WanderingWhy…

After arriving back to the states, we did a fare bit of visiting.  We went to NY for a week, we went to Arizona for two weeks.  Okay, a little more for me at three weeks.  Then we returned home:  Home Home.

WS beat me home, and tried to convey the weirdness.  A week later, I experienced it for myself.  Everything I needed to make a meal was right in my kitchen.  My tap provided potable water.  If what I needed was not in my kitchen, I got in the car and got it.  I had a closet full of clothes, and when they were dirty , I washed them in my washing machine.   I called friends on my cell phone, and visited friends for the first time in a long time.  I met babies that were not born when I left, and kids who no longer remember me.

Then I started to process my surroundings more.  I realized just how many clothes I had.  And stuff.  Stuff everyhwere.  After living out of a backpack for 18 months, the amount of stuff in our home was overwhelming.  We began to purge like mad.  Donations made, items distributed, trash recycled.  Check. Check. Check.  The stuff had to go, for us to start fresh again.  A simplier house made us relax more, and feel more in tune from where we were before to where we are now.

So now what?  At the time, the travel bug has calmed.  I don’t think it is gone by any means, in fact, I almost feel like a trip like this makes it worse.  I saw 26 countries, but there are so many places I have not seen.  Facebook says I saw 11% of the world.  Didn’t I see more?!  Well then, I gotta fix that!  I am missing a continent!  I am missing one of the Wonders of the World!  China!  Russia!  Eastern Europe!  Ahhh!!!

But for now, we are going to go local.  Next week we are flying back to New York for WS’s sister’s wedding.  Then we are going on a road trip.  Not long, nothing special, but a bit of a last hurrah before we begin looking for jobs and really settle in from this wandering adventure.

We’ll see how long that lasts.

Check out our photos from the trip here so you do not have to sit through our slide show.

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With our journey now at an end, I think it’s extremely important to thank everyone that helped make this longtime dream become a lifelong memory.

First, I have to give the biggest thanks to my Mom.  Mom was kind enough to uproot her life in NY to move into our townhome in Florida, keep tabs on our finances, run down problems for us, and feed the cat (maybe a bit to much–he is FAT!) while we were away.  Thank you mom.  I love you.

I’d like to also thank:

My Dad for the gift of an Amazon Kindle which lightened my backpack tremendously.  Although the guidebook companies are still not on board with Kindle versions of their books, there was still plenty to load up and read away the downtime.  This is a great backpacker gadget (and yes, it’s more expensive crap to carry and worry about).  The only problem with it was fighting with WD over who got to read it next.  Thanks Dad.

My buddy Matt Shannon for hosting the now internet famous WanderingWhy.com website and his lightning fast response in troubleshooting the site while we were out there and barely connected at times (no comments from the peanut gallery about the photos being broken).  You are a true friend and a scary good IT guru.  See Matt’s website for all your computer security needs.

My doctor friend who will remain anonymous to avoid violating HIPPA <grin>.  Your prompt advice during some of the lowest times was a tremendous help and highly appreciated.  Thank you for the generosity of your expertise and your friendship.

My Jiu Jitsu friends Sonny and Chris for all their advice on Ecuador, and for introducing us to Sonny’s long lost brother, Juan, who showed us a great time in Buenos Aires.  Sonny, ever heard of Skype? Call your brother you bum.

My Jiu Jitsu instructor Eduardo not only for steering me to train at Gordo’s academy in Brazil for a new experience in my training, but for sharing and teaching me an art that opened up many new friendships in the different countries we visited.

And again, my Grandfather for all his travel stories and inspiration.

If I missed anyone, I apologize.  It’s tough to remember all the great friends who have helped us out over the course of this long journey.  Please don’t feel slighted as we do appreciate everything everyone has done no matter how small.

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Countries Visited :26

Continents:6

Preapproval visas needed: 3 (Brazil, Vietnam, India)

Pages added to passport: once in Australia

Months gone: 18

Number of days wandering: 548

Plane trips:39 WS, 45 WD

Bus: I seriously could not tell you

Overnight Bus: 10

Cars and Campers Rented: 3

Subway systems learned: 12  (most intricate was Tokyo)

Languages WD can say “thank you” in: 10

Languages WS can say “thank you” in: 1

Visits to the doctor: 1

Emails to the doctor : many many many

Number of Cipro taken: 45

Packages received: 3

Of those packages, one damaged, one lost.

Packages sent home : 9

Of those packages, one damaged, none lost.

SIM cards used: 7

Most website hits in one day: 5000

Least website hits in one day : 0

MIA items: 10:

water bottle filter

tank top

socks

4 pair underware (only WD’s!)

cable lock

WS’s stinky hiking sandals

WD’s Haviana sandals

Photos taken: 30,000+ (want to come for the slideshow?)

Number of Days over budget: 103

Number of Days under budget: 177

Most expensive room: Paris

Least expensive room: Cambodia

Cost of cheapest postcard stamp: .70

Cost of most expensive postcard stamp: $3

Cost of traveling around the world with your spouse without killing each other: PRICELESS

HAPPY SIXTH ANNIVERSARY WS !!   Where to next?

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When I was little I thought a summer trip to Florida to visit my grandparents was an amazing adventure.  It was at the time, and I’m thankful for all those memories now that I am older.  Sitting here thinking a bit about the last 18 months of adventure, I was pondering when I caught the travel bug that started it all.

I think my love of travel was unknowingly planted and nurtured by my Grandfather.  A child of the Depression, I’m sure he never imagined he would get to see the world beyond the United States.  Applying for the U.S. Marines as a young man and the United States later joining in a little thing called WWII changed that.  Not the most ideal of conditions to travel, but my Grandfather is the eternal optimist.

A charismatic storyteller, he has shared countless hours of interesting tidbits and observations of his travels .  No, the stories are not always different but each time they were told they were somehow new and interesting. I cherished those tales then and still do now.

He spent years fighting against the Japanese in the jungles of the South Pacific Islands (should I tell him Japan was one of my favorite countries?)  And yes, he has seen and told of horrible suffering, starvation, death, and loss.  But his stories are more apt to be about the positive or funnier side of things: A pet wallaby in a sick bay camp in Australia, a bier-meister in Samoa who preferred their canned beer to his own local brew and loved to trade,  falling asleep on a beach in Guadalcanal only to wake up and learn he had slept through a shelling, or accidentally blowing up the outhouse in camp.

I’ve sat and listened to first hand accounts of tales of tribesman from the Pacific Islands, land and sea battles of Guadalcanal, and the sheer beauty and tranquility of the Samoan Islands.  For anyone that has traveled to Papua New Guinea and find it isolated and exotic, one can only imagine what it was like 65 years ago.

While these may have been the most difficult years of my Grandfather’s life, I’ve little doubt they were also the best.  Living simply out of a bag and seeing the world for a time can give you experiences and memories worth more than any amount of money.  Gramps is now 88 years old and still talks fondly of these years all the time.

Thankfully, I was able to travel with my Grandfather back to the locations of some of these stories a few years ago.   To finally see these places after a lifetime of stories about them was indescribable. I know how much fun it is to show someone a place you love and I think we both created some new memories traveling to these places together. Pictures from the trip can be found here and here if you are interested.

I now realize that like most people I’ve lived my life with the expectation that I will grow old.  The truth is, there is no guarantee of longevity for any of us.  If I’m as fortunate as my Grandfather, I’ll get to grow old and look back on a life that was well lived.  But if not, I still want to look back on a life well lived and I’m glad my time away has taught me this.

Now in his twilight years, I don’t know if my Grandfather truly understands what we have been up to the last 500 or so days–but I still want to thank him for sharing his adventures so that I could find the courage to go out and create my own.  It is a gift I will always cherish.

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Without much pomp or circumstance, the eagle has landed.  That’s right, we are back in the United States.  We landed in New York on a cold spring night, complete with snow flakes, and headed to WS’s dad’s home on Long Island.

The return home has been very interesting thus far.  We are not truly home home yet, which makes a big difference.  We are still technically wandering, visiting relatives and traveling around the States a bit.  So I can’t completely say what it is like to be home.  I am sure things will be much different when I hit my own bed and enjoy my house for the first time in 18 months.  Until then, we are decompressing and readjusting to life in the States.

I have to say our re-entry has been a bit overwhelming.  The first day back we went to Wal-Mart and there was a point when WS and I were ready to run out the door.  It was loud–really loud.  In a foreign country, all the talking is mostly white noise because you do not understand.  At home, you understand that the lady on the cell phone is mad her car is not ready and the guy yelling at his kids is doing just that–yelling.  And, you understand all of it.  It was crowded, and all that coupled with the sensory overload of all the choices were enough to make us ready to hop on a plane back to anywhere. Do they make a cultural decompression chamber?

An American size coffee is at least 3 times that of anywhere else.  I had a cup of coffee and a NY bagel our first full day back with flavored creamer (my favorite) and promptly had a stomach revolt.  My body was crying for a teeny tiny cup and a little breakfast, and instead I overloaded on the caffeine and carbs…  Gotta get used to the Vente again.  Same goes for our first meal out in the States, most of it went home in a doggie bag because the portions are huge!

We now have access to a reliable and consistent internet connection, my cell phone is up and running, and the job search is about to commence after we return home.  While all of this is very exciting (well, maybe not the job part) there is still a sense of disappointment I feel with the return home.  There is the let down that what I have done the last 18 months, I no longer do.  I am no longer Wandering Dawn.

I feel it’s expected I summarize these last 18 months into a sound bite.  I don’t expect anyone to care how I had to wait 6 hours for a train in India and all the weird things I saw in that time, but I don’t have much else to talk about either.  I don’t know what movies are out, what songs are popular, or what the latest fashions are.  I don’t know what is going on in my neighborhood or at my old jobs.  All I know is the last 18 months were an experience of a lifetime that I do not know if I will ever be able to describe well.

So as I decompress, I have to say right now I feel like I have the bends.  Bear with us as we re-acclimate to the good ol’ US of A, and reintroduce ourselves to all those things that we love about this country.  We are lucky, truly lucky to live where we do and call ourselves American, we just need some time to get into the groove again.

Can someone please hand me my “People” magazine and a latte!?  I gotta wash down this bagel.

Photos are here, the photo page is still not playing nicely with our blog.

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Yup… we’ve been slacking on the posts lately–big time.  I think the last 18 months are starting to catch up with us.  We are constantly tired no matter how much sleep we get.  Still, it’s tough to face going home eventually.

We haven’t written much because we’ve been bouncing around Europe.  Travel is very easy here and more like vacation than travel.  Don”t get me wrong, we’ve been having a blast but I don’t think our readers enjoy hearing that as much as the funny, crazier, things that happen outside of the Western countries.

“WD ate lots of pain au chocolat in France.  WS stuffed his gut with bangers and mash in England and washed it down with several pints.  We both wandered the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa.”  See what I mean? snooore…

So this post is more of a thank you to all our European friends (which may still be boring unless you are one of them).  If you look back at our FAQ you’ll see we had no intention of traveling Europe due to cost.  But, the many new friends we have made along the way made it a possiblity so we scratched the loose plans for an African safari for some much needed sweet European travel.

I’m amazed at the trust and hospitality we’ve encountered in our travels.  I’ve had people I’ve known for only minutes hand me their Ipod for a day or lend me local currency with complete trust.  In the case of these friendships, they later evolved into entrusting us alone in their homes and even lending us their car.

A big thanks to our friend Gerald in Spain.  Starting out I would have never thought we would make a new Austrian friend in Ecuador, travel to Peru together, meet up again in Japan, then visit him at his home in Barcelona.  Crazy huh?  Maybe the world really is shrinking.

Thank you to our Costa Rica kiteboarding UK pals Alex and Catherine for a wonderful time and for educating us in traditional English food and pub culture.  We never thought we’d see Stonehenge, Bath, or the British Museum let alone with some great friends.

And last but of course not least, a big thank you to Pete and Anna.  You’ve helped slim down our horrible geography knowledge to include the beautiful city of Cambridge (maybe my favorite place in all of England) and the picturesque village of Stanford.  We never could have predicted a visit to Sweden too… just wonderful.  Seeing you again was like meeting old long-time friends.  We hope the jobs work out and you find a happy balance between the UK and Sweden.  Next time we see you we hope to be less “daft” and speak more “proper” English–you muppets!

I realize as Americans how fearful we are of things that have never even happened to us.  How many readers out there have had their material things stolen or their homes robbed?  Sure it happens, but it’s the exception not the norm.  Constantly looking at life through lenses like this only robs us of potential kindness and new friendships.  I think somewhere along the line we’ve slipped from awareness to paranoia.

I hope one day we get to a chance to reciprocate some of the kindness and hospitality we have received these last 18 months–I’d be embarassed not to.  I don’t care if the chance happens this year or in 20 years our door is never closed and the weather is always nice.  Thanks again friends.

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You may have noticed our last two posts are now missing. Maybe not. We had the clue of where we were going, then the answer. But the server blew up, taking with it our next two posts as well. They recovered our clue and answer, but they no longer made sense, as people guessed where we were, I corrected our answer because it was off a bit, blah blah blah. Long story short, it did not make sense anymore, so we flushed them.

In the mean time, we will give you some links to check out, as we are too lazy to rewrite our entries right now. Maybe not lazy….we are in Paris for crying out loud! The city is calling.

Check out this interview we did for our friend Nomadic Matt’s website. It explains how we have not killed each other yet on the road.

Click here for photos of London (not many).

Click here for photos of Barcelona.

Click here for photos of Paris.

Click here to get Sean to fix our photo page.

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While in Dubai I got to see my amigito Arturo.  I wrote a little post about my friend during our first visit back in Panama and I’ll give him some cyber-celebrity here again.

Only 2 years old the last time I saw him, his favorite word was the same as all two year olds: MIO! (mine).  Now nearly 4 years old his vocabulary has grown tremendously and was a great spanish quiz for WD and I.  What is the favorite word of children this age? Correct–it’s “Por Que?” (why?)  Only he says it with a strange spanish accent “Por Queee?”  Everything is questioned.  Out of curiosity or to drive his parents crazy I don’t know which but it’s wildly entertaining.

“Where is my bicycle?” he asks

“Outside” Jose tells him.

“Por Queeee?” he asks.

“Because that’s where you left it!”

Great fun to be nearly four. 

So, Arturo has graduated from everything belonging to him to questioning everything.  He also no longer calls me Chacho but I’m still not Sean, now I am “Hombre Muchacho”… not sure which I like better.

He seemed to be taken with WD and grilled her on her spanish.  One day he went into the bathroom with her and asked her to explain what each item in her bathroom kit was… and why of course.  WD was never more sorry for carrying 487 bottles of lotions and potions.

He then watched WD wrapping a gift for Ingrid and started his usual round of interrogation.  She explained it was for his mom and that this was a secret.  He understood and confirmed her “shuush” as they walked to the closet to hide the present.

Twenty seconds later he flew to the bedroom door, flug it open and howled down the stairs “MOM!!!! IT’S A PRESENT FOR YOU!!!”

WD and I could hardly breathe as we doubled over laughing.  I don’t forsee a future job in the secret service for Arturo.

Sadly for my roommate Jose, he is missing his son like crazy at the moment.  This time around in Dubai he has to go it alone and his family is back in Panama.  Tough? I’m sure.  Hang in there Jose, it will all be worth it in a year’s time.

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Today is day number 500 on the road for us and if you’ve been following along on this journey for that long you may recall our time in Panama.  We spent our first Christmas and New Year on the road with my old college roommate Jose.  Jose had just returned from 5 years overseas teaching English at a university in Dubai.  He enjoyed his time there but after 5 years of explosive growth and the congestion that comes with it, it was time to go back home.

It’s crazy how things work out though.

After a year back at home the job options for Jose yielded nothing but frustration and he decided to return to Dubai.  We just happened to be in the middle east already so… side trip!!

This time my friend’s game plan is to save some of that Dubai dinero to buy a house back in Panama.  Much like the majority of expats in this wealthy little kingdom, he is here to share in some of the riches.

Riches is what Dubai is all about.  Jose gave us the grand tour of the city throughout the week and pointed out entire sections of skyline that didn’t exist only a few years ago.  Mega communities all named something-village or other-city have appeared like a genie from the bottle.

I think of the city as a modern day fairy-tale kingdom.  What would you do with your kingdom if money were no object? keep it all for yourself (a-la Saudi Arabia) or build up your kingdom (Dubai) to make it the talk of the world?

Yes, build me the world’s only 7-star hotel:

 Nice huh? only $1800 a night.

Yeah, and an island shaped like a palm tree.  Hell, build me two more.  Okay, now how about a series of islands set in a map of the world.  Although we are surrounded by desert and not strapped for real estate, we need the tallest building in the world.  Actually, let’s take advantage of that space and build the most expensive airport in the world–that should break the record for biggest building in the world and the largest  airport in the world.

I’d also like a ski slope in the middle of the desert because my giant airport is not completed yet.

As Mel Brooks would say “It’s good to be the king.”  Or in this case, the Emir.  Out of the 1.4 million people who live here, maybe it would be great to be one of the few nationals (less than 20% of the population) of the kingdom and get free utilities, free education and be able to own land.

I’m being my usual sarcastic self in these observations but the city’s wealth is truly impressive. The roads and surrounding landscaping are beautiful.  The endless mega-shopping malls are sights in themselves.  The public parks are the best I have seen anywhere.

At home the public parks close at dusk but here they stay open until midnight.  It was pretty sweet to hang out in a beautifully landscaped, well-lit park with a view of the skyline at night while families BBQ’d and sat around talking.  No drunk idiots, no seedy elements emerging from the shadows, no pack up your gear and get out now.  I don’t have kids but something like this at home would be nice.  Funny how back home some of us wonder if the middle east is safe… I don’t know anywhere at home where people are perfectly comfortable letting their kids run around after dark.

Dubai is quite an ambitious little place but even here they are feeling the effects of the global financial fallout.  Thankfully my friend’s employment is more secure than most and he should be fine.

I hadn’t seen Jose for eight years when I met him back in Panama and thought it was likely to be just as long before I did so again.  But fortune shines on us when we need it in our travels and by a good series of events a year later we found ourselves in Dubai visiting my friend from Panama.  Life is sometimes crazy in a good way.

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What can I truly say about Egypt?  The history speaks for itself.  Maybe what I can share with you instead are some interesting observations/opinions about visiting the great sites of Egypt.

1. The touts are gonna get you.  Every corner, every store.  You cannot avoid this.  However, if I can offer a bit of advice, try speaking another language.  It stops them in their tracks.  My rudimentary Spanish has been a lifesaver.

2. Do you know what baksheesh is?  You will learn in your first five minutes in Egypt.  It is a tip, and expected for most everything, from the temple guard who allows you to take your camera in, even if cameras are permitted, to the tout who tells you where the entrance is that you were walking in to anyway.

3. Climbing into a tomb is not as cool as it sounds.  We visited one that smelled like ammonia.  Another was amazing, but hot.  The guard will give you a piece of cardboard to fan yourself with-for baksheesh.

4. There is a Pizza Hut in front of the pyramids.  All photos are taken in the other direction, or far enough away that you cannot see it or the city, but its there, with all its gooey cheesy goodness.

5. There is a two tier price system in Egypt, not just for the sites, but for food.  Another piece of advice-learn the numbers in Arabic so you can point out what the price should be (you probably won’t get it, but have some fun trying).

6. Shwarmas…falafel…..kushary……eat eat eat!  WS is.

7. Sheesha is good.  Try it with some tea and good conversation.  The apple is really good.

8. Egyptians love Obama.

9. You will be offered a camel ride, a horse ride, or a donkey ride no less than 2000 times while visiting any site in Egypt.  And please, if you forgot to buy postcard, do not fear.  They will be offered to you 1000 times.

10. The carvings, paintings, and relics will AMAZE you.  There is no way to describe what I have seen here.  I could try to explain, but then you would owe me some baksheesh.

To see photos of Egypt (photo page still not working), click here.

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