The End

Well Our Photographic Odyssey has came to an end just over a month ago. For now. I can't ever see Carlos or I retiring our backpacks. From the moment I first put mine on in 2003 I was hooked. There is nothing else like it. Everything is new and exciting and the people you meet along the way are incredible.

When we returned to Canada I spent a week visiting Carlos' wonderful family. When I met his father for the first time he asked me if we were going to finish the blog. He said that people, like himself, had been following the blog faithfully and living these adventures along with us, and we can't just leave them hanging. So I will do my best to wrap this blog up for you.

Keeping this blog was fun, but extremely difficult and time consuming. I'm afraid we failed miserably with keeping it up to date. (ie. we were posting photos of Cambodia while we were in Spain). I had so much more I wanted to write and share with everyone, but when you are constantly on the go and you don't always have internet access, it can be quite difficult. Fortunately Carlos and I both kept our own journals where we could account for daily travel life. In total we took over 20,000 photos, so what you saw was only a little chunk of our expanded portfolio!

When I got home I kept hearing the same questions. The most popular ones were:

How the heck did you afford this?
Where was your favorite place?
Are you glad to be home?

So I guess for my final post I will do my best to answer these questions for you:

Q: How the heck did you afford this?

A: We worked. And we saved money. We decided on a reasonable daily budget and recorded everything we spent so that we could make sure we were on track. If you want to travel, I would suggest setting up a separate account and set a goal. It's easy. You have a choice what to spend your money on, so if traveling is important to you, spend it on traveling. It's that simple. Give up your daily Starbucks, restrict your clothes shopping, don't go out to eat as much, or whatever! Secondly, we spent 3 months in Asia, and Asia is CHEAP. Let me give you an example. The cheapest place we stayed was in Ubud, Bali. We got a cute little place that included breakfast for $3 for the two of us. Bargain for everything. We bought most of our plane tickets in advance, so that also saved us money. Europe, well that was another story. What I would suggest for Europe is 1) go to the supermarket and make your own food, and 2) check out www.couchsurfing.com which is a website that helps you find people in the area who have a spare room or couch available for you to stay for free. It's basically backpackers helping out other backpackers, a chance to meet others from around the world, a cultural exchange if you will. The site is safe, and people are rated and reviewed. We only tried it once in Bordeaux, France and the people we met were nice, and we had a great time.

Near the end of our trip I said to Carlos "remember we wanted to win the lottery so we could afford to go on this trip?" He replied "I think going on this trip IS like winning the lottery." Smart man. Before we went on the trip when I was really nervous about going, I sat beside a psychiatrist on a plane and thought "sweet! free session!" I told him about my plans and basically asked him if he thought I should go. He said to me "Absolutely. Life is all about experience." And he was so right. I would not trade what we experienced on this trip for anything in the world.

Q: Where was your favorite place?
A: I HATE this question. This question makes me want to describe every place we went because every place was so different, they really can't be compared. However, we did know we'd be asked this a million times when we got home so we worked out some explanations. Carlos' favorite country was Spain. He says it's a beautiful country, we had a lot of fun on our road trip and Carlos enjoyed practicing his Spanish. (Personally, I think he enjoyed the tapas!). My favorite Country was Cambodia. Learning so much of their horrible recent past, but seeing how these people who have nothing can still be so happy and so friendly was really eye opening to me.

Carlos and I would also like to give honorable mention to the following:
Boracay, Philippines: most beautiful beach EVER
El Nido, Philippines: Best untouched place! Recommend checking it out before too many people find out about it
Singapore: Nicest Asian city
Phenom Penh: best chaotic, dirty city (but that's why you love it)
Bali, Indonesia: Best place to rip around on a Moto
Sapa, Vietnam: Best place for a hike (or to be followed around by locals for days yelling "you buy from meeeeeeeeee?")

Q: Are you glad to be home?
A: Yes I was glad to go home. Surprised? So was I. For about the last 3 weeks or so of the trip I was ready to go home. For me, I think we tried to pack too much into the Eurotrip in so little time. We were constantly on the go and I craved the consistency of home. I missed my family and my friends (and Miffy). In the Philippines, at the beginning of our trip, we met a guy from Israel who said he was ready to go home. When we asked him why, he told us it was because sometimes when you travel for a long time you start to take the amazing things for granted. And this is exactly how I was starting to feel.

Now that I'm home however, it's a different story. I'd love to still be out there exploring new places. I would love to be so carefree! Currently, Carlos is up in the Yukon working at a wilderness lodge for the summer, and me, well I'm back in "Ditchmond."

One thing I've really learned over the last couple of years is not to be afraid of where life takes you because everything happens for a reason. Trust your gut. Every direction in life opens up new possibilities. While I was still living in Melbourne I applied for a two year full time photography program in Vancouver. I got accepted and was ecstatic! The whole summer I looked forward to going into this program & I told everyone. But after only three days there I knew it was just not for me. I dropped out and was devistated. I felt like I had failed before I even tried. Because I still wanted to pursue photography I decided to sign up for a part time course at Focal Point. This is where I met Carlos. After the second class a bunch of us went next door for coffee. Carlos and I joked around about how we should quit our jobs and travel around the world taking photos. A year later we did. Everything happens for a reason.

A few days ago a couple of young girls told me I was their inspiration to go traveling. That felt so good! The first person who inspired me to travel was my Uncle's close friend Bride. I remember my Mom telling me not to turn out like her because all her money went to these fabulous trips she went on every year. She never owned a house or a car. A few years ago Bride found out she had cancer and passed away shortly thereafter. I told my Mom that I bet Bride had no regrets about spending her life's earnings on experiencing what the world had to offer instead of on material possessions. My Mom agreed.

So thank you to all who followed us on our journey throughout SE Asia, Europe and Africa (haha 1 day)! We appreciated all your support & comments!

'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.' -- Mark Twain