Around the World in 717 Days

Posted on Thursday, January 23, 2014

CHANDLER, ARIZONA – When we left the United States in November of 2011 we were in search of an adventure. We didn’t intend on traveling for any finite period of time. There was no big list of countries that we planned to visit, and we definitely didn’t intend to circumnavigate the world. Every day we made decisions regarding which direction to head or where to spend the next week or month and every day we were surprised by what laid around the corner. The constant discovery and unending challenges and lessons are what made our trip worth continuing. Combined, they are why our journey lasted much longer than either of us (or our family and friends, for that matter) imagined.

Starting with Latin America, we traveled by land between Mexico and Peru for the first eleven months of our adventure, exploring eight amazing countries in between. Weaving our way south, we primarily relied on buses to get from one country to the next, though borders sometimes required us to cross by foot and boat. Dustin learned to surf in Costa Rica and scuba dive on the Pacific side of Panama. We dove with our first sharks, swam in waterfalls, witnessed the Monarch butterfly migration, whale-watched, and slept on deserted islands. An undiagnosable jungle flu in Nicaragua took us down for a few days, but we recovered and remained completely healthy the rest of the trip. Colombia was easy to fall for, a country most people in the world only associate with a vicious history long since past. We practiced and honed our Spanish language skills, volunteered for several local businesses, and photographed an endless amount of wildlife. Everywhere we went we made such incredible friends who we cannot wait to see again. As an intermission to our trip, we flew back to Mexico for a wedding and to spend several weeks relaxing on the beach and catching up with our family.

Then, in typical Traveling Forward fashion we went to Europe for the winter, moving against the touristic flow of the seasons. We’d traveled to and even lived in several countries across the continent before, but this time our goal was to slow down and soak it all up. Crossing Europe almost entirely by land, we visited fifteen countries in the 3500 kilometers between France and Turkey. We saw long-time friends across the continent and made tons of new ones. At the most extravagant Christmas and New Years celebrations in France we ate and drank to our hearts’ content, and then we were forced to eat and drink some more. And of course, we oversampled all the local drinks: vodka in Krakow, gluhwein in Munich, rakia in Belgrade, and Turkish coffee in Istanbul. We trekked through the snow in the Beskid Mountains of the Czech Republic and volunteered at the most picturesque alpaca farm in Germany. We separated to have brief solo adventures, reuniting to share our incredible stories with each other and resume our trip together with newfound energy.

After crossing Europe we flew to Kenya, touching African soil for the very first time in our lives. We volunteered in Nairobi, loving every second of our exposure to the grateful kids at Kilele Junior School. We spent ten days on safari at three different wild game parks, hardly capable of containing our excitement with the sighting of each new animal. For the first time of our voyage we sought out fellow travelers, bonding with people of all ages and backgrounds like we’d never done (nor needed so very badly) before. And, due to several difficult encounters and a complicated Kenyan society, we banded together and assisted each other, learning so much about ourselves and our abilities to handle stress and struggle.

Five weeks later we left Kenya for India, where we began what we call the real adventure of our long-term trip: purchasing a Royal Enflield motorcycle, who we appropriately named Vajra (meaning indestructible force), and touring northern India and Nepal for just shy of four months. We taught ourselves to ride a manual motorcycle, navigated roads in a new country, battled notoriously insane Indian traffic, and mastered driving on the left side of the road. We rode along the borders of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, and Pakistan. We crossed three of the highest motorable passes in the world at altitudes of over 18,000 feet. We were surrounded at different times by glaciers, yaks, military convoys, locals who had never seen foreigners before, and relentless domestic tourists. We rode the famous Leh-Ladakh highway, a dream of avid motorcyclists around the world. We crashed our bike (a few times) and burned the inside of our calves on the exhaust pipe – the scars holding the memories of our cross-Himalayan motorcycle adventure. We totally and utterly fell in love with India and Indian people of all different cultures, castes, tribes and religions: Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Tamil, Toto, Ao Naga, and the list goes on.

Having to end our Indian adventure at some point, we headed to Southeast Asia. We ate as much Thai food as we could manage in our few days in Bangkok. In Siem Reap, Cambodia we rendezvoused with family and friends from two continents, mixing our worlds old and new. We toured Angkor Wat then headed to the coast via Phnom Penh, where we snorkeled, swam, kayaked and boated with two great friends from Delhi. We rented motorcycles (yes, we were hooked) and rode to Kampot and Kep on potholed roads, through mud and in pouring rain for some of the most memorable days in the country. In Vietnam we ate the freshest, most delicious seafood of our lives on the island of Phu Quoc, dining like kings on dollars a day. We mingled with the locals and we drank sweet and rich Vietnamese coffee. All. Day. Long.

Then, came our trip to Japan where we fulfilled a long-time dream of visiting the country. We met the most indescribably thoughtful, giving and inspirational people. We walked amidst the bright insanity of Akihabara Electric Town. For three weeks we ate incredible ramen, curry, sushi, octopus balls, nikujaga, and all the rest of the Japanese food we’ve had, but never really enjoyed quite like this before. We reunited with friends we’d met traveling on other continents, were celebrated by whole families, and treated to private tea ceremonies and calligraphy lessons. We soaked up everything we could about Japanese culture – touring castles, zen gardens, museums, shrines, parks and hot springs. We poured over stacks of vintage kimonos and of family photo albums showcasing the same dresses worn on generations long past. Feeling as if we’d not had yet had enough, we delayed our visit to South Korea by a week to spend more time with dear family friends on the island of Kyushu.

Once in Korea we ate, and ate, and ate (and even drank some, too): bulgogi, galbi, bibimbap, sujebi, and hundreds of dishes of banchan. We participated in the national pastime of hiking the hills and mountains that surround each city and town and got lost in a forest searching for a secret temple. We visited a dog cafe, attended an international garden show, and bathed nude in jjimjilbangs mostly alongside elderly, curious locals. Finally, after just shy of two years on the road we purchased a flight to go home… but not before visiting one more country.

From Seoul we flew to Manila in the Philippines where we motorcycled (one last time on two wheels) around the island of Bohol, dove next to Thresher sharks off of Malapascua, spied on tarsiers in their natural environment, witnessed some of the most spectacular sunsets of our lives, and laid on white sand beaches. We visited only five of over seven thousand islands, definitely requiring our return to see a few more. Even in spite of Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines was the perfect country in which to end our adventure.

So, what have we learned after all that time traveling, literally around the world? Well, we’ve learned that you can’t trust world news when it comes to what a country is really like. That it’s really the people that you remember when you look back. That couchsurfing need not include a couch, but may involve multi-course homemade meals, truly feeling as if you’re a member of a new family, and surprise visits from hosts long past. We learned that you need so very little, both in terms of money and possessions, to have an amazing time anywhere in the world. That anyone can go on a long term adventure if they really want to; the hardest part is taking the jump and leaving the comfort of your own home. That we are stronger emotionally, mentally, and physically than we think. We learned that you just have to slow down. And most importantly, we learned that together we can do almost anything.

To some it may seem that we haven’t changed after all that time (besides having a few new wrinkles). We definitely do feel older, but also more wise, more in tune with each other, and more aware of our real needs in life. We now call ourselves travelers, birders, shark-obsessed scuba divers, motorcyclists and travel writers. We feel more accepting and loving of others, of each other, and of ourselves. We are decidedly more kind to and patient towards one another than in the past. We are a constant work in progress and our next adventure, whatever that may be, will continue to work its magic on us day by day.

Now, we’re back in the United States, resting and connecting with our families after two years’ time. Our nomadic days may be over (for now), but we have every intention of keeping what we learned on the road forever in our minds and close to our hearts.