Here are some of the questions I've been asked on a frequent basis since I got back from my trip.
1) Where did you go?
Jessi and I went to Honduras for a missions trip with our UCLA friends in July 2012 before we headed to Europe separately in early August. I went to visit my family in London and see the Olympics (Team USA basketball!) while Jessi traveled through Benelux (Belgium-The Netherlands-Luxembourg) with her friend Chelsea. In mid-August, we met up again in Egypt, where we hooked up with my best friend, James, before flying over war-stricken Sudan to Ethiopia. From there we made our way by land through Kenya, Tanzania (with a stop in the island of Zanzibar), Zambia, and Zimbabwe, before finally ending our African adventure in South Africa around mid-October.
Jessi and I said a sad goodbye to James and flew to Delhi, India, via Abu Dhabi. In India, we spent the next 6 week traveling by train to Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, the state of Goa, Varanasi, Darjeeling, and Kolkata. Somewhere in the middle there, we made a one-week stop in Kathmandu, Nepal, to see the Himalayas. At the end of November, we left Kolkata and hopped on over to Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand. After a couple weeks there, we flew down to Singapore, where we spent the holidays with my family. Jessi then flew back home to Los Angeles in time for New Year's while I stayed on in Singapore instead of traveling to Australia as originally planned, making a jaunt out to Vietnam and another back to Thailand to visit the southern islands with my buddy Daniel (Phuket and Koh Phi Phi). Then, I made my way out to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year and met my dad (it was the first time I traveled with a parent since middle school!). Finally, I flew home in mid-February 2013 in time for jury duty!
2) What was your favorite country?
To be completely boring and diplomatic, every country was a favorite for a distinct reason and maybe I'm inclined towards some countries more than others, but there wasn't one country that stood out as a clear favorite. But if I could create a perfect country from the ones I visited, I would mesh Britain's quirkiness, Egypt's history, Ethiopia's awesome people, Kenya's animals, Tanzania's beaches, Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe, South Africa's gorgeous views, India's in-your-face-all-the-time culture, Nepal's quiantness, Thailand's kindness to my bank account, the infrastructure in Singapore, Vietnam's food, and Hong Kong's cosmopolitan vibe.
3) What was the craziest thing you did?
Probably hiking to and swimming in the Devil's Pool. The Devil's Pool is naturally formed by the rock lip at the top of Victoria Falls. It's about the size of an inflatable pool and a little too deep for you to stand in, but if you peer over the edge, you're looking at the 355 feet (108 meter) drop that makes up Victoria Falls. I had seen the Devil's Pool on a lot of Top Ten Scariest/Most Adventurous/Craziest Things You Can Do While Traveling lists, so it definitely made its way onto my list for traversing Africa. You can only access the pool during the low season, when raging waters aren't gushing over the hiking path, and when we found out it was indeed low season during our visit to Victoria Falls, visiting the Devil's Pool was a done deal.
Indubitably a highlight of our trip, wading in the Devil's Pool atop of Victoria Falls, one of the world's natural wonders, was such a vivid reminder of why we travel.
4) What was the scariest moment of your trip? Did you ever feel like your life was in danger?
Swimming at the edge of Victoria Falls and hanging out with tigers are in my nature, so the scariest moments during the trip had to do more with the times we thought we were going to get mugged, robbed, kidnapped, run over (I actually got hit by a motorcycle in Jaipur, India, but that's another story)...just to name a few. But I think the scariest was when we opted out of taking the bus and instead, decided to hitchhike from the border of Ethiopia and Kenya to Nairobi. Yes, it sounds like an absolutely stupid idea if you're playing it safe, but we had just been on buses for 12 hours a day for the last 3 days and didn't fancy the 24-hour straight-shot bus to Nairobi. And it would've been a school bus at that.
So in comes Alex, a well-dressed Kenyan gentleman we stumble upon at the border, who says he could get us onto a SUV heading to Nairobi for a couple bucks more than it would've cost us to take the bus + a tip. We debated for a while and decided to take him up on his offer. We meet him the next morning outside our hostel at 6am and climb into the back of a SUV with a Kenyan driver who doesn't speak English up front. A mile out of town, our driver picks up another Kenyan dude in the front seat and the two start jabbering in Swahili. The landscape we're driving through looks very much like Mars with maybe a couple of people...no, no one at all. James, Jessi, and I are sitting in the back, quietly and nervously munching on the fried bread our hostel gave us for breakfast, thinking this would be the perfect place to get robbed and stranded in the Kenyan desert.
A couple hours later, in the town of Marsabit, our car pulls over for a break. We work up the courage to speak to our driver and his friend.
"So how do you guys know each other?"
"Oh, he goes to my church! And we're actually here to say hello to our pastor."
Cool. God was watching over us.
P.S. Oh! Our train actually derailed during our 54-hour journey from Tanzania to Zambia. Thankfully, it was just the last couple of cars, so they just lopped them off, crammed everyone into other compartments, and we went on our merry way.
5) Where did you have the best food?
Ahhhh....a tie between India and Thailand. Both cuisines have such a wide spread and spectrum of flavors. It was rare for us to have the same meal twice, even though we were in each country for weeks. It also definitely helped that you could get meals in both countries for $1-2 USD.
6) What was the weirdest thing you ate?
Ooh. So many things come to mind. Stir-fried grasshoppers in Thailand, snake soup in Hong Kong, mutton brain curry in India, ox balls in Kenya. But the weirdest would probably have to be caterpillars in Zambia. They were nicely seasoned, but unpalatable once we realized they still had undigested leaves in them.
7) What was the coolest thing you got to do?
I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but there were so many. Crawling into a 4,600 year-old pyramid in Egypt, swimming in the Devil's Pool in Zambia, riding a moped for the first time through the rice paddies of Goa, volunteering with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, riding an elephant bareback and hanging out with tigers in Thailand, seeing the house my dad grew up in in Saigon, and visiting the ancestral village in China.
There, that was the shortest list I could come up with.
8) What was the strangest thing that happened to you?
One night in Zanzibar, Jessi and James were both pretty pooped so they stayed in the room while I decided to check out a beach party at the resort next door. Amid the house music, alcohol, and flailing young people, I met Jennifer. She seemed friendly and chatty enough, so I thought, "Cool, another person to meet!" And then, halfway through our conversation about where we're from, she asks if we could go somewhere quieter to chat.
"Sure."
So we walk towards the beach and sit down, at which point she grabs my crotch.
"So blowjob for $20?"
"Umm...no."
"I can use my hands. $10."
"No. No, thank you."
"You sure no blowjob? I can go get condoms. Which room are you in?"
"I'm really ok. Thank you. I have to go now."
So that was an interesting experience.
9) What was your most memorable experience?
Meeting people all over the world and from all over the world. The encounters we had will be with us our whole lives. We took part in a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, spent a day seeing what life is like in the Kibera slum in Kenya, shared some very international train compartments in India, and even jammed to Jason Mraz in Nepal. Traveling has also blessed us with awesome new friendships, relationships with people from completely different worlds we would otherwise never have met. In fact, a few weeks ago, Jessi and I met up with Andi and Pleuni, a couple of European scientist friends--who we had met at a camp in Nairobi and bonded with during a bike safari--in San Francisco and went biking with them across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Because of the Each and Every project, we got to have very personal and intimate experiences with people in their local communities. I would encourage anyone who is planning an itinerary for their next travel experience to look into getting off the beaten sightseeing path and try a homestay, volunteering, or any other activity that will really put you in the heart of a community's culture and lifestyle. There are few things more enriching.
10) Was it worth it?
When I was deciding to plan for the trip, I had a long internal debate about whether an experience like this was worth committing most of my bank account and months of my life that I could otherwise apply to a career. Of course, placing value on an experience that hasn't happened yet comes down completely to speculation. I had traveled before and had amazing times in Asia and Europe, but I had never contemplated taking a trip of this magnitude, with more than a summer break at stake.
I could go on forever about this, but when it comes down to it, all I have is a resounding yes. In retrospect, I've thought about all the other investments I could have made with my money and time. I could have bought a new car, started on a different career, or even worked towards a down payment for a house. But in the end, I decided the best investment I could make was a life investment. An investment in me and the life-changing encounters and perspectives I would gain during a trip like this that I could keep for the rest of my life.
I wasn't a rich guy. I had an OK-paying job that covered rent, food, gas, and some little luxuries here and there. I shared an apartment with 3-4 other guys. I gave up going to Starbucks regularly, visiting Vegas more than once a year, and a lot of nights at fancy bars and restaurants. Now that I'm back from my travels, I don't feel like I missed out because of the first-world sacrifices I had to make saving up for the trip. I exchanged them for some truly spectacular experiences and some pretty epic cross-offs on my bucket list.
If you love and believe in travel, have thought about backpacking/going around the world/traveling for an extended amount of time, and are on the fence about making the commitment, feel free to hit me up. I'd be happy to share more about my experience and any insights that came with it.
That being said, keep traveling! Cheers.
1) Where did you go?
Jessi and I went to Honduras for a missions trip with our UCLA friends in July 2012 before we headed to Europe separately in early August. I went to visit my family in London and see the Olympics (Team USA basketball!) while Jessi traveled through Benelux (Belgium-The Netherlands-Luxembourg) with her friend Chelsea. In mid-August, we met up again in Egypt, where we hooked up with my best friend, James, before flying over war-stricken Sudan to Ethiopia. From there we made our way by land through Kenya, Tanzania (with a stop in the island of Zanzibar), Zambia, and Zimbabwe, before finally ending our African adventure in South Africa around mid-October.
Jessi and I said a sad goodbye to James and flew to Delhi, India, via Abu Dhabi. In India, we spent the next 6 week traveling by train to Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, the state of Goa, Varanasi, Darjeeling, and Kolkata. Somewhere in the middle there, we made a one-week stop in Kathmandu, Nepal, to see the Himalayas. At the end of November, we left Kolkata and hopped on over to Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand. After a couple weeks there, we flew down to Singapore, where we spent the holidays with my family. Jessi then flew back home to Los Angeles in time for New Year's while I stayed on in Singapore instead of traveling to Australia as originally planned, making a jaunt out to Vietnam and another back to Thailand to visit the southern islands with my buddy Daniel (Phuket and Koh Phi Phi). Then, I made my way out to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year and met my dad (it was the first time I traveled with a parent since middle school!). Finally, I flew home in mid-February 2013 in time for jury duty!
 |
| My Journey Around The World |
2) What was your favorite country?
To be completely boring and diplomatic, every country was a favorite for a distinct reason and maybe I'm inclined towards some countries more than others, but there wasn't one country that stood out as a clear favorite. But if I could create a perfect country from the ones I visited, I would mesh Britain's quirkiness, Egypt's history, Ethiopia's awesome people, Kenya's animals, Tanzania's beaches, Victoria Falls in Zambia/Zimbabwe, South Africa's gorgeous views, India's in-your-face-all-the-time culture, Nepal's quiantness, Thailand's kindness to my bank account, the infrastructure in Singapore, Vietnam's food, and Hong Kong's cosmopolitan vibe.
 |
| Victoria Peak, Hong Kong |
3) What was the craziest thing you did?
Probably hiking to and swimming in the Devil's Pool. The Devil's Pool is naturally formed by the rock lip at the top of Victoria Falls. It's about the size of an inflatable pool and a little too deep for you to stand in, but if you peer over the edge, you're looking at the 355 feet (108 meter) drop that makes up Victoria Falls. I had seen the Devil's Pool on a lot of Top Ten Scariest/Most Adventurous/Craziest Things You Can Do While Traveling lists, so it definitely made its way onto my list for traversing Africa. You can only access the pool during the low season, when raging waters aren't gushing over the hiking path, and when we found out it was indeed low season during our visit to Victoria Falls, visiting the Devil's Pool was a done deal.
Indubitably a highlight of our trip, wading in the Devil's Pool atop of Victoria Falls, one of the world's natural wonders, was such a vivid reminder of why we travel.
 |
| Jumping into the Devil's Pool! |
4) What was the scariest moment of your trip? Did you ever feel like your life was in danger?
Swimming at the edge of Victoria Falls and hanging out with tigers are in my nature, so the scariest moments during the trip had to do more with the times we thought we were going to get mugged, robbed, kidnapped, run over (I actually got hit by a motorcycle in Jaipur, India, but that's another story)...just to name a few. But I think the scariest was when we opted out of taking the bus and instead, decided to hitchhike from the border of Ethiopia and Kenya to Nairobi. Yes, it sounds like an absolutely stupid idea if you're playing it safe, but we had just been on buses for 12 hours a day for the last 3 days and didn't fancy the 24-hour straight-shot bus to Nairobi. And it would've been a school bus at that.
So in comes Alex, a well-dressed Kenyan gentleman we stumble upon at the border, who says he could get us onto a SUV heading to Nairobi for a couple bucks more than it would've cost us to take the bus + a tip. We debated for a while and decided to take him up on his offer. We meet him the next morning outside our hostel at 6am and climb into the back of a SUV with a Kenyan driver who doesn't speak English up front. A mile out of town, our driver picks up another Kenyan dude in the front seat and the two start jabbering in Swahili. The landscape we're driving through looks very much like Mars with maybe a couple of people...no, no one at all. James, Jessi, and I are sitting in the back, quietly and nervously munching on the fried bread our hostel gave us for breakfast, thinking this would be the perfect place to get robbed and stranded in the Kenyan desert.
A couple hours later, in the town of Marsabit, our car pulls over for a break. We work up the courage to speak to our driver and his friend.
"So how do you guys know each other?"
"Oh, he goes to my church! And we're actually here to say hello to our pastor."
Cool. God was watching over us.
P.S. Oh! Our train actually derailed during our 54-hour journey from Tanzania to Zambia. Thankfully, it was just the last couple of cars, so they just lopped them off, crammed everyone into other compartments, and we went on our merry way.
 |
| Our driver through the Kenyan desert: John |
5) Where did you have the best food?
Ahhhh....a tie between India and Thailand. Both cuisines have such a wide spread and spectrum of flavors. It was rare for us to have the same meal twice, even though we were in each country for weeks. It also definitely helped that you could get meals in both countries for $1-2 USD.
 |
| Street Food in Thailand |
6) What was the weirdest thing you ate?
Ooh. So many things come to mind. Stir-fried grasshoppers in Thailand, snake soup in Hong Kong, mutton brain curry in India, ox balls in Kenya. But the weirdest would probably have to be caterpillars in Zambia. They were nicely seasoned, but unpalatable once we realized they still had undigested leaves in them.
 |
| Insects for sale at a walking market |
7) What was the coolest thing you got to do?
I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but there were so many. Crawling into a 4,600 year-old pyramid in Egypt, swimming in the Devil's Pool in Zambia, riding a moped for the first time through the rice paddies of Goa, volunteering with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, riding an elephant bareback and hanging out with tigers in Thailand, seeing the house my dad grew up in in Saigon, and visiting the ancestral village in China.
There, that was the shortest list I could come up with.
 |
| Riding elephants in Chiang Mai |
8) What was the strangest thing that happened to you?
One night in Zanzibar, Jessi and James were both pretty pooped so they stayed in the room while I decided to check out a beach party at the resort next door. Amid the house music, alcohol, and flailing young people, I met Jennifer. She seemed friendly and chatty enough, so I thought, "Cool, another person to meet!" And then, halfway through our conversation about where we're from, she asks if we could go somewhere quieter to chat.
"Sure."
So we walk towards the beach and sit down, at which point she grabs my crotch.
"So blowjob for $20?"
"Umm...no."
"I can use my hands. $10."
"No. No, thank you."
"You sure no blowjob? I can go get condoms. Which room are you in?"
"I'm really ok. Thank you. I have to go now."
So that was an interesting experience.
9) What was your most memorable experience?
Meeting people all over the world and from all over the world. The encounters we had will be with us our whole lives. We took part in a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony, spent a day seeing what life is like in the Kibera slum in Kenya, shared some very international train compartments in India, and even jammed to Jason Mraz in Nepal. Traveling has also blessed us with awesome new friendships, relationships with people from completely different worlds we would otherwise never have met. In fact, a few weeks ago, Jessi and I met up with Andi and Pleuni, a couple of European scientist friends--who we had met at a camp in Nairobi and bonded with during a bike safari--in San Francisco and went biking with them across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Because of the Each and Every project, we got to have very personal and intimate experiences with people in their local communities. I would encourage anyone who is planning an itinerary for their next travel experience to look into getting off the beaten sightseeing path and try a homestay, volunteering, or any other activity that will really put you in the heart of a community's culture and lifestyle. There are few things more enriching.
 |
| A coffee ceremony in a mud house in Ethiopia |
10) Was it worth it?
When I was deciding to plan for the trip, I had a long internal debate about whether an experience like this was worth committing most of my bank account and months of my life that I could otherwise apply to a career. Of course, placing value on an experience that hasn't happened yet comes down completely to speculation. I had traveled before and had amazing times in Asia and Europe, but I had never contemplated taking a trip of this magnitude, with more than a summer break at stake.
I could go on forever about this, but when it comes down to it, all I have is a resounding yes. In retrospect, I've thought about all the other investments I could have made with my money and time. I could have bought a new car, started on a different career, or even worked towards a down payment for a house. But in the end, I decided the best investment I could make was a life investment. An investment in me and the life-changing encounters and perspectives I would gain during a trip like this that I could keep for the rest of my life.
I wasn't a rich guy. I had an OK-paying job that covered rent, food, gas, and some little luxuries here and there. I shared an apartment with 3-4 other guys. I gave up going to Starbucks regularly, visiting Vegas more than once a year, and a lot of nights at fancy bars and restaurants. Now that I'm back from my travels, I don't feel like I missed out because of the first-world sacrifices I had to make saving up for the trip. I exchanged them for some truly spectacular experiences and some pretty epic cross-offs on my bucket list.
If you love and believe in travel, have thought about backpacking/going around the world/traveling for an extended amount of time, and are on the fence about making the commitment, feel free to hit me up. I'd be happy to share more about my experience and any insights that came with it.
 |
| I will pack less next time around |
That being said, keep traveling! Cheers.
