Three hundred and sixty something days and counting...

Just over a year ago I left New York on a journey that I knew would change my life, however, it was impossible to tell just what I would encounter along the way.

Here I am still travelling down this path with an unknown destination, however it's this very journey that keeps me going.  "The journey is the destination" I used to tell my kids at ALE.

I knew that this experience would change things for me and going to a place that literally couldn't be further away from home definitely did just that.

Signing a 13 month contract was the longest contract I had ever committed to and at first it seemed daunting to me, then I settled in and found the flow of things, then the reality of 6 more months set in, along with (I'm not really sure how to say this...) let me just say that several factors more numerous than I want to list here allowed me to make the decision that...I'm DONE with this company or as they say in the states..."Done like dinner" or in New Zealand..."Done and Dusted"
or multiple choice...
"I'm as done as ______"
1) Conan O'Brien hosting The Tonight Show
2) Eliot Spitzer's political career
3) Healthcare Reform
4) Tiger Woods and golf

OK, maybe some of those things aren't a lock just yet, but I've decided long ago that I am looking for other things.  I like Hong Kong and I'm not ready to live in the US yet; I can't wait to go back and visit though.  Around 60 days and I'll be back in the good ol' US of A and I've also booked 3 shifts at ALE that will bring me into the summer.  Katy's coming to visit me in New York and then I'll return for DrB HK Part 2 sometime in August, who knows what that will involve...

A quick summary of the past year would involve travelling to Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau, and Nepal.  Also seeing Mount Everest from the airplane, then Dhaulagiri and Annapurna the 7th and 10th highest peaks in the world from the ground.  Scuba diving, reaching 12,170 feet in altitude, walking on 110+ degree Malaysian beach sand, being in 4 countries in 16 hours, sleeping everywhere from luxury buses and junkboats to local buses' plywood bench seats and cardboard boxes. As well as finding love and getting a place to call my own in Hong Kong among many many more things.

The spring season starts March 1, people are arriving now, although the nor' easter on the East coast is messing up some people's plans.  The confusion and frustration have reawakened, oh March 31 where are you?

The Nepal pictures and journal are coming soon, I'm getting a lot more pictures from Elena soon.

I have some ideas about this blog and some changes I'd like to make, I'm hoping to finally finish my journal from last spring and reorganize it to the correct dates and maybe put in my trail journal from my Long Trail journey in 2008, I'd also like to integrate all my twitter messages into the posts somehow.  This is all in hopes of creating a print version of this blog I think it would be pretty cool to have a hard copy of all my writings and pictures, we'll see how it goes.  I think the Lapsap Stringband and yelling at kids might take up most of my time once things get going...