The Decision

Since I came back from my Florida cycling trip in mid-May I didn’t do much at home. In fact, I suffered from bouts of post-travel depression.

On June 10, I went to Great Neck, Long Island (NY), to attend my grandma’s memorial service. That short weekend travel broke the depressive spell for a few days, but after I came back home to King of Prussia, PA, I was back to a week long depression. 

The main crux was that there are too many opportunities. I could cycle around the world starting on the West Coast, backpack the world, or stop traveling and start working again. I was faced with the opportunity cost of doing one thing and couldn’t do the other things.

On a whim, I bought a plane ticket to Seattle for July 12 based on the fact that I needed to do something to get out of my funk. As soon as I committed this action my depression lifted and I eliminated my option of returning to work. I realized that right now I have the time, the health, and some money to travel. If I waited for some other time in the future who knows what my situation will be. I figured the best time to travel around the world is now.

I didn’t know if I was going to cycle or backpack. It seemed cycling was still a little too fast for me. I want to spend more time in one place and enjoy it, especially when I’m at a foreign country. I also asked my cycling friend, Crispin, if he wanted to cycle down the West Coast with me. Due to his recovery from a wrist injury, he made the decision to stay at home. Additionally, with the spoke issues of my bicycle from my previous trip and my minimalistic lifestyle, I decided ultimately that I want to backpack around the world. This means I’ll be more flexible in terms of where I want to go. I’ll be living out of a single 22 liter backpack rather than four bicycle panniers. Consequently, I bought a plane ticket from Seattle to Hawaii for July 17 and a plane ticket from Hawaii to Japan for July 31.

I don’t really know how long I’ll stay in Japan, but after Japan I might check out South Korea, Taiwan, then stay in Southeast Asia for a few months. If the timing is right, I’ll spend the summer in Australia and New Zealand in December and January. That’s the rough plan for now.

Below is a photograph of everything I’ll be bringing, minus what I’ll be wearing and my Pixel 5a phone, which is what I used to take the photo.

Around the world travel items