Signing Off

My travels around Southeast Asia are rapidly coming to an end. In fact, by the time you read this, I’ll likely be in the middle of my 24 hour return trip or even back home. The money tree is in desperate need of watering – I don’t think landlords on the west coast offer layaway – and I also think I’m ready for another change of pace. One of the many benefits offered by travel is an injected change into your daily lifestyle. After six months of travel, this has become my lifestyle. Certainly not a bad one, and it’s still a blast, but it is starting to lose part of that high-level novelty.

Travel will certainly continue to be an important part of my life – hell, I already have my next 3 trips sketched out – but this particular leg is complete. My next order of business is to find a fruitful means of employment in Portland, SF, or Seattle. Interested in something “green collar” – perhaps the development of alternative energy or environmental conservation. Hit me up if you know of anything that looks promising!
My wanderings around SE Asia have been incredible and have exceeded all expectations. In addition to a break from the pencil pushing, I’ve experienced some crazy sh*t, met some wonderful people, and learned a lot about Southeast Asian life and culture. And, most importantly, I’d like to report that the finger pointer dance is alive and well throughout the remote corners of Southeast Asia. Do not underestimate the power of the finger pointer dance.

Solo travel and slow travel were new to me and have proven to be particularly rewarding. I’m certainly not averse to fast & partner travel, but this was a nice change of pace and perspective. For a better description than I can provide, see these articles from Brave New Traveler, a sweet travel commentary site, for why solo and slow travel are awesome:

• Solo Travel: 6 Reasons To Wander Alone
• 5 Reasons Why Slow Travel Beats Going On Vacation
  

The trip has also included a few moments of sadness and mourning. My two sidekicks before I left the country were my cat, Meow, and my girlfriend, Daria. If you’ve been keeping up with my posts, then you know that Meow’s feline leukemia caught up with her and she is no longer with us. While Daria is still alive and well, we will most likely not be together even if I end up in Portland. It will be strange to re-enter the world of the working stiffs without the two of them at my side, but perhaps a completely fresh start will do me good.

Random Trip Tallies

6 months of traveling through 6 countries has produced countless memorable experiences, more friendships than I’ll be able to keep up with, and far too many squat toilet predicaments. I still have my 2 original pairs of pants (and no more), I lost 3 pairs of sunglasses, missed 1 train and 1 bus for which I had a ticket, ran in 5 different hashes, and got beat up once. Miraculously, I endured zero arrests, zero muggings, zero life-threatening diseases, and even maintained my exit-hole purity. (Sorry, didn’t know how to appropriately say: “I didn’t get raped! Horray!”).

Travel Writing

I initially harbored hopes of breaking into the travel writing industry during this trip. On a small, but significant level, I achieved that with my MatadorTrips article. Although it’s a rather small publication, it got me in contact with a rock star travel writing editor who is very well connected. By staying in contact with him, the door is open to publish further writing. Now I just need good ideas for articles, which is proving to be the hardest part! I finally drafted my Jail in Japan story for a TSM contest, but first person narratives generally do not attract much interest and are difficult to sell. [Formatting for this story is actually a lot better here].

On the side, I filled up two journals full of personal musings, published 6 Associated Content articles, and have written 30 posts here, but these are mostly notes and random reflections. I’m well situated with material and contacts, just need to produce lots of polished content if I really want to do this… and that sounds like a lot of effort. So we’ll see. I can certainly work on transforming notes into potential articles if the engineering job market proves to be reluctant.
Ingrained Lessons Learned and SE Asia Traveling Advice for the Masses

The following are tried, tested, and proven traveling philosophies for me, but may not suit your traveling style or priorities. Everyone gets something different out of travel, and that’s precisely what’s so great about it. Travel is uniquely experienced so that everyone comes away with something they can call their own.

Most items below play around the same core ideas: travel is best when cheap, hard, and awkward. These traits tend deliver rewarding experiences, fresh perspectives, inspiring insights, and meaningful relationships.

• Travel is meant to be awkward at times; feeling uncomfortable and out of place is a good sign that you’re off the tourist path and in the midst of the real country you’re exploring.
  
• Real adventure involves hardship: it is only highlighted by brief, but powerful, moments of exhilaration and triumph that make it worth the effort.
• If a restaurant or bar is welcoming, it’s probably expensive and touristy. Follow the side streets to find cheap and culture-rich venues.
• Money can improve every dodgy situation or solve it if it needs solving. Money can make you more comfortable, speed up any process, and get you off the hook, but the easy way out also tends to be the least interesting option.
• With that in mind, always use the cheapest available transportation: you’ll be with the locals and have the best experiences. But, of course, the best experiences are not always the most pleasant experiences.

• Patience is imperative. The bus will not leave on time and it will break down. Multiple times. Locals will try to overcharge you and it’s up to you to barter in a composed manner. Food ordered in a restaurant may take an hour or more to be served – bring a book, a buddy, or a camera if sitting outdoors by the street. If you want food fast, go to the market. Politely decline the 57 “want moto?” offers encountered each block. Westerners who do not exercise patience embarrass themselves, and others, and only become more frustrated.
• Drinking with locals is a great way to break the ice and dive into authentic local culture. Ditch your fellow backpackers in the guesthouse bar and find local watering holes. Just don’t be stupid and wake up wallet-less in the gutter. Here’s a good article on imbibing abroad.
• Lonely Planet guides (and other popular guidebooks) are only good for maps and for telling you where all the other white people are. Damn near every independent traveler uses LP these days, so every guesthouse and food stall listed is already full and twice the listed price because of the increased popularity. Traveling without (or with less reliance) on the guide is more fun.

Bored yet? Good! This is my last post, so suck it up. I’m surprised that you’ve made it this far! Here’s Ten Reasons Why My Travel Blog Sucks, in any case.

Last ones, and most important:

• Every experience is a good experience (yes, even if it’s a bad experience).
• Live everyday of your life in love. Check the link, scroll down past the gigantic photo, and then tell me you're not inspired. Really? You’re not inspired? Ok, fine, try these:
• How to Travel the World For Free
• The 50 Most Inspiring Travel Quotes of All Time

So long, Southeast Asia. I will miss you.

Justin out.

Vote For My TSM Story!

How to be sweet: Donate blood (or even a kidney!), support your local small businesses, recycle your crap, and then vote for my TSM story! Here’s how:

How to Vote For My Traveling-Stories-Magazine.com Story:
1) Go to http://www.traveling-stories-magazine.com/jail-in-japan-tales-of-pocket-knives-bathtub-antics-and-utter-cluelessness/
-->or just Click Here
2) “Digg” it by clicking the “digg it” button to the right of the title. If you have never digged anything before, you’ll have to register, which is no fun, but is also fast, free, and easy. Proposed kick-backs, bribes, and underhanded dealings with the $150 prize will be entertained.

Of course you can read the piece, too, if you have time for a laugh. It’s easily the funniest thing I’ve ever written because the material is so good that it writes itself.

The events chronicled in the story took place 17 months ago, as I’m sure most of you know, and I just finally got around to writing it up about two months ago. I submitted it to several online writing sites and while most expressed interest, they have been slow to actually publish the story. TSM emailed me a few days ago to tell me that it qualified for their contest, so we’ll see if it’s good enough. Hai!

Just spent four very quick days in Singapore – not nearly enough time – and did CouchSurfing for the first time. I was hosted by an awesome young couple, was shown around the city by several friendly locals, and had too much fun every night (and on into the mornings) with my new CS buddies.

The food in Singapore certainly lived up to its reputation: this place is definitely the food capital of the world. The famous street grub has mostly been confined to large food court deals and concentrated wet markets, so you can go around and grab lots of different dishes to share. While Malay, Chinese, HK, and Indian fares are the most prominent, there are also various dishes from all over the world. You can find anything and everything you want, and better yet, what you haven’t ever heard of before.

Also as reputed, Singapore appeared to be very clean, efficient, and conservative. Chewing gum was a problem years ago because kids would toss it on the street, so now it’s illegal and you can’t legitimately buy a stick of gum anywhere in the city. Smoking cigarettes in public places, littering, and eating on the MRT all carry heavy fines (500 to 5000 Singapore Dollars). Drug use gets you as much as a year in jail and drug trafficking carries the death penalty. These guys are no bullshit.

But at the same time, while the face of Singapore is incredibly conservative, the younger generations appear to be fairly liberal. Some people risk jay-walking (a big boy fine), will carry a cigarette through a mall corridor, and even pile 6 people in the back of a car to ride through the downtown streets. While these are not big risks elsewhere, they’re significant infractions here – if you get caught. Perhaps the sense of knowing that these small time improprieties are pushing the bounds prevents people from doing anything more serious. This way you get your “fight the man” thrills from doing petty stuff…

Housing is really interesting: you cannot buy an apartment or any place to live unless you’re married or older than a specified age (35, I think). The government subsidizes the cost if you are married, and then subsidizes it more if you move close to a parent. I find that incredible that the government promotes family values through housing cost incentives. Ok, starting to ramble… Go ‘digg’ my crap so I can win money :)