This was by far the longest trip I ever have done, at about seven weeks, and I did it by myself. I had just taught one year at UC Irvine, and I thought time was ripe to learn something about the other side of the Pacific. I just set out and decided to do it, even though most assistant professors would have been better advised to stick to their work commitments. Here are a few points and lessons from that trip:
1. I started in late June, and I recall switching planes in Seoul, and on the TV seeing the final moments of game seven of the Lakers vs. the Pistons.
2. The heat and humidity did not bother me. The storms and rain in Taiwan did impress me, however.
3. So much tourism has become much worse. I was able to do a jungle walk from Chieng Mai, and felt that the hill tribes were genuinely surprised to encounter me. I enjoyed teaching the children there the song “Old McDonald had a farm.” I also saw Koh Samui before many other tourists started to go there.
3b. I will never, ever again ride on an elephant, especially when the elephant has the option of dragging its rider into contact with low-lying tree branches in the Thai jungle. One guy from the Israeli army was in our group, and he fell off the elephant, though he was unharmed. Rider beware. The beasts are truly very, very smart, and I could tell they were enjoying this game.
4. Unexpectedly, Taiwan was my favorite part of the trip. The bus ride down the east coast, from Suao to Hualien to this day remains one of the best trip segments I ever have taken. The marble gorges in the center of the country also were A+.
5. Hong Kong bored me more than I was expecting. I spent a good bit of time watching Wimbledon there (Boris Becker), and reading Boswell’s Life of Johnson, still a favorite book of mine.
6. Rather than spending a full week in Hong Kong, on a lark I took a four-day trip into mainland China, as it was then called. I am very glad I did that. This was package tourism, as was standard for a Chinese visit at the time, but I saw China as a very poor country, full of bicycles and stank. Guangzhou of course. What impressed me the most was the level of energy shown by the children when I visited a grade school.
7. I did the whole trip with a single backpack, which I now find unimaginable. That perhaps reflects some deterioration of my capabilities. Most of all, I need to carry around more books these days, plus a laptop and iPad and various chargers.
8. The food peaks in Thailand were incredible, but the median Thai dish in Thailand was worse than my median Thai meal in Orange County, CA at the time. A lot of the meats were stringy and somewhat unpleasant. My best meal was a crab curry in Bangkok. I never got sick from the food, though I think I was queasy for half in a day in Chieng Mai.
9. The people were extremely friendly and helpful to me everywhere.
10. Favorite part of Malaysia was Penang. Southern Thailand was pretty boring.
10. I ended the trip in Singapore. I quite enjoyed that, most of all the South Indian food places, and how they ladled out the chutneys, which were new to me. At the time, my motto on Singapore was “it is so boring it was interesting.” Now of course there are many more things to do and see there, and it is just outright interesting. I have since been back seven more times, reflecting my fondness for the place. I am very glad I saw it at a time closer to “the early days.”
Overall, the length of the trip felt a bit excessive to me. But where would I have wished to cut? That said, since then I have not done another trip for longer than a month.
One big benefit of traveling is the diversity of places you can see. But another big benefit — not to be neglected — is the diversity of eras you can sample. I am so, so glad I saw what those places were like in the late 1980s, China most of all and also the hill tribes. No history books can compensate for that.
So that is a very good reason to travel NOW. And to travel to places that are going to change a lot.
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