Day 1 - the Big Apple (NYC)

Setting out one more time for an international trip around the world, with major differences from my last trip:

1) This trip will last 3.5 weeks, as opposed to 7.5 months

2) A majority of this trip is for business.

3) I have a bigger budget this time, and a per-diem stipend!

4) All flights and locations of travel have been predetermined and pre-booked.

5) I will have to lug around a large roller suitcase, instead of my beloved backpacker sack.

6) This is more of a vacation than an adventure.

I was lucky enough to find a job quickly after I settled back in Southern California, and even luckier to find a position with a global company with offices in Brazil, India, and China. After eight months of working, I was given the opportunity to travel to our India and China offices for a couple weeks to meet the team and provide operational solutions to some of the inefficiencies we face as a small company.

Since I would already be in the area, I decided to take an extra week off to visit SE Asia once more, and also see the Taj Mahal in India, one thing I missed last year. I should knock on wood... Trains have been booked to and from Agra, and it's on the itinerary, but travel in India can be sporadically inefficient and unreliable, so who knows? I booked a flight on Kingfisher Airlines, but the bankrupt company kept revising my departure time that I finally had to rebook a flight at the last minute. Employee unrest has prevented the company from operating effectively...

The first leg of my trip was a quick stop in New York to visit my friends in Brooklyn. I hadn't been back since New Years, and I still have dreams of living in this city one day. Plus, a flight from Los Angeles to India would be too much for me to handle, from one side of the world to the other. The flight from NY to Delhi alone is already 13 hours! LA to Delhi would be 18+ (including a guaranteed layover somewhere).

I packed last minute, reusing some of the travel supplies that I brought along with me last time. Just looking at some of these items that were tucked away in my backpack behind all my other crap in my closet brought back wonderful memories of my last trip.  There were still a couple things I had to purchase though, including another travel adapter, new backpack (my durable North Face backpack finally ripped at the zipper), and some toiletries.

Took a Thursday Red-eye straight from work to the Airport and arrived in NYC at 5:30am next morning. It took about 45 minutes to go through security at old, reliable, LAX, and everyone had to go through those full-body scans, something new to me. I thought it was a "random" lottery, but I guess TSA is getting a little more voyeuristic these days.

I met up with my good friends Eric and David and just reconnected for the next 24 hours. Surprisingly, I stayed out and about until the AM, something I didn't think my 26 year old body could do these days. We dined, walked around Williamsburg, shopped in Soho, dined, shopped some more, dined, and had a couple cocktails by the end of the night. As long as I'm staying active throughout this trip, I'll be happy!

JFK Airport - New York

Union Station - Los Angeles

My good buddies - David and Eric

Back to Reality...

The whirlwind tour of the world has officially come to an end. I arrived back in Los Angeles last Wednesday, happy to be back, and feeling accomplished in all that I experienced throughout the past 7.5 months. It felt amazing to walk through the airport at LAX, anticipating the reunion with my parents...to think, it was months ago that I was in the same airport on my way to Vietnam for the first leg of my trip. The first things I enjoyed on my first day home were seeing my parents, grabbing an IN-N-OUT burger, finally having clean laundry, and listening to music in decent speakers in my room.

I had a wonderful homecoming in New York before Christmas, where I spent a little over 2 weeks at my friends' apartment in Brooklyn. I think I was just happy to be in a comfortable and familiar environment, that I really didn't take the time to sight see. We went to Soho almost every other day to have a meal or go window shopping during the Christmas and New Year season. I decided to cook a Christmas dinner for the boys in Brooklyn. One of the dishes was a "Hungarian Mushroom Soup" that I found a recipe for online. It required 2 cups of chicken broth, but I ended up added 2 cups of chicken boullion...which ended up destroying the soup, making it inedible, unless you wanted to develop kidney stones while drinking the salty "soup." Cooking just isn't really my thing...

New Years was spent with my friend EJ at Times Square. We didn't want to camp out in the wee hours of New Years Eve to get a good spot, so we took the subway to the side streets a couple blocks west of the ball. There was no way to get closer since all the streets were cordoned off, and we couldn't walk further away from the ball because once we left a zone, we would not be able to reenter. We spent the 2 hours walking around the block numerous times to keep warm. Luckily, the weather in the city wasn't too cold, despite it being Winter. In the end, we were able to see the ball for about a minute, but once the countdown started and the ball dropped, it was blocked by the buildings around it. It was anticlimactic, but still something I could cross off my bucket list.

After New York, was a one week trip to San Francisco to see some of my other friends before heading back home. It was the last stop on my tour, and immediately entering the city, I already felt like a stranger, even though I'd been to the city numerous times in the past. All that changed once I saw everyone at random points throughout my stay. San Francisco and New York, two beautiful cities I wouldn't mind spending a couple years working and living in...

Day 212 – Back to the USA

I'm finally back in the US today, taking a flight from Madrid to New York City with a layover in Dublin. It feels good to be back somewhere familiar, and just in time to spend Christmas and New Years Eve with some good friends. It's been about 7 months, and I'm a little sad about having this adventure come to an end, but at the same time it's really exciting to be back home. The time had to come sooner or later.

The flights to Ireland and the USA were painless, as were the airport security procedures. It's funny how horrible it is to get out of LAX on any flight somewhere, but other airports can really get their act together and make the experience tolerable. There weren't any long lines and check-in was quick. My flights were with Aer Lingus, and none of the flights were filled to capacity even though it was nearing Christmas. It was rainy in Dublin when I arrived, but the weather wasn't violent or anything that would make for a scary flight.

Seeing the bright lights of New York out the airplane window made me feel really relaxed, and even though I've only visited the city 3 times, I felt at home. It's one of my favorite cities and I even think sometimes of possibly moving here if I find a career here. Maybe these two weeks will be a period for me to get a feel of living here, a trial period. I don't really have too many plans to do touristic things, but just relax after 7 months of non-stop travel. We'll see what happens...