The route

Places I have visited in the past years.

Over the years，I have been here and there due to work and traveling. Some places I lingered a little longer, either due to unforeseen circumstances or to make a living, many places though I only made a pit-stop.

The longest uninterrupted traveling I have made was between 2005 and 2007, taking an overland journey on a shoestring budget from my home in Malaysia through other Asian countries into Europe, then re-entered Asia using the trans-Siberian train.

It was a fulfilling yet exhausting journey, not taxing physically but mentally. There were so many inputs – emotionally and intellectually – yet I had no outlet to unleash all that I had learned, as I bumped along and being unproductive.

Along the way, so many people – strangers and friends alike – had showered me with kindness (included sheltering, feeding and clothing me), and nourished me by sharing their experiences and wisdom. They are the reason that I could walk out of war zone unscathed, pass through difficult terrain at ease, and cover such a lengthy journey with so little cost.

After two years, the journey started weighing down on me, I became weary of always being the receiver and my transient existence, thus I halted the wandering and took on a job in Beijing, China, making myself useful by turning into a workaholic. Yet, I am still unproductive in a way, as I keep putting off making sense of what I truly learned from the trip.

Now that I have quit my job again in preparation for another journey into Central Asia, I hope to write down the lessons learned in the last few years and the trip ahead,  perhaps by doing so, I would better understand my own choice for drifting around.

(April, 2010)