Unintentional Photos

Okay, looking back, most of these photos were actually quite intentional but I just had to post them and I'm sensing some kind of them, I just can't figure out what it is....hmmmm...

The end of my trip...

London, UK:

I'm in the last few days of my traveling journey, I have had a very hard time getting into writing about the close of my journey. Perhaps it's because I have writer's block or it's due to the fact that I don't want this all to end but in either case, I have really been struggling with what to write about.

It's been almost three weeks since I last wrote about my travels, mainly about my amazing trip into Cambodia and the hate for Pattaya, Thailand and since then, I have traveled through Taiwan, a weekend trip to Los Angeles, London, Netherlands and back to London. I'm tired and really miss the stability of a home life, my bed and as materialistic as this may sound, my belongings (the things that make me feel like I'm at home instead of living in hotels). I have to say after traveling for three months throughout twelve different countries and living out of a backpack, it really does become tiring and I never thought that I would say this, but I even miss working! Gasp! But I am really looking forward to starting a new job (somewhere in the Bay Area in entertainment advertising/production so if anyone has any leads, please send them this way!) and building a home life. I will be leaving the LA area at the beginning of September to start this new chapter.

Anyway, through the twelve weeks of traveling, twelve countries, countless bug bites, mold infested hotel rooms, bugs coming out of the shower drain, gigantic spiders in my bed, food poisoning, family reunions, children hospitals, monsoons, lightning storms on top of the world's tallest building (Taiwan 101), learning to dive in the worst city ever (Pattaya, Thailand), learning the historical value in every country, there is one thing that I have learned about myself during this time: after traveling through some countries by myself without knowing any of the language, I now have faith in life (and myself) that I can get through anything that life sends in my direction. I have always been an independent woman but never really understood what that meant until dealing with the barrage of inquisitions about traveling alone. You would be surprised at how many people think that it's a ridiculous/crazy/unsafe thing for a woman to do. There is a close mindedness about women travellers (more in Southeast Asia than Europe) that really surprised me (although there are some Americans as well that didn't think too lightly about my journey either). There is a satisfaction that I feel about knowing that this was something that I set my mind to do and I accomplished it and have so many memories to cherish as well as over two thousand photos to now organize!

There are also countries that I would love to visit again (Cambodia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Netherlands) and others that I could care less about (London, Belgium, Greece, Thailand). Of course, if anyone ever wants to know about things to do at some of the countries I visited, let me know and I'll do what I can to give some words o' Kim wisdom.

I'm sure that I could have written every week to really share everything with everyone but even to me, that's overkill...instead, I shared some of my thoughts and feelings when I felt the mood was right and I hope that you at least enjoyed the sporatic thoughts of Kim. Do know that I really did enjoy writing again since it's been so many years since I've really written and I have forgotten how much I love it but at least there is the MySpace blogging.

So perhaps until the next world trip (I already have planned that Africa will be the next country).