The first four months of this adventure simultaneously flew by and felt like they lasted a lifetime.  I still have three more posts to write about our last stops in Asia but it feels important to take a moment and reflect on what we’ve seen before our time in Southeast Asia becomes a distant memory.

So how do I sum up our travels so far? Well we recently got the opportunity to go home for a couple of weeks and spend some time with friends and family.  I’ll use the questions they asked us as a starting point.

What was your favorite place you visited?

This is a tough one but Dan and I pretty much agree that it’s a tie between Vietnam and Malaysia.  Vietnam was our first stop but even after visiting seven more countries it still ranks as the best food we had on this trip. I’ve already written a lot about all of the delicious dishes we tried in Vietnam so I won’t list them again but I will give some advice.  Go to Vietnam.  Eat the street food.  Have a Vietnamese iced coffee every day, preferably from a market stall – it tastes like melted coffee ice cream.  Wherever we live next I will be on the hunt for authentic Vietnamese food.

In some of the countries we visited the burgeoning tourist economy made it difficult to get a sense of local life.  Not so in Vietnam.  We got the sense that the Vietnamese are happy enough to have tourists visit their country but they aren’t going to change their way of life for the sake of visitors.  And from a western perspective their way of life often seemed… quirky.

There was the chewing gum salesman belting out karaoke, complete with microphone and portable speaker, as he walked down the middle of the street at 9AM on a weekday morning.  There were the amazing array of objects transported on the back of motorbikes: potted trees, small shrines and, once, a full sized mattress.  There was the family-run restaurant where, at one point during dinner, we turned around to witness the hostess clipping her child’s fingernails at a table nearby. And there were the many, many, nonsensical English phrases written all over the locals’ clothing.  It was strange, wonderful and hilarious.  Vietnam immediately shook us out of our comfort zone and showed us just how awesomely different life on the other side of the world could be.

Malaysia, on the other hand, we loved partially because it was comfortable.  After spending months on the road it was so nice to get somewhere where everyone spoke English, regardless of whether they worked in tourism.  After being in countries with one dominant ethnic group it was great to be somewhere with a lot of racial and cultural diversity.  Malaysia had some quirks of its own but, overall, it is much more developed than some of its neighbors and was, therefore an easier place to travel.

So while there wasn’t a country we visited that we didn’t like, Vietnam and Malaysia make the top of our list because they each gave us exactly what we needed at the stage when we arrived.

How did you and Dan get along?

Amazingly well.  Sure, we fought sometimes.  I don’t think it’s possible to spend that much time with one person and get along perfectly.  But overall this trip showed us that we can spend A LOT of time together without any major issues.  This trip has definitely taught us a lot about each other and has brought us closer.  Words can never express how grateful I am to have Dan as a partner on this journey with me.

I will say, though, that traveling for so long, even with a partner, can be lonely.  One person cannot fulfill all of another’s social needs and, while we met some awesome people on the road, we didn’t spend enough time with any of them to form lasting friendships.  It has been really hard to go long periods with no family or friends around.

Do you feel like you packed appropriately?

Overall, yes.  Our bags were compact enough that they were generally easy to carry in all circumstances.  We didn’t bring anything that we didn’t end up using or wearing and we didn’t leave without anything important that we weren’t able to pick up on the road. I’d love for my pack to be a little lighter but the heaviest things, my computer and camera, are not ones I’m willing to drop.

Living with such a small wardrobe was easier than expected. Doing laundry was easy and cheap almost everywhere we went.  At times it was frustrating not to be able to dress up or look more put together but generally I didn’t mind sticking to the same few outfits.  The only issue was that after constant wearing and washing some of our clothes didn’t hold up well so we did trade out a few items while we were home.  This trip has taught me that I really can live with very little ‘stuff’ and I’m hoping this is a lesson I can retain when we get resettled at home.

Do you regret going on this journey?

Okay so no one actually asked us this but it is something Dan and I have asked ourselves and each other a lot.  It is an important question because we gave up a lot to go on this trip (stable jobs we liked, a rent controlled apartment in San Francisco, etc.). But the resounding answer is no.

I kept expecting to have a moment of panic when it really hit me that we had done this crazy thing but that moment never came.  Once we were on the road we fell into the routine of traveling quite easily; it felt natural.  As I mentioned in my very first post, this is something I’ve always wanted to do and four months in I’m still so excited to actually be doing it.