In January of 2001, I am getting on a plane bound for Sydney, Australia. I have an open return ticket, good for one year. In the space of that year, I am planning on traveling through New Zealand, Australia, and parts of China and Southeast Asia. This is an ongoing chronicle of my travels.

february 24, 2002
Travels are over. Although I am still abroad, travels proper ended two months ago. I have nothing particularly profound to say about them. I did learn a lot of unexpected things in the year I was gone. I hiked like a maniac and dealt with my fear of things that go bump in the night while sleeping alone in a one-person tent. I learned that the same tent could actually fit two people quite tightly and warmly. I wore a bikini for the first time. I posed naked for photos in the middle of winter on a creekbed in New South Wales. I ate fertilized goose embryo and learned how to ride a motorbike. There were boys, dorm rooms, sandy beaches, fish and chips, pho, and pain au chocolat. Although I also confirmed that travel is not the romanticized ideal shown in magazines and sold by the Lonely Planet (a hold I broke before I left), I had a great year.

Now there are only the archives.
posted by tina 2/24/2002 07:19:10 PM