Life outside the labor force has been pretty good. After finishing up in Chicago, I drove back to California with my brother Ori. We spent three weeks on the road, stopping at eight national parks; lots of beautiful places. (One piece of advice, skip Rushmore and spend that time in the Badlands, you will not regret it). I’ve spent the past month hanging out by the pool, reading books and going up to San Francisco to see friends. As you can imagine, it has been very tough.
I’m not sure how much I’ll write or blog. It seems I do all my good thinking at times when I’m away from a pen or computer- car rides, showers, hikes, so I’ll just have to force it out somehow. The plan is to periodically send out emails (maybe once a month) and to update the travel blog as often as possible, which you can find at http://www.aviadventure.
My tentative travel plan is to spend three weeks in Japan, take a twenty seven hour boat to China (sounds like fun, huh?) spend however long there I find enjoyable and then move overland into SE Asia where I’ll be testing the efficacy of my malaria pills. I have no idea how long I’ll be gone. It could be three months or much longer….we’ll just have to see.
A number of people have asked, why Asia? It’s different, the culture is varied and interesting, lots of great history, cool ancient sites, good weather, it will be quite a challenge (definitely a motivating factor), and it’s cheap. There are a lot of good reasons to go out East.
After reading a number of travel books this summer, I worry that I’ll fall into a similar type of analysis. It seems every travel book I’ve read follows the same general arc.
1. Travel to foreign land
2. Wow, these foreigners sure have some _ (bizarre, inspiring, primitive, etc.) ways
3. Upon further contemplation there is so much in common between our two countries/people
4. We are all beautiful humans
I’ll do my best to stray from such trite remarks. Instead, I’ll regale you with stories such as the time I defended myself from would be muggers using only King Fu acquired from Shaolin monks, or riding on the backs of dolphins in search of Atlantis and of course the time I united the yin and yang in a moment of transcendental bliss. None of which has happened yet, but I’m certain, it is all just several months away.
I look forward to periodically hearing from all of you and hope my journey serves as a small reprieve from the normal hustle and bustle. Any contacts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated (I think I have Japan pretty much figured out, but China right now is a blur) and in the event you feel like a little adventure, come and join me!
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