The End.

Our last week or so in Asia consisted of a couple days of relaxing in Kathmandu, followed by a few more days of relaxing on the beach on Ko Samet island off the eastern Gulf coast of Thailand.  The island time was a much welcomed refresher from the grand total of 38 days of trekking in the Himalaya.  It also gave us a little time to unwind prior to our reintegration into the west.  The year we will always remember had to finally come to an end.

We followed up Ko Samet with the 24 hour flight marathon from Bangkok to Tokyo to Dallas and then finally touching down in Austin just in time for the Thanksgiving Holiday with my family, as it has been for as long as I can remember.

Our reintegration to the USA went as follows:

-          Two weeks at Big Ash Ranch in Llano, Texas and with the other side of my family in San Antonio.  Lots of Mexican Food and Margaritas (the only version of food I actually missed every once in a while in Asia).

       A flight to Colorado for another week with my brothers, Eric and Brad, and Mom at their homes there.  More Mexican Food and Margaritas were consumed.

-         Got a call from my previous employer, Skanska USA Building, asking me to come back to work in mid-December (earlier than I was expecting) because they picked up a construction project  for Boeing that needed help immediately.

-          So we made the long two-day road trip from Denver (where we had left one of our vehicles) to Seattle,  with only a weekend to spare to move our stuff into our house and start work Monday morning, December 12.  Elise went back to work for Seattle Genetics on Wednesday, December 14 to pick up where she left off wearing a white lab coat and mixing things in test tubes to cure cancer or whatever she does there. 

-        We were also able to spend some time in Indiana with Elise’s family between Christmas and New Years.

For our final blog, we decided it would be appropriate to put together some “Best of” type lists to recap the last year.   So here you go:

The Annals Awards:

1)     Favorite Countries:

·         Indonesia and Nepal tie for first.

·         Burma and Sri Lanka tie second (or technically third).

2)      Best food:

·         Thailand wins first place.  Most variety, best street food, everyone is a chef so it must be engrained in the culture.   

·         India runs a close 2^nd. 

3)      Worst food:

·         Burma. The tea-leaf and avocado salads were spectacular and the only saving grace.

4)      Best currency name:

·         The Dong (Vietnam)

5)      Best beaches, overall:

·         Thailand (Though if Burma would open travel up to the Andaman sea coast, we think it might win this one)

6)      Best beach:

·         Ngwe Saung Beach, Burma

7)      Best temple complexes:

·         Angkor (Cambodia)

·         Bagan (Burma)

8)      Best temples:

·         Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Burma

·         Kama Sutra Temples, Khajuraho, India

9)      Best overall scenery:

·         Nepal

10)   Best overall scenery that does not involve the Himalaya range:

·         1^st - Indonesia

·         Runner Up:  Vietnam

11)   Friendliest people:

·         Indonesia, Burma, and Nepal are all running neck and neck.

12)   Most beautiful people:

·         Nepal.  There is something about the melting pot of cultures sandwiched between India and China.  Modelling agencies should take note.

13)   Place where people are the most pain-in-the-rear (i.e. make you feel like a walking ATM):

·         India gets first place by far.

·         Vietnam comes in second.

14)   Best Beer

·         Myanmar Beer (Burma)

·         Beer Laos (Laos)

·         Chang (Thailand).  Ok this one is not that good, but comes with some good memories.

15)   Best Wine

·         None.  Vietnam had Dalat wine that was drinkable and dirt cheap, but other than that everywhere we went fails in this category.

16)   Best Scuba Diving

·         Komodo National Park, Labaunbajo, Indonesia.

·         Pulau Weh, Sumatra, Indonesia.

17)   Most livable big cities:

·         Bangkok, Thailand

·         Saigon, Vietnam

18)   Favorite Place (if we had to pick just one):

·         Lake Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia

19)   Favorite Experience (if we had to pick just one):

·         Bukit Luwang, Sumatra, Indonesia Jungle Trekking with the Orangutans

20)   Best Guest House Experiences

·         Sulfi’s unbelievable cooking for family-style dinners with great company on the beach in Aurugam Bay, Sri Lanka at the Another World Guesthouse.

·         Mr. and Mrs. Attapatu and their amazing breakfasts at the Peace Haven Guesthouse (really just a spare room in their house) in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

·         Chocolate Cake at the Chhomrong Cottage in Nepal with a room overlooking the Himalaya.

·         Mas Guesthouse and Cottages on Lake Toba, Sumatra with crazy Bob-Marley-like Roman and his guitar.

21)   There are many things we will miss about traveling over in Asia, but there are a few things we are excited about having now that we are back.

·         Good wine and beer

·         Consistent hot showers with decent water pressure.  These are glorious.

Needless to say we had to dive in head first back into the “real” world.  It was a lot like the initial shock of diving into cold water, but after a little time we seem to be getting used to it.   It has been a whirlwind of a several months already and busy putting our lives back in order here in Seattle.  Also it was great spending a little more time than normal with our families. 

Was it worth it?  Absolutely.  It was a fascinating and fun ride and well worth every minute and dime spent.  We are both very blessed to have been able to have the opportunity to take an entire year off of work, travel some of the most beautiful parts of the world, and return to find jobs waiting for us.  We have learned a lot about the world, about each other, and have a renewed appreciation for the opportunities we have been afforded throughout our life and will be afforded in our future.

What did it all mean?  We won’t bore you with details or some big philosophical discussion or anything.  To be honest there is probably not an answer to that one.  One interesting note is that we both have been asked to explain in writing why we were away and not employed for a year on re-employment paperwork and stuff like that.  Our answer:  “For personal development and life experience.”   Sounds as good as anything, doesn’t it?

On to the next great life experience…

The End.