Nearing the end of my year of irresponsibility, I kick off the Repressive Regimes Tour ‘06

I suppose it’s true: the third time (or, I suppose, the third country or continent...if you can count Central America as a separate continent) is a charm. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my travels to Ghana and to France, I have to say that the 3 ½ months in Guatemala (and bits of Honduras) have really been among my favorites since I started this year-long sabbatical. Not only was I able to pick up some Spanish skills, as per my original plan, but I also saw some of the most beautiful places on earth, did some things that would have been wholly unimaginable to me last year (climbing volcanoes and scuba diving!), met some wonderful people, and learned a lot about a culture of which I knew nothing just a short while ago. Moreover, I left Guatemala feeling a lot more confident about myself and surer about what I want out of life. Whoa, sorry about that cheese factor, folks! Anyhoo, you really can’t ask for more out of life more than that! Ahh, the power of travel! I will always have special memories of Guatemala and sincerely recommend it for anyone looking for a great travel destination, whether you are looking to backpack or go “posh” on your next vacation.

The only problem now is that I can’t seem to remember that it is OK to flush toilet paper down the toilet. Oh, I forgot how nice it was to be in a country with a modern sewage system! I suppose I shouldn't get too comfortable...

...because the final leg (I can't believe it!) of the International Hello! Tour begins this Friday: I will be flying to Shanghai, China (the Motherland!), and am giving myself 7 ½ weeks to trek down to Singapore (land of my birth and shudder-inducing Singlish). I admittedly don’t have a lot of time, but I hope to travel through southern China, Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma), Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Given that I plan on spending quite a lot of time (about 3 weeks) in Myanmar and the rest of the countries are a bit, er, strict/screwy either currently or historically, I guess I can call this leg of my travels the Repressive Regimes Tour?

To be fair, I’d say that most of the governments of the world are repressive in some way, but some of the ones on my itinerary are pretty spiffy in their freakiness. Malaysia and Singapore seem fairly benign and nominally democratic, but I know that this isn’t totally true in practice, particularly when you look at history. Cambodia = Killing Fields, so stew on that a while. Thailand...um, does the Prime Minister really want to be Prime Minister? China...well, just a heads up, I might not be able to blog from there because Blogger is reportedly still blocked in some parts of the country (oh, those crazy Chinese with their ideas that blogging promotes democracy! Crazy!). I just hope that my recent bloggin’-like-crazy ways will keep you occupied for some time! And Myanmar? Dude, forgeddaboudit. The military government there is pretty 1984ish and blocks mail portals of Yahoo!, Gmail, and Hotmail, so I will have to find some non-threatening email portal works that decently. Hey, maybe this is a perfect time to use my Hello Kitty email (yes, I really do have an email here…you got a problem with that, punk?!)!

In any case, Southeast Asia is actually my first attempt at an extended backpacking trip – moving from place to place in relatively quick order as opposed to living in one town for an extended period of time. Also, outside of China and Singapore (and parts of Malaysia, where English and Mandarin may be spoken), I really won’t speak any of the local language. GULP! Plus, it’s going to be blazing hot and disgustingly humid throughout the region. Double GULP! Well, given that it’s my last adventure of the year, the Repressive Regimes Tour will be an excellent test of my travel savvy and general mettle...or lack thereof. Let’s see if I make it back in one piece. I just hope this trip is worth my missing the NBA finals and World Cup!

I'll see you from the road!

A quick note
This blog officially turned 1 year old this week! Thanks for reading, especially if you have been doing so since the shaky/boring beginning! :)