Wrapping Up My Year of Travels

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– Posted on January 6, 2009Posted in: Travel

I read a really cool post over on The Art of Non-Conformity that wrapped up his year of travels in 2008 and thought I’d have a crack at it myself. I haven’t been to nearly as many places as that guy but I still think I’ve had a pretty interesting year.

Countries I Visted in 2008

  • England
  • The Philippines
  • Bangladesh
  • Malaysia
  • Hong Kong
  • China
  • Thailand
  • Myanmar
  • Canada (Windsor, Toronto, Niagara)
  • USA (New York City, Detroit)
  • Haiti

Highlights

Transportation

I flew a lot. I took almost 20 flights, spent a load of cash on airfares and probably have a massive carbon footprint at the moment. I have found that buying flights at short notice can still be affordable and it’s allowed a lot of flexibility in my plans, which has been great.

The longest journey of the trip was a 36 hour boat ride in deck class a few days after a 32 hour train ride in Myanmar. I discovered a love of overnight train journeys after some great experiences in China and Thailand and then discovered that in Myanmar, overnight trains are not the most reliable things in the world and had to sit through a 10 hour delay.

The craziest journey has to have been my seven hour trip on Xmas from Gonaives, Haiti to the Dominican republic border on a tap tap (essentially a pickup truck with benches) with 27 other people crammed on the back. A pretty uncomfortable way to travel but it was worth it for the experience. Travelling on the top of buses in Bangaldesh with the locals and their wares has to be a very close second for madness.

Lessons Learned

I had planned on taking a sustainable living course in Thailand but decided at the last minute to go to Haiti to do volunteer work so I lost the $500 deposit. I also booked several flights in advance and ended up changing my plans and losing $750. I’ve decided that making plans is bad for my bank balance so I’m going to try 2009 without making concrete plans to do anything too far in advance.

I also know now that travelling for the sake of it doesn’t really turn me on the way it used to. I much prefer doing things, whether it being attending a major event like the Olympics, volunteering, taking a language course or even renting an apartment and doing my internet work for a while. I can’t see this attitude changing in 2009 so I’ll be on the lookout for interesting opportunities in whichever area of the world I end up.

Plans for 2009

I’ve decided to kick planning to the curb for the foreseeable future but that doesn’t mean I can’t have some rough ideas for what I want to do, so here goes.

  • Travel on a sailboat
  • Study a new language abroad (Spanish, French or Arabic are on my list)
  • Cycle across a country
  • Do more Couchsurfing and WWOOFing
  • Search out more volunteering opportunities
  • Learn about natural building and sustainable living
  • Hitchhike

I expect to be in Haiti until March 2009 so would expect Central and South America to be my next stops, but I really am up for anything so who knows where I’ll end up. On the possible agenda after Haiti are a trip to Australia for a wedding, crewing on a yacht to Central America, or riding a donkey around El Salvador. I really have no idea what will happen and I sort of like it.

I had a great year in 2008 and I’m excited to see what 2009 holds. I have no idea how much I spent versus what I earning but I’ll attempt to sort out an annual revuew of my earnings and spending in a future post.

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