countries

Asia
//India
//Malaysia
//Singapore

Australia and Pacific
//Australia
//New Zealand

Central America and the Caribbean
//Cuba

Europe
//Austria
//Belgium
//Czech republic
//France
//Germany
//Greece
//Italy
//Netherlands
//Spain
//Switzerland
//United Kingdom
//Vatican City

North America
//Canada
//United States

Map generated by interactivemaps.org. I was looking for an application that could do cities also (that didn’t require me to sign up for a blog) but didn’t have any luck.

So above is a map of the countries I’ve visited thus far, and all of my travel has been in the past eight years (since I turned 21). The last big adventure was Europe 2004, and in 2006-2007 I travelled to India (specifically Bangalore, now apparently using its traditional name Bangaluru, with a brief visit to the Golden Triangle the last time I was there), Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Atlanta Georgia (Alpharetta to be precise) for work.

The past twelve months has seen me exploring Canada (mainly places around Toronto including Ottawa and Montreal), Cuba and New York City.

In 2009 I already have plans to visit my country of origin Laos (Nov or Dec), which means a hop over to surrounding countries Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. In March I’ll be doing a course in Hawaii, and if all goes to plan a long awaited return to Europe in the summer.

Right now I’m toying with the idea of visiting Colombia in January with Jose and Nicole. In order to do that, and purchase my plane ticket within the next 14 days with Jose, I need to find a creative financial solution. I also want to visit Whistler in the winter (heck I didn’t bring all my snowboard gear over from Sydney for the fun of it!), and of course it’s not the cheapest place to visit in the world. What to do, what to do…

Travel has really opened my eyes and given me an appreciation for not only the circumstances from which I have come, but for the social structures and experiences that people in other places deal with on a day to day basis which are sometimes very different to my own. Cuba was a great example of this, and so was India. I’ve also made great personal connections along the way.

If only somebody had told me about the benefits of exploring new cities and cultures at an earlier age. Perhaps I could have truly been a “global nomad” by now. I guess it’s never too late. First I need to get rid of the day job ;)