Reflecting on My Travels

3 years of traveling! Here's some fun stats I've collected:

• 1000 days of backpacking
• 445 days solo traveling
• 252 days diving
• 126 flights
• 32 countries
• 19 dive certs earned
• 5 trips to Seoul
• 4 EDC's
• 2 dive liveaboards

Favorite Destinations

When people ask which are my favorite places I've been, I always find it tricky to answer since it's so hard to compare between different types of trips, so I just answer my favorite cities for food, divided by continent.

• In South America, Lima stands out (despite the international opinion) with its pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken), ceviche, and pisco sours. I could happily eat pollo a la brasa every day if it weren't for my loosely abided diet.
• For Europe, it's hard to choose, but I thoroughly enjoyed Lisbon for its bifana and peri peri sauce, as well as the original pastéis de nata, the Portuguese egg tart that made its way to dim sum.
• In Asia, I always stop through both Seoul and Tokyo before heading home on my cheap Zipair flight. I can only make a pale imitation of the tsukemen in Rokurinsha, but it satisfies my cravings.
• And although I haven't explored the rest of Africa, I can't forget about the tagines from Fes.

Favorite Activities

However, when I remember my favorite travel memories, I often reminisce about my favorite activities. For diving, Raja Ampat is my clear favorite dive site. I embarked on a two week liveaboard for 36 incredible dives with the plentiful fish, healthy + colorful coral, friendly manta rays, and curious sharks. Nowhere else in the world compares to the density and health of the reefs in Indonesia. However, my favorite dives were the ones just with my friends, where we all trusted each other to be responsible. On one such dive, we kept our torches off for most of the night dive, and we were surrounded by hundreds of magical Honduran strings of pearls, gently lighting up the ocean.

Even with language barriers, I've also had the opportunity to be able to jam with people around the world! Between Vietnam, Mexico, Seattle, and Seoul I've found musicians kind enough to let me join in either by lending me a sax, piano, or tolerating my voice. I've also been able to loosely assemble a jam group in the Bay Area now that I've moved back, and hopefully you'll be able to hear us someday!

I've also been trying to incorporate long endurance exercise into my travels. My siblings and I attempted to circumnavigate Taiwan on bicycle, but after completing the long day of 110 km, we were rudely interrupted by a typhoon. I've also done a walking marathon in Seoul along the Han River, as well as in San Francisco to visit all the Korean groceries.

Favorite People

Something I didn't really anticipate was how much I would appreciate all the short term friendships I've picked up over my travels. I've found that once I have a shared interest and recurring activity, eg. diving, Spanish lessons, with a stranger, we can quickly become friends! Since the maximum duration of the friendship is so temporary and ephemeral, I feel the connection is that much more genuine and full of uncomplicated desire to hang out. I've become significantly friendlier now that I understand that most people in the world are hoping to connect but are maybe just shy in breaking the ice. If I were to repeat my travels in the future, I hope to visit all my friends across the world again!

What Fits in My 40L Backpack

People have marveled that I've been able to travel so long with just a 40L backpack. I've found that I really don't need much in life. For my essentials, I carry one packing cube full of my clothes, a bag for all my hygienics & cosmetics, and my electronics, including my laptop, kindle, phone, headphones, and associated chargers. If I need warmer clothes, I'll simply transport them on my body rather than trying to find space in my backpack.

However, that's all pretty intuitive and boring stuff. What I think is much more interesting is all the extra bits that I bring around the world to keep myself occupied. For example, in the past year I've been bringing around a cheap ukulele until United confiscated it due to 5 bags being apparently too many. I usually bring around one of my projects that I'm working on, including my board game, my cocktail menu, or a board game I'm porting to my website. For years, I've also brought around a Gamecube controller and adapter so I could play a 2001 classic, Super Smash Bros Melee. And lastly, I carry a simplified dive gear set at all times just in case I decide I want to drop by a diving location.

What I'm Doing Now

I've made the decision that I'm ready to return to San Francisco for at least a couple of years, with a fresh enthusiasm for settling back in. I'm excited to restart my board game group, practice my new bari saxophone, and invent some more cocktails. So far, in two months, I've thrown 17 dinners / events at my apartment, with 6 more planned!

I'm also excited to be starting at Databricks and getting back into the realm of developer productivity. I look forward to working with my old teammates from Airbnb and building some cool infrastructure for engineers again.

Who knows what's next in my adventures? Stay tuned for the next update (maybe in another year)!