It's now been more than five years since I returned from my first great voyage, my around the world trip. It often feels like it was much further than that, mostly because of how much my perspective on traveling has changed.

During that trip, I visited 28 countries. Of those 28, I spent more than a month in six. Of those six, none was an unexpected as Malaysia. I knew, beforehand, that I'd spend time in Spain, Italy, Turkey, and Thailand. Nepal beat out Sri Lanka due to instability in the latter.

But Malaysia was unexpected, in many ways. And five years later, it continues to surprise me.

read complete post