the ultimate wrap-up
August 14, 2007
well, it's been over a week now for me to get back to normal life... and i'm still not really there
the last 9 months have had a tremendous impact on my life, myself and my expectations for the future. and i don't think i can ever really close this chapter in my life; i'll probably stay a traveler for as long as i live - maybe not staying for 2 days in each city, but constantly on the move nevertheless.
i've seen amazing things, met great people, done unexpected things and sucked in a world i've only known from text books, tv & magazines (ill-informed that is). real world economics is different from what people teach you in switzerland and you only ever experience how clueless you are when you actually go out and see for yourself. i haven't seen much yet but i've learned more than i've ever learned during my formal education.
being back in switzerland and seeing how content people are with their standard of life is hard. coming from places in asia with so much energy, dynamic and drive it's hard to accept the fact that all we worry about is keeping foreigners out of the country and loud airplanes away from over our houses.
still, i'll probably stay in switzerland again for a while. i want to work together with those entrepreneurial minds all over the world and being based here might not be that bad an idea. but i still have not decided and it's out of scope of this travelblog anyway.
writing the blog was a very important and helpful part of my trip. i could organize my thoughts, inform people who cared and i'm in the wonderful position now to look back on a huge amount of information to support my memory.
taking the dslr was worthwhile but i don't think i'll do it on my next trip. the quality of top end p&s cams is good enough for my traveling needs - i've overdone the whole ultrawideangle thing anyway
speaking of the pictures: i might compile a best of picture book with annotated notes. probably won't get it published other than online, but it's a good motivation to go through my 10k pics again. most of them are on flickr anyway.
i wonder if some of the travel blog entries / pictures will backfire later. i've always been speaking my mind freely, for instance on chinese culture. there are a lot of uncommented pics on flickr that can give a wrong idea as well (the ladies! ). but let's see.
buying the laptop en route was an ambiguous decision - i still haven't made up my mind if the benefits outweighed the costs.
the most important lesson i've learned is that traveling is easy! it's no problem to get around this world, there is always a way. the more fucked up your situation, the better / unexpected is the solution. very often kindness of strangers is involved.
but - a big but - i'm far from saying that people everywhere are great... they are not. there is an universal ratio of nice, stupid & asshole people in this world - wherever you go it's about the same. it's just that some cultures hide it better than others. and everyone is motivated by relative social status (with money as a means to the end) no matter if they live in new york or laos.
and to quote mr friedman, the world really is flat - the latest wave of globalization has only just begun. i'm excited.
all flickr picture sets
the last 9 months have had a tremendous impact on my life, myself and my expectations for the future. and i don't think i can ever really close this chapter in my life; i'll probably stay a traveler for as long as i live - maybe not staying for 2 days in each city, but constantly on the move nevertheless.
i've seen amazing things, met great people, done unexpected things and sucked in a world i've only known from text books, tv & magazines (ill-informed that is). real world economics is different from what people teach you in switzerland and you only ever experience how clueless you are when you actually go out and see for yourself. i haven't seen much yet but i've learned more than i've ever learned during my formal education.
being back in switzerland and seeing how content people are with their standard of life is hard. coming from places in asia with so much energy, dynamic and drive it's hard to accept the fact that all we worry about is keeping foreigners out of the country and loud airplanes away from over our houses.
still, i'll probably stay in switzerland again for a while. i want to work together with those entrepreneurial minds all over the world and being based here might not be that bad an idea. but i still have not decided and it's out of scope of this travelblog anyway.
writing the blog was a very important and helpful part of my trip. i could organize my thoughts, inform people who cared and i'm in the wonderful position now to look back on a huge amount of information to support my memory.
taking the dslr was worthwhile but i don't think i'll do it on my next trip. the quality of top end p&s cams is good enough for my traveling needs - i've overdone the whole ultrawideangle thing anyway
speaking of the pictures: i might compile a best of picture book with annotated notes. probably won't get it published other than online, but it's a good motivation to go through my 10k pics again. most of them are on flickr anyway.
i wonder if some of the travel blog entries / pictures will backfire later. i've always been speaking my mind freely, for instance on chinese culture. there are a lot of uncommented pics on flickr that can give a wrong idea as well (the ladies!
). but let's see.buying the laptop en route was an ambiguous decision - i still haven't made up my mind if the benefits outweighed the costs.
the most important lesson i've learned is that traveling is easy! it's no problem to get around this world, there is always a way. the more fucked up your situation, the better / unexpected is the solution. very often kindness of strangers is involved.
but - a big but - i'm far from saying that people everywhere are great... they are not. there is an universal ratio of nice, stupid & asshole people in this world - wherever you go it's about the same. it's just that some cultures hide it better than others. and everyone is motivated by relative social status (with money as a means to the end) no matter if they live in new york or laos.
and to quote mr friedman, the world really is flat - the latest wave of globalization has only just begun. i'm excited.
all flickr picture sets
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