Vancouver - Los Angeles - Kuala Lumpur - Singapore - Dubai - Doha - New York

Join me as I travel around the world in 9 days
on four of the world's five-star airlines

Monday, June 2, 2008

Fascinating places...interesting people

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”

- Jawaharial Nehru


When people first learned that I would be traveling around the world in just nine days, most people thought I was crazy. My Singapore guide thought so when he first met me. Then he started doing the math and counted the number of hours spent on airlines and airports. I think we came up with a total of 60 hours. After giving it a bit of thought, Danny thought it was a great adventure.

Life is a set of adventures, and I believe that we have to make opportunities, and grab opportunities. Maybe it isn’t traveling around the world. Maybe it’s something different. But life is too short for regrets and what ifs. The hardest part of this trip wasn’t keeping track of a new currency virtually every day, but rather leaving my family behind. If I could have, I would have brought Jack and Carrie along in a heartbeat, I know they would have loved it. Some may think it selfish of me for leaving my family behind. And maybe it is. It’s something I sometimes struggle with. But on the other hand, each experience we have makes us a better person.

If I had not chased this story, I would have missed out on eating delicious Malaysian food with Alzan and Siti. I would never have seen the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the most beautiful building I have ever seen. I would never have shared some laughs and eaten a delicious lunch with the marketing reps at the Fairmont Singapore, or have met Danny, my incredibly funny guide in Singapore. I wouldn’t have seen the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, or watched the sun sink into the Persian Gulf, while sipping a tasty beer and chatting with Paul and Nicky from Melbourne. I wouldn’t have experienced the “world’s largest” buffet lunch at the Doha Marriott with Updesh and his young, charming daughter. I wouldn’t have met Nirijan, the Nepalese man working at a Doha gas station to support his wife and two children back in Nepal. Or the Arab man who reached out to shake my hand in the old marketplace in Doha, and then placed his hand on his heart.

The world is actually smaller than we think. And it’s full of fascinating places and interesting people. I’m richer for having met those people and seen these places. When I began this journey I left you with these words from Mark Twain. They are still relevant today as they were 9 days ago.

Maybe I'll see you out in the world some time.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain




5 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for sharing your amazing adventure. Your quotes reminded me of this one:

"Seventy-five years. That’s how much time you get if you’re lucky. Seventy-five years. Seventy-five Winters. Seventy-five Springtimes. Seventy-five Summers. And Seventy-five Autumns. When you look at it like that, it’s not a lot of time, is it? Don’t waste them.” (from a movie I saw lately, can't remember name!)

Anonymous said...

Amazing blog Ken. Thanks for taking us along on your adventure.

It makes me want to move back overseas - of course, you'll come to visit, won't you?

Steve

Anonymous said...

The "75-summers" quote is a great bit from a generally bad movie - The Eddie Murphy vehicle "Holy Man."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120701/

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