Our Path
I don’t really have the words to sum up our adventure over the last year. So instead I made a map. It charts our path, departing from San Francisco on August 15, 2010 (on the right) and arriving in San Francisco on September 16, 2011 (on the left) exactly (and unintentionally) 13 months later.
Though it appears almost self-evident in retrospect, the truth is we didn’t know where we were going or what we were doing until we got there. It reminds me of a quotation by Joseph Campbell that I have always loved. He said:
If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.
That has never been more true than now.
Update: I thought it’d be neat to list out all of my trip posts in one place, as another way to “sum up” where we went over the 13 months. I’ve organized the links by “leg” and date—which makes it easier to jump to a specific country or place in time.
Aug 2009–Aug 2010: Preparation
- Black box Christmas
- Three months on a shampoo bar
- How to buy an MEI Voyageur pack
- Getting rid of stuff
- Sandal fail (or foot fail)
- How to avoid a new cellphone contract
- Learning how to shave
- Fête des Mères
- The Big Adventure
- Why container ship?
- Federated Memories
- Not working, but packing
- Land of the Kiwis, coming to a feedreader near you!
- All our stuff in 5 square feet
Aug 15–Sep 7, 2010: San Francisco to Philadelphia
- Last transmission from Pine Street
- My first time in Los Angeles
- Dinner and a hotel in Phoenix
- Slowing down in Tucson
- Sonoran Dog
- Saguaro National Park
- Big rain in Big Bend
- Rafting the Rio Grande
- A hike in Big Bend
- Recharging and repacking in Austin
- To San Antonio and Beyond!
- To New Orleans by train
- Gumbo with every meal, please
- All day on the train!
- A quick stop in DC
- Water ice with Emma
Sep 7–Oct 5: Philadelphia to Auckland
- Boarding the Cap Cleveland
- Our container ship accommodations
- En route to Cartagena
- Barbecue party on the container ship
- Between Cuba and Haiti
- How to update your blog from the middle of the ocean
- Close to Cartagena (but no cigar)
- Puerto de Cartagena
- Gatun Locks at four in the morning
- Transiting the Panama Canal
- Adios Balboa
- Halfway to New Zealand
- Crossing the Equator
- Looking towards the bridge
- Decks of the Cap Cleveland
- Container ship cuisine
- Rougher seas ahead
- Moonlit containers
- No scurvy on this ship
- Passing Tahiti
- Purple Pacific
- Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
- Time-traveling container ship
- Land anticipation
- One big engine
- AuckLAND ho!
Oct 5–Dec 12: New Zealand
- Plugging back into life on land
- Brief portrait of a blogging backpacker
- Tramping Rangitoto
- A peek at Auckland’s bush
- A look inside a Māori wharenui
- Driving on the left
- Pohutu in action
- Kiwis crossing at night
- From North to South (Island)
- Swimming with dolphins
- Kaikoura Peninsula
- From Palpatine to Voyager
- Tekapo and Pukaki
- The highest paved road in New Zealand
- Kayaking Milford Sound (with penguins!)
- Chilling in Queenstown
- Glimpse of a glacier
- Franz Josef Glacier
- Franz Josef Glacier: a portrait
- From Hanmer Springs to Akaroa
- Tramping the Abel Tasman Coast Track
- A week of milking goats
- Meat pies cutaway, literally
- Justin Watt as ‘Bullitt’
- Me and the DeLorean
- Meet the Mullins
- Shoot thinning and wire lifting
- Bird’s nest in the grapevines
- Do not lean over side of railings
Dec 12–Jan 5, 2011: Bali, Indonesia
- Tropical Bali
- The long way from Sanur to Ubud
- Rice paddies around Ubud
- Merry Christmas from Bali and Austin
- Balinese cooking
- The souvenir I didn’t get…yet
- Updating WordPress from Bali
- Hot springs in a hot place
- Fishing in Amed
- How is babi formed?
Jan 6–26: Philippines
- Banaue Rice Terraces
- Batad Rice Terraces
- A week in Palawan
- Arriving in Iloilo
- Intro to San Dionisio
- Sandbar Island Beach
- Binakol na manok
- Dinagyang!
- Sweet sidecar, Pinoy
Jan 26–Feb 9: Vietnam (part I)
- Ok, where next?
- Cuddly Communism
- Highbrow hawker
- Green orange
- Vietnamese cooking
- Getting to the Mekong Delta
- Squatting market
- Floating market
Feb 9–21: Cambodia
- Thinking back on Cambodia
- Cambodian cooking
- On the roof of the boat to Siem Reap
- My photo smiling back at me
- Return to Angkor
- An afternoon with Angkor Wat
- The trees of Ta Prohm
Feb 21–Mar 5: Vietnam (part II)
Mar 5–12: Laos
Mar 12–Apr 4: Thailand
- Serendipitous path to Chiang Mai
- Thai cooking, take one
- My elephant week
- More elephanty goodness
- Thai cooking, take two
- Rethinking India from Bangkok
Apr 4–May 5: India
- A kati roll in Kolkata
- Varanasi
- The Taj
- A philosophy of long-term travel
- Fresh peanut masala
- Indian cooking
- Sunset from Mount Abu
- I’m one of the biggest tourist attractions in India
- Full stop in Gandhidham
- India coda
May 5–Jun 4: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda
- Maasai Mara menagerie
- Giraffes are cool
- An elusive leopard
- Elephants in the wild
- Happy happy hippos
- Zebra moirés
- Lion cubs at dawn
- Lion sex
- Cheetahs are awesome
- Yawning animals
- Telephoto landscapes
- Intro to Overlanding
- Safari at Lake Nakuru
- Flamboyance of flamingos
- Crash of rhinos
- Crossing the equator on land
- I never would have imagined that one day I’d find myself in Rwanda
- Mountain gorillas
- White Nile Whitewater
- Ugandan chapati cooking
- Out of Africa
Jun 5–Aug 13: France, Italy
- En France, encore, enfin
- Toujours Provence
- Driving around Corsica
- Aqua rando en Corse
- A glimpse of Florence
- A taste of Parma
- Loriol: Because we’re worth it
- Bourgogne and Auvergne
- Ocre en Provence
wonderful words !
Great quote, and so true.
this made me think of you