.
Henry, thank you so much for commenting. I’m glad I don’t feel unique or alone with regard to what I am feeling about this trip. I’ve read many of your posts about your own RTW trip and am amazed at what you accomplished. I am astonished that you were on the road for 389 days straight. Wow!
Right now (as you can imagine), I am still processing everything I did while on this journey. I’m not certain what direction I will go with the blog. It has been very difficult to even think about writing since I returned last week. In short, my mind is still mentally fatigued from the extremely fast pace of not only my travels, but trying to keep pace writing about them.
Again, thank you for stopping by . . . Steve
I hope you are motivated to keep writing, Steve. You have a gift and good ideas worth sharing. I did not know where my blog would take me when I started last year, and I often do not know what my next story will be. And not everything I have created is a gem. I have a file of posts I started and never finished. Nonetheless, the feedback from readers and fellow bloggers often makes the effort worth it. To quote writer, Neil Gaiman, ‘If you do not know how to do something, pretend you are someone who does know how to do it and just do what they would do.’ 🙂
Thanks for the written legacy of your adventures. – Mike
Thank you for the encouragement Mike. As I expressed to Henry, I’m still a bit fatigued from the trip and blogging about it. I love that quote from Gaiman and it’s quite true in my case. 🙂
How long before you and Florence go to Scotland? I am looking forward to reading about that six month adventure!
We will be in Scotland at the end of June.
honestly the real journey begins when you come back “home.” i put this in quotes because now you probably know more about the place you live than you ever did before, and because your feelings about what home means have developped considerably. the first time i really travelled outside the country i went to madagascar for ten days for a service learning project (paid by the school- score!) and went back about my life not realizing how much had changed. But now I realize what a turning point that was realizing that the world is really at your door. the real journey is within- looking forward to your insights and seeing how travel influences your perspective on other things! and the next round the world trip of course!
Megan, thank you very much for your comments. I can’t add much more to what you said so eloquently. Not certain about another RTW trip, but I am definitely not through exploring this ball we live on. 🙂
Well, I’m in awe of your work with the blog. To churn out the volume, the quality, the freaking insane number of pics which were rad and fantastic….it was herculean.
I have no idea how much time you put into the blog but I appreciate your commitment to it.
We worried about you, dude. Probably more so before you left (due to the unknown) but once you were gone, really, all we had was the blog as a lifeline. But you stayed connected and that made everyone, people I don’t know in fact, feel at ease with your journey. .
I was happy to see you get home and start blogging your ass off about the Giants, lol.
For me, your trip can be summed up in one word (it’s not really a word and I just made up whatever it is):
*T-Sip*
That story encapsulated everything you could ever hope to know about true human nature. And with all the stupid, crazy stuff going on in the world, that I can’t change but I’m consistently doing a slow burn over, it’s nice to know that the *T-Sip’s* of the world end up dominating all the bullshit that falls in between the cracks.
Welcome home.
I am humbled by your words Flav . . . Especially, considering that your blog is one of the most popular sites in the blogosphere. Thank you for reading and more important, for caring.
I know exactly what you mean with regard to “T-Sip” . . . The metaphor you ascribed to this word fits perfectly. I am certain that Tzonny will appreciate the reference. Again, thank you for your comment.
what a great post. Know what you mean about the pictures too. Just begining to realize that i will have to go home enventually too.
I just visited your site and I love the photos you and Marc took on your adventure in NZ. As I was viewing your photos, I thought to myself, “Wow, I didn’t get to see this part of New Zealand. How beautiful.” What I did see, was beautiful as well, but as you well know – NZ is a very big country with many stunning places to go, i.e., I wish I could have stayed longer there, but what I did see, is indelibly imprinted on my mind. Thank you for sharing!
Dear Steve, I knew there was something different about you? Your smile is so broad, so TRUSTING. Your travels seemed to have opened your heart. Get ready…..God has changed the playing field. You may be ready to meet the lovely woman you deserve. I feel like I have been privy to watching a miracle: YOU! Much love. Lynn
Lynn, thank you for commenting. It was so nice to see you, your husband Laurie, Maggie, Steve and Jerry Friday at dinner. When we returned to the Denver area, I expressed to Jerry how much I was happy to be home (this is a big part of your comment, as I have really embraced my relatively new home in Belmar the last two years I have been here. I loved living in the mountains, but after my shoulder injury, it was extremely hard for me living up there. In any event, I get the best of both worlds now, as I can visit Conifer, Evergreen and the Morrison area whenever I choose to do so). Love you both a lot!
Loved how you summed up your trip…every journey is a process and involves highs and lows that fortunately, we can never fully anticipate. That’s what makes the day-to-day experience so rich, when, like you, choose to open up your eyes and immerse yourself fully in every moment. Glad you are home safe, and keep blogging. Perhaps its time for reflexion, relaxation and pondering the next adventure…
LOL Anne . . . Admittedly, that has been my MO since I have been back. Complete R & R. I went out to dinner twice this weekend, so I am venturing out again. Dating is another thing I am ambivalent about, e.g., I was asked out this week, accepted, and then declined. Definitely not ready for contemplating a relationship at this time. 🙂
All I can say about dating is that 1) I hate it and 2) being in a good relationship is a wonderful, precious thing so it’s worth going thru #1 to get to #2…not very good dating advice, but if I had good dating advice, I wouldn’t have a trend blog! Further to that, I met my significant other on Craigslist, so you never know…
What happened to meeting in the Produce aisle?
Honestly, my guy would never shop for produce!
Too funny. When you’re single, you become intimately (perhaps the wrong word) familiar with the produce and fruit section, especially if you love them like I do.
I get you…I love to cook, and would have liked a man who did the same (with out showing me up in the kitchen!) but mine loves eating whatever I cook. Funny, the other day he said “I never knew what swiss chard was until I met you”. Go figure!
Well, mea culpa for me too . . . I am not too familiar with swiss chard either. I know what it looks like and I’ve had it before, but for the life of me, it certainly wasn’t memorable. Grin.
If you read Barbara Kingsolver’s farm-to-table experiment called “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle”, there’s a funny bit in there about swiss chard (they ate quite a lot of it, as it grows like a weed) and they were living off the land. Entertaining stuff!
Never heard of her, but I did a google search and would (now) like to buy her book, Flight Behavior, which is about climate change. Thank you for sharing Anne.
Nice summary, Blade. As you go along, incidents and situations you encounter will probably bring back some memories or references from the trip. I still get some of that from some of the longer trips I made as a younger, single man, even a few of the shorter ones made with Mrs. Snarkk. There are some events I particularly remember as if they happened last week, and generate an internal smile. Travel is a privilege, I never take it for granted. Travel is spice and herb to the everyday stew of life…
I love this, “Travel is a privilege, I never take it for granted. Travel is spice and herb to the everyday stew of life…”
I’ll probably use it too (with your permission). So true.
Permission granted… 😉
I guess I am at the right age to do a RTW..i wish it is easy as ABC! Are you sure you are at the end of the journey? No no.. Don’t stop! Love reading your blog. 😉
HEHEHE . . . Yes, if you are in your 20s or 30s, you probably have the requisite energy to do something like this. Like I said in my post, I think the traveling to a country every 2-3 weeks wore me out, i.e., constant airports and new hotels (I also didn’t stay at the same hotel when I got to a country either – usually staying at 2-3 places or in the case of Thailand and New Zealand 4-7 places in a 3 week period). In short, the constant unpacking and packing was a downer. Thank you for the comment and yes, I probably will still blog, but haven’t figured out about what yet.
Yeah Steve, you’ve got super powers! haha! My dad just goes to coffee shop when he was your age.
Anyways, this year i have been traveling more than I did 5 years back accummulated. Partly inspired by you. But of course if money and taking leaves from work not the issue I might have traveled more and more!
Pray this RTW of mine will one day come true.
Take care Steve!
HAHAHA . . . I wish I had super powers. You’ll do a RTW trip – you have the determination to do it. 🙂
“Energy and motivation”. Aye, there’s the rub. Personally, at 68 i could not imagine embarking on such a marathon blur-tour of a healthy slab of the planet. Of course these days i’m so ensorcelled with my homesteading lifestyle that the personal orb is pretty much limited compared with my 12 year, 26 state antiques roadshow adventures or the half year spent hitching, ferrying and railing over a slice of NW Europe at the comparatively tender age of 34 ~ half a lifetime on the penny.
Should you ever venture up to the Northwoods of Minnesota, Steve, during summer or early fall months i guarantee you you will get your share of swiss chard, both visually and gastronomically. In fact it’s highly possible that tomorrow will be the day my chard seeds hit the dirt. Tonight’s enhanced ramen will include no chard, but will get some fresh garden goodies such as bunching onion greens, baby spinach, sorel, lovage and oregano as well as bok choi from the store and bits of bacon from a local butcher. Oh yes, and egg drop, featuring a large brown ovule from a local Amish farm, some toyomansi sauce, a bit of balsamico and ultimately, a packet of ramen over the last 5 minutes or so.
Would have loved to been a mouse in your backpack when you visited the spice bazaar in Byzantium. One of my favorite food and condiment sources is a Greek grocery in Minneapolis which features among many treats, quite a few spices and herbs from Turkey, very reasonably priced and in bulk quantities.
That gets us back to the manifold wonders of travel. One of my personally developed adages for a good many years is that there are two basic and primary modes of learning: Reading and Roading.
Happy trails. -Stix
Hi Stix,
Yes, you would have loved the Spice Bazaar in Istandbul. I really was impressed when I visited there. However, other trinket shops were beginning to encroach on this area according to the locals I spoke with . . . That would be a shame for it to shrink any further than it has already. I love your last line about primary modes of learning . . . Thank you very much for sharing a great post!
Steve
Hi Steve, I really admire your commitment to blogging while traveling. I know who much energy it takes to get the photos and thoughts on line when you are tired and overstimulated from a day of exciting sights and experiences. Congratulations on creating an interesting travelogue, and an insightful summary of your experiences.
Thank you Shelley. I think part of the motivation was having people like yourself – who took the time to follow my trip, reading my posts and commenting on them. Believe me, it kept me interested in recording my adventure.
Beautifully written post, Blade. Excellent. Thanks for taking us on the journey with you, with your detailed posts and photos. You showed us a lot of the world. Very cool.
De nada Zumiee. I am looking forward to meeting you and the other Flappers for our SF Giants reunion in September. In fact, I will be out there much earlier than that (mid-August), watching my parents house while they do a cruise in Europe and Russia. Consequently, I may get together with Craig and anyone else who is in the area when I am out there. Let me know what your schedule is . . .
This is a great summary on long term traveling. Though I have never been sick for more than a few mornings in a foriegn country, I have experienced the sight weariness a little bit, or the feeling of some amazing sight being less amazing because I have seen so many amazing sights by now. Sounds like the trip of a lifetime though, and I really want to jump on one of these myself. Thanks for sharing your journeys and nice post!
Yes, it was a dream come true (or a trip of a lifetime as you said). The weariness was derived mostly from the relatively short stays (2-3 weeks) in each country, as well as packing as much fun into those couple of weeks as possible. In short, I was “hitting the ground running” each day as the expression goes for most of the RTW trip. Thanks for stopping by George. 🙂
Steve, It’s been a pleasure following you as you skipped and hopped around the world, just landing for a time in each place but immersing yourself in each culture. I admire you so very much.
You introduced us to many places but the most fascinating of all was being introduced to you and your courage, strength and heart.
I hope you leave the blog up for quite some time so I can come back to it again and again.
Blessings to you as you continue on your life’s journey.
Karen
Thank you very much Karen. I have tried to make the blog interesting and am in the process of determining what “form” it will take in the future. Actually, I have a post that I will probably have ready in a day or so on what lessons I learned on this trip. Still editing it. Again, thank you for following!
Welcome home! Thanks for sharing your journey! Elizabeth
De nada Elizabeth. I hope you are well!