Above: Hai Van Pass, Vietnam. This was once the only road connecting North and South Vietnam.
On the morning of January 14, 2020 I sat in an aisle seat on a Delta Airlines jet headed for Atlanta. Looking at the map displayed on the digital screen in front of me I realized for the first time that I had indeed completed a trip around the world. Leaving toward the west in September and arriving home from the east just after the start of the new year.
Since leaving Connecticut I had often explained to people I met that I was traveling around the world and that my trip would take four to six months. But until that morning, the phrase "around the world" was just a short-handed way of communicating what I was up to. I did not think of it as a literal description of my route.
As I traced my path across the screen with my finger I calculated that I had traveled 36,000 miles, visited 9 countries (not counting three I briefly touched down in) and stayed in 28 different cities.
When you are traveling solo and living out of a backpack, making your route up largely as you go, you don't have a lot of time to reflect on where you have been. You need to concentrate on where you are and where you are going next. So as the months went by it was becoming difficult for me to process and appreciate everything I had experienced. I was too busy.
Once home I had time to think back and understand that my four month journey had exposed me to many cultures and allowed me to see many places and things that should be on any traveler's check list of life experiences.
I did my best while on the road to stay away from tourist traps, but when I was within reasonable distance of famous places and sites I made arrangements to visit.
A friend of mine once told me a story of his family visit to the leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. He said it was under-whelming. "We went. We looked at it. Said, yeah it's leaning and moved on." That's the reaction I always dread when I make a decision to see a similar well-known location. But I never had that reaction on my trip. None of the major stops left me disappointed. They were all equally fascinating for their own reasons.
Above: Tourists in Bangkok, Thailand snap photos of street chef Raan Jay Fai who has a Michelin Star rating and has been made famous through a Netflix documentary. To my surprise her stall was right across the street from my hostel. I waited in line for two hours to try her crab stuffed omelet speciality.
I have not included all of them in this collection, but I tried to pull out the highlights from the thousands of photos and video I captured along the way. It is a mix of history, modern life, architecture, religion and culture.
Above: A body prepared for cremation in Kathmandu, Nepal. A world heritage stupa in the center of the city.
I have been asked often since returning which city or country was my favorite? It is a hard question to answer, because each place is so different. But if forced to answer I say San Sebastian, Spain on the north coast was my favorite city and Nepal and Peru were my favorite countries.
Although I was robbed on the final day of my trip in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina is another a place I would consider moving to if I chose to live outside the United States.
It is easy to fall in love with Cambodia and its people who live such a hard life in such a beautiful place. The food in Vietnam is simple and satisfying. By the time I left I had grown tired of pho, but ever since I left I crave it. Kathmandu was magical. The Atacama Desert was breath taking. The city of Santiago was alive with the spirit of resistance.
India is many countries in one. I was there for one month and visited eight cities. From the capital of Delhi, to Kolkata in the east, Darjeeling in the north, Mumbai in the west and Goa in the south. Each place has a sub-culture of its own. Well over a billion people live there, many in poverty, and most contending with heavy air pollution and other substandard living conditions. It is a country of contrast between rich and poor - the modern world and old traditions that restrain progress.
The difference in cultures between southeast Asia, India and Europe is vast. By the time I reached Spain in early December I needed to decompress. Frankly, I was almost ready to cut my trip short and fly home, but I decided to push on booking about six weeks of travel through South America in one afternoon at my hotel in Madrid.
Barcelona has the unique distinction of serving as a living legacy to the architect and designer Antoni Gaudi. His influence is everywhere in the cityscape. Nearly 100 years after his death work is still progressing on his masterpiece - the basilica known as la Sagrada Familia, or the Holy Family. Although it is considered to be architecture its intricate carvings make it seem more like an elaborate sculpture. The whimsical techniques used to decorate the cathedral can be seen on smaller works around the city. Even those Gaudi had nothing to do with.
Above: The Guggenheim Museum. Bilbao, Spain. Designed by Frank Gehry and credited with reviving the city.
Immersing yourself in the culture of foreign places is just as important as visiting the well known sites.
Do I have doughnuts on a stick in Hanoi? Yes. Do I dine on pho and banh mi sandwiches even though I am a vegetarian? Yes. Spicy noodles in Thailand. Dal bhat in Nepal. Pintxo in San Sebastian? Yes - several times a day! In Peru I was introduced to saltado another meal that challenged the limits of my usual diet, but was small and pleasurable.
How you choose to get around is important. Mostly I walked. In some cases I rode a mountain bike (Nepal and the Atacama region). In Varanasi, India I took a boat on the Ganges River. In Can Tho I visited a floating market on the Mekong Delta also by boat. In Peru, I rode an ATV (quad) in the valleys of the Andes Mountains through small towns and to see Inca ruins. I crossed the border between Vietnam and Cambodia on foot through a no man's land of about 1,000 yards.
Except for my long haul flights from continent to continent most were relatively inexpensive, because I was traveling internally or between countries that were right next to each other. Buses were another good internal travel option and in India I had a driver for three days.
Above: The Atacama Desert. Northern Chile. Known as the driest place on earth. The red clay photos are taken in Mars Valley which is also known as Death Valley.
When I began planning my trip I knew only that I wanted to experience southeast Asia and India and that I wanted to visit Peru and the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile. Since I was going to India, Nepal was a natural add on. Spain had no real significance other than as a European country I had never visited that allowed for brief interlude between the two main legs of my journey. I made an effort to make sure I experienced urban life around the world and some of the most unspoiled places on the planet.
I found solo world travel to be easy. Regardless of language barriers it is always possible to communicate even if you have to resort to pointing and grunting. I can count on one hand the number of times I ran into a complete communication breakdown. There was always a way around the language gap. I was concerned about my personal safety, but I never felt threatened or at risk. I was appropriately on guard.
Technology makes booking flights and places to stay easy. Prices in most of the countries I stayed in were well below what you would expect to pay in the United States. In fact, during the first two months of my trip I spent less money per month than I would have spent if I had stayed at home and stuck to my normal routines. During the last six weeks of my trip I decided to spend more on lodging as a result of the initial savings.
Technology also means it is almost impossible to get lost. The smart phone is the one essential item that makes solo travel easier than ever. When it comes to your personal security on the road it is the one thing you should guard with special attention.
"Would I do it again," one friend asks me?
"Oh yes, without question and without hesitation." Next time I will be more prepared. I will pack smarter and safer. I will know how to find cheaper flights and better hotels. I will know how to get around more efficiently and less expensively. I will make sure I have a solid memory of everything I do before moving on to the next stop.
In the months before I left I spent a lot of time discussing the merits of a long term trip with friends and family. I realize now that I wasn't really seeking advice I was seeking permission. The idea of a solo journey around the world is so contrary to everything we tell ourselves we should be about as adults still occupying the pre-retirement family raising portion of our lives. I was looking for someone to tell me it's OK, but the best I could get was, "if that's what you want to do." At some point I decided yes, that's what I want to do and I did it. Like other big decisions I have made in my life the only thing I was sure of at the time was the commitment to move forward. I was not convinced it was the smartest decision I have ever made, but now that it is over I realize it was one of the most rewarding. I may not have felt it as I was living it, but I learned something along the way about myself and about the world we live in.
There is no perfect time to take on such an adventure there are many. I met a married couple in their 30s who decided to travel the world before they have children. I met a woman in her 40s who was traveling for a year with her two daughters. I met a man in his 70s who was completing his bucket list with an eye on the approaching finish line of his life. He seemed to have the clarity of someone who knew his exact date of departure. Don't wait that long. There is always a way to make it work no matter the stage of your life. And you don't have to do it Jules Verne style. You can take on the world in small bites.
When you return your old life will be waiting for you and then the question becomes how do you apply the lessons of your journey to make that life better.
© Dean Pagani 2020
See more full photo essays on my travels at ThisDecisiveMoment.com
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© Dean Pagani 2020