I am coming home soon

I have received a number of emails in the last few weeks of the flavor -- gee, Travis, I know you are having a great time and all -- but are you ever going to come back home? Well, I am pleased to announce that I have bought a return ticket to the USA and will arrive on Thursday, March 6. This will be about a 30 hour door to door odyssey and the cost was around $700. My first destination will be the San Francisco Bay Area to see some friends and then a few days later I am flying "home" to the San Diego area.

My main priorities will be spending time with family and friends. Logistical life issues include doing my taxes, setting up a proper mail forwarding address, making some minor portfolio tweaks, quickly getting a pay-as-you-go mobile phone plan set up with a new quad band phone, and planning my next few trips this year.

My brilliant and beautiful sister Pam has signed me up for the Carlsbad 5K (50 kilometers north of San Diego) in early April -- a race that her and my cousin Michelle will also be running. This will give me an incentive to get back in running shape right away (self respect and shameful hubris wouldn't allow me to lose to girls from my own family!).

I flew back to Chiang Mai, Thailand (in the north of the country) yesterday and I have already been having a blast here with friends. I definitely love this place and it will be hard to leave. The people and the weather are just wonderful here.

It is hard for me to describe my experiences in a blog. I really only touch the surface here and it makes me feel like I am cheating readers, not to mention that I really don't take that many pictures, and if I tried to document everything it would be a book and then some. I really don't describe many of my ordinary day to day activities, like wonderful time spent with friends, as I should.

But I do hope to add a few more stories and pictures after I return to the USA where I will probably have more spare time. I still have some amazing experiences from Myanmar to share.

Playing with the kids at a Myanmar monastery where we spent the night:

Also, I am sure that I will have some serious reflecting to do as the culture shock of returning to the USA and leaving Asia hits me head on. And I guess I might have to wear long pants sometimes, at least if my weather.com checks of California weather are not lying to me.