A Few Stats and Facts

I figured some of you out there might be interested in some of the facts of my trip.  Here’s a quick summary and a few common questions.

Q: Who paid for your trip?
A:  I did. I taught high school for 2 years in Los Angles and saved my money.  I bought a used car, didn’t eat out very often, didn’t buy very many things, lived in a house with 5 other people, and automatically set aside a chunk of money from my paycheck monthly to a “Travel Fund.”
Q: Did your parents finance your trip? 
A:  Nope, not at all.  However, they were very supportive of allowing me to pursue my interests and dreams, and in caring for my horses while I was gone.
Q:  Were you ever scared?
A:  No, not really.  I wasn’t paranoid about where I went, but I was cautious, and always aware.  However, I could say that I usually felt pretty safe.
Q:  Wasn’t it lonely traveling alone?  Don’t you need someone to travel with?
A:  Not at all.  There are so many people out there who are also traveling, that inevitably I met people to hang out with .  Sometimes I spent a few weeks with someone, sometimes a few days, sometimes a conversation for a few hours.  Just because you don’t have someone to travel with doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go; I actually really enjoyed the ability to and do what I wanted to, being with other people as much or as little as I felt like.
Q:  How long did it take you to plan your trip?
A:  It was an idea I'd had in the back of my head for a few years:  Take some time off, travel for an extended period of time.  However, I wasn't sure when it would happen.  When things with Los Angeles Unified School District and the State of California got messy (I lost my teaching position due to lack of state funds), I figured it would be as good as time as any to go and travel for a while. 
Q:  Was the money spent worth it? 
A: Absolutely.  I am very grateful I had the opportunity I did and the support to make it happen; there isn’t anything else I would’ve rather done with this last year.

Summary
Type of Transport   #      Total Miles    Total Kilometers
     Walking               -         340 mi.               545 km.
     Buses (2 hrs+)    48     10,855 mi.          17,470 km.
     Train                    5        930 mi.              1500 km.
     Boat                     2            -                           -
     Plane                   9       43,411 mi.         69,863 km.
     Bike                     1         560 mi.              900 km.
     Jeep                    4               -                         -
     Motorbike            1         173 mi.              280 km.
Total distance traveled: 55,340 miles (89,056km)

$ Airfare (Total):  ~$2200
Denver→Seattle→New Delhi
Kathmandu→Bangkok→Bangalore
Bangalore→New Delhi→US (Florida)
Miami→Buenos Aires
Punta Arenas→Coyhaique
Punta Arenas→Santiago
Lima→Denver (frequent flyer miles)

Average daily expenses (Includes everything: food, accommodation, ground transportation.  NOTE:  This budget is a reflection of staying in budget accommodations (clean but cheap) or with local people, eating simply, taking the most economical transportation available, walking a lot, and not doing any formal tours)
$ Average daily Asia - $15/day
    4 month total (not including one month on NOLS mountaineering): ~ $1800
$ Average daily South America - $30/day
    4 months total: ~$3500
9 months, 8 countries = ~$7,500 (would I sound like a MasterCard advertisement if I said “priceless?” ha)
That’s an average of $830/month…probably less than most of you pay monthly for rent/mortgage payment, food, gas, and insurance…


Justice Issues – Human and Environmental – I Encountered

Location  --   Issue  --  More Information
Patagonian Chile: 7 proposed Hydroelectric dams that will take water rights from the Chilean people. www.sinrepresas.com
http://www.patagoniasinrepresas.cl/final/index-en.php

India and Nepal: The Tibetan people have been unjustly exiled from their land in accordance with China’s ideas, not with respect to the Tibetan people
www.tibet.com
www.tibet.org
www.freetibet.org
www.savetibet.org

Laos: Unexploded Ordinances (UXO’s) dropped in civilian areas during the Vietnam War; Laos is, per capita, the most heavily bombed nation on earth and is still not UXO free.
http://maic.jmu.edu/JOURNAL/9.2/focus/sisavath/sisavath.htm
http://www.mineaction.org/country.asp?c=15
http://www.uxolao.org/

Cambodia: Under the leadership of rogue Khemer leader Pol Pot and in “Year Zero” (1975) 30% of Cambodia's population was lost - an estimated 2 million Cambodians died by starvation, torture or execution...a silent horror most of the world doesn't even know about.      http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/
http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_cambodia1.html

Argentina: Los Desaparecidos – people who “disappeared” (due to corrupt government) under the dictatorship.
The Malvinas Islands – Islands to the south east of Argentina that are currently claimed by Britain, but all Argentines claim as “theirs” (also know as the Falkland Islands outside of Argentina); many young Argentine people died in the Falkland War
http://www.yendor.com/vanished/
http://www.desaparecidos.org/arg/eng.html

Chile: Pinochet, ruling as dictator, committed many untold atrocities, including South America’s own “September 11th,” September 11, 1973, holding hostage citizens and foreigners who were considered “enemies of the state” in the National Stadium.  All told, between 1973-1990 nearly 3,000 Chileans were killed, and some 40,000 arrested, imprisoned, or tortured.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile_under_Pinochet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Nacional_de_Chile

New Skills Learned
-    How to use a bathroom without toilet paper – wipe with the left hand (India, Nepal, Thailand) – this is a VERY environmentally friendly option…
-    Each noodle soup with chopsticks (Laos, Cambodia)
-    Take off shoes before entering an internet café, bus station, or house (Thailand)
-    Prepare and drink mate (Argentina and Chile)
-    Be ready for ANY type of weather (Patagonia)

Books Read or Recommended (* = I highly recommend; + = I haven’t read, but good recommendation)
     India
          -    Midnight’s Children (Salmon Rushdie)*
          -    Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts)*
          -    A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)*
          -    God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)
          -    An Inheritance of Loss (Kiran Desai)
          -    City of Joy (Dominique Lapierre)*
          -    City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi (William Dalrymple)*
          -    Nanda Devi Affair (Bill Aitken) +
     Nepal
          -    Annapurna Circuit: Himilayan Journey (Andrew Stevenson)*
     Burma/Myanmar
          -    Twilight Over Burma: My Life as a Shan Princess (Inge Sargent)*
     Laos
          -    Another Quiet American: Stories of Life in Laos (Brett Dakin)
          -    The Ravens: Pilots of the Secret War of Laos (Christopher Robbins)+
     Cambodia (all of these books I would like to read, but haven’t had time yet)
          -    Cambodia Year Zero (François Ponchaud)+
          -    First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers (Loung Ung)+
          -    When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge (Chanrithy Him)+
          -    River of Time (Jon Swain)+
     Latin America
          -    Open Veins of Latin America (Eduardo Galeano)* (Also author of Upside Down and Mirrors)
          -    Poetry by Pablo Neruda or Ruben Dario*
          -    Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende* (also author of many other books)