100 Days A Traveling Couple
Today marks 100 days since we left home.
I had a conversation with a friend and previous coworker last week and was reflecting that I couldn’t believe that 3 months had gone by since I left work. On the flip side, 3 months in the general professional/work sense is nothing; a drop in the hat, a few releases, a quarter of a year. But when you’re on the road and doing new things constantly, the time becomes very relative and it’s crazy how much we’ve done in that time. It still feels like it flew by, but we’ve got a ton of memories and pictures and experiences!
In the last 50 days since our last retrospective, we’ve done a lot: the remainder of SE Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos) before transitioning to Europe (Turkey, UK, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, and France), which is probably why the time has really flown by. We crossed from the hot and humid temperatures of Asia to the cold and occasionally freezing temps of northern Europe in winter.
I’m not sure if we’ve become better travelers, but we are certainly no worse at adapting to changing conditions and trying to be as flexible as possible. We gained space in our bags by throwing out some of our cheap, hot weather clothes we picked up in SE Asia and by wearing more of our bulky cold weather clothes, though we did have to stock up on some extra warm layers when we were in London.
We’ve also changed from mostly plane travel on budget airlines to our Eurail pass for trains in Europe. Instead of spending hours getting to the airport, sitting around, and waiting, we’ve been able to just show up at the train station with a few minutes to spare and travel in relative comfort. Plus, no worrying about liquids being taken from us!
Side story - only in London (Gatwick) did we actually have to take our liquids and put them into plastic bags. They also took Lishan’s 120 ml lotion that she hadn’t gotten to use yet that had survived numerous other flights.
Seeing the cultural differences between the two continents is also stark since we’re doing them so close to each other. The daily hustle and bustle in Asia vs. Europe has a different flow and rhythm; walking on the street in Hanoi vs. in London feels like night and day. Each city also has their own distinct flavor of how people walk and how they interact with each other in the street. Hawkers in Asia are more prevalent but a little less pushy and grabby than people trying to get your attention in Europe. There are so many more smokers in Europe and especially in Paris.
I wouldn’t say we’re homesick yet, which is a good thing. We still miss Napa a lot and every so often, go on picture/video binges where we relive her puppy moments and all of her fluffiness. We probably spend too much time reading news and fretting over the changes that are happening at home with the election and resulting actions of our new President. It has been very sad to read the memorials and tributes to the great tragedies of humanity and seeing similarities between the seeds of those events and our current administration.
When it gets overwhelming, we try to focus on things that are in our realm of control - being good to each other, being aware and present in our surroundings as much as possible, and finding causes that mean a lot to us and where we feel that we can make an impact (see Lishan’s post on our time with the Kindred Spirits Elephant Sanctuary).
Supporting the elephants at KSES
In terms of how Lishan and I are doing, we haven’t gotten sick of each other yet! Since we’re with each other all the time, we get to experience each other’s highs and lows all the time; there’s no ‘hiding’ and not talking about your feelings or moods. It’s a forcing function to ensure we are being honest about how we are feeling. But it’s not all seriousness and compromise - we still focus on being silly and laughing as much as we can.
Lishan's Captain Morgan pose
At 100 days, it means we are almost to the halfway point in our trip now, which is crazy! Jobs? Work? Normal schedules? Guess we’ll just have to keep stretching this out as long as possible. In the next 50 days, we’ll be continuing our journey east through Europe and will be just about ready to head to South Africa.
Thank you to everyone who still reads the blog through our pictures and other updates on social media. It makes us happy to share these experiences to those of you who want to either live vicariously through us or are getting ideas for future travel. We’re happy to chat about any of our experiences, just reach out!
For all of our readers, wherever you may be, we also wish you a belated Happy Chinese New Year - 新年快乐, 身体健康！Hope, health, happiness.
Our well wishes in Chiang Rai's White Temple
Lishan & Eric
