Awakening (Kirkland, WA, USA)
It's been over 7 months since my last journal entry! The hibernation is now over! Admittedly I haven't been slumbering this whole time like a true bear - like I should have - but there have been many days where I never left home - cocooned inside writing my book or collecting information or often enough - dreaming about future travel. That day is about to arrive once again. I hope in the past 7 months you have been able to travel to some place exciting.
2 Major Objectives
Before I talk about future travel, I must announce that I accomplished the two major objectives that made me interuppt my travel plans.
#1: I am completely rested now. When I returned in late April 2004 my head was a bit numb at times from all the new experiences and sensations. My travel bug was squashed. It didn't take long to come back. By September or October 2004 I knew it was back near 100%. Travel videos I have been watching have been like painkillers. The travel bug, and the urge to explore and experience is stronger than ever. It's even more dangerous now because my knowledge of the world and where to go has increased dramatically - more on this in a moment.
#2: I completed the 1st draft of my first fiction book! I plan to complete a 2nd edit while traveling. Then upon return to the US, submit it to an agent for publication. Yee-haw!
Researching the book wasn't easy as I had to learn about the Arctic, a place that I had never been. And even if I had - it is one thing to visit, another to write about it. Eventually I focused on Greenland - the ice blob that few think about traveling to. That is where the 2nd half of the book takes place. I planned a trip to Greenland but decided as I continued writing that it wasn't necessary for me to go to get through a first draft. Nor did I want to break my momentum. I will eventually go, but I don't think it is necessary before publishing the book as I researched the country extensively. I learned more than I would have known had I just visited casually. Thanks to the Internet and the local library.
So...Where are you Going?
This upcoming trip is centered around one activity. Scuba diving. Rather than pick up where I left off my earlier RTW air ticket (Which would put me in Turkey) I have decided to indulge my underwater passion.
As I reflected on the many highlights of my earlier exploits, scuba diving kept coming to the top when I ranked the very best moments. With that in mind, I went on a crash course learning about the very best places to dive. While I have been to Palau, a place that I thought to be one of the best - one poll I saw recently based on experienced travelling divers rated Palau as #10 out of the top 10 dive locations in the world. Still excellent, but that means there are slew of other places to visit for even more fun. I'm even going so far as to bring my own newly purchased equipment. Another task that required a fair chunk of time to figure out.
...so my current plan then is to visit South Thailand first then return to Bangkok where I have found an apartment for a couple of months. Bangkok will be my base to visit "land" destinations - Myanmar, Laos, and possibly Cambodia. I will also be making a trip out to the Maldives. The Maldives I have learned is among the top 5 destinations. The rating system is based off a point system as opposed to strictly being a popularity contest or one influenced by marketing dollars.
Here it is:
Cyber Diver - Best Dive Destinations
(Good post - Tsunami photos too)
I'll end with a trip to the Philippines, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and possibly the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific and/or various islands in Indonesia.
Here is my tentative country plan:
Thailand - Laos - Myanmar - Maldives - Thailand - (Cambodia) - Philippines - Papua New Guinea - Solomon Islands - Thailand - (Indonesia - Spice Islands & Sulawesi) - Thailand
Post-Tsunami Tour?
My flight leaves late January to Bangkok, Thailand. Assuming I don't miss my connecting flight, I fly straight to Phuket. Yes, the Phuket that got hit by the Tsunami. Contrary to media reports many parts of Phuket were not affected by the Tsunami. Coastal areas yes, inland no. But, my plan never really was to spend much time in Phuket proper. My initial plan had me going to 2 smaller islands further South. Ko Lanta and Ko PhiPhi. The former escaped major damage. The latter, wiped out with hundreds of dead. Sad indeed. Needless to say if I had timed my trip differently you might not be reading this journal entry. But, life WILL go on. No sense in compounding their unpleasant situation there by taking away their livelihood.
If there was some volunteer work to do I would do it, but I suspect the immediate "clean up" situation in Thailand will be complete by the time I arrive. They are moving pretty fast from the pictures I have seen. The hardest hit areas of Ko PhiPhi and Khao Lak will likely take much longer. The Maldives were also affected - much less so to be sure - the more damaged areas can be avoided quite easily.
As for visiting a place after a major world headlining incident, I visited New York City exactly 2 months after September 11th. That was only a few days though. Now, it will about 1 month after the Tsunami. It almost makes me want to call this the Post-Tsunami Tour. Papua New Guinea also had a earthquake triggered tsunami in 1998 that killed a reported 2500 people along the north coast. I bet you hadn't heard about that one. I will be exclusively on the north coast! Crossing my fingers.
On a side note - in my earlier travels I did visit Sri Lanka and SE India / Chennai. But, I didn't visit any coastal areas in Sri Lanka other than the capital, which was not affected. I visited the tea plantations and historical ruins in the interior. Nor did I even see the beach in Chennai - I would have liked to, but being an utter madhouse made it difficult for me to get my bearings in Chennai.
----
Knowledge Explosion - Again
I mentioned earlier that I have increased my knowledge of the world dramatically. It is like going through another knowledge explosion. The first time I used this description was when I started buying and reading thousands of dollars worth of books a few years ago. Since I have returned, I have bought a few books, but I have checked out even more from the excellent King County Library System. Lots of them of course on the underwater world. But, perhaps the bigger part of my recent knowledge explosion is from surfing the Internet.
On my breaks from writing my book I have visited hundreds of websites. I have roughly organized many of them. Some of the areas I have organized are available, others I am still keeping offline as they are too rough.
Notable sections to browse are:
- Travelers on the Road - experiences of other travelers
- Explore Your Circus - added links and structure to help those who want to travel but do not for one reason or another. Also extensive information on which nationalities are traveling where.
(Going Where sections)
- Ideas & Dreams - added many links on places that most travelers do not see
- Trip Tools - section with most additions and organization is the Events (Formerly News) section
I apologize for the messy look of some/many of the pages. I just don't have the time or energy to complete the organization at the moment. Capturing the weblinks has been time consuming enough.
That's all for now.
2 Major Objectives
Before I talk about future travel, I must announce that I accomplished the two major objectives that made me interuppt my travel plans.
#1: I am completely rested now. When I returned in late April 2004 my head was a bit numb at times from all the new experiences and sensations. My travel bug was squashed. It didn't take long to come back. By September or October 2004 I knew it was back near 100%. Travel videos I have been watching have been like painkillers. The travel bug, and the urge to explore and experience is stronger than ever. It's even more dangerous now because my knowledge of the world and where to go has increased dramatically - more on this in a moment.
#2: I completed the 1st draft of my first fiction book! I plan to complete a 2nd edit while traveling. Then upon return to the US, submit it to an agent for publication. Yee-haw!
Researching the book wasn't easy as I had to learn about the Arctic, a place that I had never been. And even if I had - it is one thing to visit, another to write about it. Eventually I focused on Greenland - the ice blob that few think about traveling to. That is where the 2nd half of the book takes place. I planned a trip to Greenland but decided as I continued writing that it wasn't necessary for me to go to get through a first draft. Nor did I want to break my momentum. I will eventually go, but I don't think it is necessary before publishing the book as I researched the country extensively. I learned more than I would have known had I just visited casually. Thanks to the Internet and the local library.
So...Where are you Going?
This upcoming trip is centered around one activity. Scuba diving. Rather than pick up where I left off my earlier RTW air ticket (Which would put me in Turkey) I have decided to indulge my underwater passion.
As I reflected on the many highlights of my earlier exploits, scuba diving kept coming to the top when I ranked the very best moments. With that in mind, I went on a crash course learning about the very best places to dive. While I have been to Palau, a place that I thought to be one of the best - one poll I saw recently based on experienced travelling divers rated Palau as #10 out of the top 10 dive locations in the world. Still excellent, but that means there are slew of other places to visit for even more fun. I'm even going so far as to bring my own newly purchased equipment. Another task that required a fair chunk of time to figure out.
...so my current plan then is to visit South Thailand first then return to Bangkok where I have found an apartment for a couple of months. Bangkok will be my base to visit "land" destinations - Myanmar, Laos, and possibly Cambodia. I will also be making a trip out to the Maldives. The Maldives I have learned is among the top 5 destinations. The rating system is based off a point system as opposed to strictly being a popularity contest or one influenced by marketing dollars.
Here it is:
Cyber Diver - Best Dive Destinations
(Good post - Tsunami photos too)
I'll end with a trip to the Philippines, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and possibly the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific and/or various islands in Indonesia.
Here is my tentative country plan:
Thailand - Laos - Myanmar - Maldives - Thailand - (Cambodia) - Philippines - Papua New Guinea - Solomon Islands - Thailand - (Indonesia - Spice Islands & Sulawesi) - Thailand
Post-Tsunami Tour?
My flight leaves late January to Bangkok, Thailand. Assuming I don't miss my connecting flight, I fly straight to Phuket. Yes, the Phuket that got hit by the Tsunami. Contrary to media reports many parts of Phuket were not affected by the Tsunami. Coastal areas yes, inland no. But, my plan never really was to spend much time in Phuket proper. My initial plan had me going to 2 smaller islands further South. Ko Lanta and Ko PhiPhi. The former escaped major damage. The latter, wiped out with hundreds of dead. Sad indeed. Needless to say if I had timed my trip differently you might not be reading this journal entry. But, life WILL go on. No sense in compounding their unpleasant situation there by taking away their livelihood.
If there was some volunteer work to do I would do it, but I suspect the immediate "clean up" situation in Thailand will be complete by the time I arrive. They are moving pretty fast from the pictures I have seen. The hardest hit areas of Ko PhiPhi and Khao Lak will likely take much longer. The Maldives were also affected - much less so to be sure - the more damaged areas can be avoided quite easily.
As for visiting a place after a major world headlining incident, I visited New York City exactly 2 months after September 11th. That was only a few days though. Now, it will about 1 month after the Tsunami. It almost makes me want to call this the Post-Tsunami Tour. Papua New Guinea also had a earthquake triggered tsunami in 1998 that killed a reported 2500 people along the north coast. I bet you hadn't heard about that one. I will be exclusively on the north coast! Crossing my fingers.
On a side note - in my earlier travels I did visit Sri Lanka and SE India / Chennai. But, I didn't visit any coastal areas in Sri Lanka other than the capital, which was not affected. I visited the tea plantations and historical ruins in the interior. Nor did I even see the beach in Chennai - I would have liked to, but being an utter madhouse made it difficult for me to get my bearings in Chennai.
----
Knowledge Explosion - Again
I mentioned earlier that I have increased my knowledge of the world dramatically. It is like going through another knowledge explosion. The first time I used this description was when I started buying and reading thousands of dollars worth of books a few years ago. Since I have returned, I have bought a few books, but I have checked out even more from the excellent King County Library System. Lots of them of course on the underwater world. But, perhaps the bigger part of my recent knowledge explosion is from surfing the Internet.
On my breaks from writing my book I have visited hundreds of websites. I have roughly organized many of them. Some of the areas I have organized are available, others I am still keeping offline as they are too rough.
Notable sections to browse are:
- Travelers on the Road - experiences of other travelers
- Explore Your Circus - added links and structure to help those who want to travel but do not for one reason or another. Also extensive information on which nationalities are traveling where.
(Going Where sections)
- Ideas & Dreams - added many links on places that most travelers do not see
- Trip Tools - section with most additions and organization is the Events (Formerly News) section
I apologize for the messy look of some/many of the pages. I just don't have the time or energy to complete the organization at the moment. Capturing the weblinks has been time consuming enough.
That's all for now.
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