my travels

I spent 2002 and part of 2003 traveling, most of it in India and parts of Southeast Asia -- but also Mexico, Hong Kong and Australia. In November 2001 I left my awesome job, sold my new BMW, rented my house to a nice older couple and departed Canada to travel the developing world and to write a book (fiction -- not about my travels, but certainly inspired by them). It was an incredible experience that opened my eyes to a world of culture and travel that few people ever seem to see. I honestly didn't know what it was like to spend any time in a poor developing country with a billion (mostly) peaceful people.

In southern Laos, I ate perhaps the most unusual meat snack in the world: it was wrapped in banana leaf, and was a small square package. I untied the leaf, unrolled the package and discovered a bright red, meat-like substance with white vermicelli noodle-like things weaved inside of it. I looked at it carefully for several minutes to ensure the noodles were not moving - I thought they might be worms or maggots. I touched the red part to my tongue: tasted salty. I glanced around and saw other people had popped theirs into their mouth. And so, I took a bite and then popped the rest of it in my mouth too. I'm still not sure what it is... but I think it was some kind of pickled meat. It was delicious and very weird. A little quirky, kind of like me. Later that same day, I saw people picking up giant beetle-like bugs off the road and taking them home to eat them. Yuck. So I have limits too. Third-world travel isn't always easy, but it's almost always exciting and fun. Plan ahead. Build an itinerary - it helps to talk to someone who's been where you're going, especially for Laos and India. Also consider planning your travels in a practical way. And packing your bags.

My own first stop on the learning train was with some personal security awareness training (I wanted to stay alive, and not be thrown in jail) in the form of Randy Johnson's "travel like a vagabond" series: Travel Safety and Security.

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