Wow, It Has Been a Year Already!

Today, the 12th of September 2008, marks one year since I started my journey around the world. It was on this date last year when I packed my backpack, with only the essentials and jumped on my bicycle. Yes, I rode my bicycle to the South Bend Regional Transportation Center to catch the train. It was a bit uncomfortable. I don't know how people do it, riding across continents.

In the past year, I've visited nine countries - New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam. (Myanmar is not included, because I was there for maybe 15 minutes on a visa run.) During this time, I've done a lot of nothing and quite enjoyed it.


My plan, to enter China next on my trip, did not work out. The Chinese have restricted the visas available to tourists to 30 days. 30 days would be enough for me to say I've ridden a bus in China, but not enough to see and experience China.


Instead, I'm going to India! This is a significant departure from my proposed route, which also means I won't be seeing Mongolia & Russia anytime soon. But I'll probably be in the Middle East much sooner than expected.


I have put together a slide show of photos from the past year. (Thanks to Pierre for adding the finishing touches.) You'll notice that I've included 2 photos from the Virgin Islands. These were taken in August of last year. I still think we have the best beaches in the world.



Here's a little trivia. The song used is The World Is Not Enough from the James Bond film of the same name. And at 3 minutes and 28 seconds into the slide show, there is a picture of Ko Tapu, an island featured in the James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun.