My Roomuseum

I finally finished my Roomuseum–an idea I had about halfway through our trip when I realized I had a growing collection of "artifacts" from the places we visited. 

Before I left on the trip, I didn't know what I was going to bring back with me. I thought I'd buy a pair of Argentinian leather boots or a leather jacket, and I wanted a variety of musical instruments from around the world. In the end, I didn't end up buying the boots or jacket, and the only instrument I bought was the sitar from India. Instead, I was always drawn to the textiles. Besides their inherent beauty, I'm fascinated by the patterns that often identify them with a particular tribe.

Best 43 Images of Animals We Encountered Around the World

I thought it would be a fun idea to compile some of the best images of animals we encountered during our trip, so Anne and I came up with this list. Some of them are quite hilarious. I tried to position them in chronological order, except for the first one, which is just a teaser to give you an idea of how amazing some of these encounters were...

Image 1: Anne leaning against a tiger at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 

2012 in Review and 2013 Resolutions

The other night I watched a National Geographic documentary on the first full ascent of the Everest made by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The most inspiring thing (which I didn’t know until now) was that after this moment, Hillary spent most of his life in Nepal, building schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people. As of now, he’s one of my new heroes in terms of making life choices and living a meaningful, fulfilled life. In this documentary, Hillary mentions a great quote that I’d like to share with you all: “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature. Avoiding danger is not safer than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” - Allan Keller.

2012 Overview

2012 was a good year... I would even go as far as to say that it’s been the best year of my life so far, at least in terms of adventure accomplishments. Considering I spent only 4 months out of 12 working, and the rest of the year traveling about and living frugally, I guess it was indeed the perfect recipe for a happy, fulfilled year. Long story short, here’s my 2012 in a nutshell: