1 Year of Travel, 1 Year of SHABL

Hello and Good Day,

What is one supposed to write in one of these 1 year type things?

Today marks 1 full year since my parents drove me to the airport at 5am to catch a flight to Vancouver, British Columbia and the day this blog started. The flight was to attend a wedding of one of my better friends and old University roommates. The plan was to hang out and perhaps get an apartment somewhere and well, do some work… Like that happened?

That day which was 1 year ago today marks what has been a truly crazy ride. Considering I wanted to do a trip like this ever since I graduated University, I can’t believe it happened, I can’t believe it played out the way it did. For so long I thought it was never going to happen, that I was just going to work and dream, my whole life… The regret was already starting to eat me up, something fierce.

Now, 12 months later, have been through 25+ countries in Asia, Europe and North America. Considering I never had grandiose plans of doing lots of traveling, just “relocating”, wow. I’m glad I did go on this trip. Who cares about the places I’ve been, who cares about the sights I’ve seen, it’s the people I’ve met that matter most.

Have had the funnest of times like tubing above(hat tip to the lady who added and tagged me) and the lamest of times like a fractured forehead below. I’ve had one of the best birthday’s ever in Lagos, Portugal. Christmas at an orphanage in Bali and Halloween on Koh Tao. I’ve let loose on countless beaches and I’ve been driven to a hospital by a cop in Indo. I’ve stayed in friends pimped out apartments and slept in a train station on New Years and slept on the streets in Germany.

I’ve eaten scorpions on the streets of Bangkok, King Cobra and rats in the Mekong Delta, had food poisoning countless times and also tasted some of the most delicious food one could imagine. I’ve drank egregious quantities of “coffee” in Amsterdam,attended a traditional Polish Wedding, traditional crayfish party in Sweden and experienced sauna summer life in Finland.

I’ve traveled on the cheapest modes of transport possible in Asia and first class trains through Europe and survived a trip on “Aeroflot” from Hong Kong to Amsterdam. I’ve gone golfing in British Columbia and Thailand and almost mugged / jacked / pick pocketed in Lisbon, Portugal. I’m sick of hyper-linking, seriously.

This trip has truly been out of control in the best way ever. My understanding of this world and the people in it has grown exponentially and based on many of the experiences I’ve had, I can understand even more where many people are coming from.

Thanks to everyone I’ve met on this trip, we’re all of a like mind, if not we would have not met in most random circumstances in the most random of locations around this world. Also thanks to all those who share SHABL or tell a friend. We don’t get involved in the whole “travel blog” clique.

This blog is starting to become the one I was looking for before leaving.

Where to next? Who knows? Who cares?

Tip of the hat,

P.S: Street steak dude isn’t showing up, I hope it’s not game over.