So, you're back! How was it? An FAQ

Winter hiking in the Columbia River Gorge

It’s been almost six months since I returned to Portland. I have finished the trip of a lifetime and coming home was not easy. Since then, I have spent time trying to figure out what comes next while also reconnecting with friends and family. Usually when I have gotten together with friends for the first time since returning home, we talk about my trip. Below are some of the most common questions I’ve gotten and how I’ve answered them, or at least how I answer them now...

What is it like being back?

Coming down from my adventure and re-entering sedentary life was the most difficult part of my trip. I arrived in Portland by myself unsure of what the future would look like and with no clear direction other than that I wanted to try to find a job, reconnect with friends, and make sure that Portland still felt like home. I flirted with the idea of moving to Seattle. After about a week of sleeping a lot and taking short walks around my new neighborhood (the house I own is being rented until late spring) I started to feel more comfortable. I expected the adjustment back to regular life would be difficult, more so since I didn’t have a job but did have too much time to ponder life’s big questions, but I was also ready to return to regular life.

I do think that spending the last six weeks of my trip on a road trip around the US made re-entry easier for me. In the car I had time to re-familiarize myself with my country, spend time with people juggling everyday priorities, and get overwhelmed each time I walked into a grocery store. As a result, by the time I got back to Portland I mostly dealt with the shock of being back in the United States. On the flipside, this made the fact that I had not real plan for my life more apparent.

So, where all did you go?

I set foot in 21 different countries mostly clustered in SE Asia, Central Asia, Western Europe, and North America with stops in Dubai and Istanbul. The four countries where I spent the most time where Kyrgyzstan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the United States. My quickest stops were in Thailand (two nights), United Arab Emirates (one night), Mexico (six hours as a day trip from San Diego), and Malaysia (five hours at the Kuala Lumpur airport).

What was your favorite place?

Looking down on a mountain valley in Kyrgyzstan

This is one of the most common questions I have gotten since being back. It is so common that when a French friend I met in Vietnam came to Portland for a few days I asked her the same question. We both agreed that it is a tough one to answer, because on a trip like mine you go to so many interesting places, each one unique in a way that makes comparison difficult. I will say that there are some pretty incredible places in the United States (though getting there requires spending hours in the car). However, as I look back on my trip, my time in Kyrgyzstan stands out from the other places I went. If you want to read more about what I saw and did there, check out this blog post: https://blyon18.wixsite.com/brettsbattical/blog/kyrgyzstan-is-not-for-everyone-luckily. I think my favorite city of the trip was Istanbul. I think living in either place would be difficult though...

Is there anything you feel like you didn’t get to that you wish you had?

As you would expect from someone who visits 21 countries in seven months I kept pretty bus and as result one of the things I feel like I didn’t fully do was relax. Now that I am home part of me wishes I had spent a few weeks in one place with no agenda. The longest I spent in one place was two weeks, first at the Surf Camp on the Indonesian island of Lombok where, after four hours a day on a surfboard I was sore and exhausted, and then in the city of Osh, Kyrgyzstan where I was managing a hostel and preoccupied with making sure the sheets were clean and the water coming out of the tap.

I have now realized that November is pretty much the worst time of year to begin a job search. With Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the corporate budget cycle, very little hiring happens at the end of the year. I now wish I had taken a few weeks to just sit on a beach somewhere warm at the end of the year rather than trying unsuccessfully to find a job. Oh well.

How did this trip change you?

I like to say that this trip didn’t change me fundamentally but that I am now a little wiser and more sure of myself. One of my goals for the trip was to spend some time listening to what it is I wanted to do. Like so many Americans my age I feel like I have spent most of my life doing what is expected of me. I feel like I have solid sense of the things I enjoy doing and who I am but now that I’ve spent seven months getting to choose what I want to do and not having to negotiate my activities with others, I have an even better sense of this. I also think I have become a bit more selfish which has been another challenge for me to negotiate as I re-enter society.

My trip has opened me up to how much opportunity there is in the world. It’s highly possible that the only reason I able see this opportunity because I’m a white native English speaking man with a master’s degree but everywhere I traveled it seemed like there were ways I could eek out a living if I wanted to settle there. While I am excited to be back home I’m also much more open to the possibility that whatever life brings me then I have the ability to find a way to something that is meaningful and enjoyable, that is as long as life doesn’t bring me a debilitating injury or illness.

What was the most unexpected thing you encountered/learned?

As I wrote about over the summer, I expected to meet a lot of people who would be hostile to me because I am American. In fact I encountered the opposite. I was surprised to learn that in spite of all the crap our government and corporations do around the world there is still a lot of goodwill towards Americans. We can thank Hollywood and the music industry for exporting culture that many people love. I was also surprised to learn that while I enjoyed traveling and had fantastic time generally I missed having a home base and good friends nearby. The three day friendship is not really my jam.

How often did you feel unsafe?

Very rarely. In fact I think the only time I truly felt unsafe was when I was flying from Singapore to India and the plane I was on aborted our landing and took off again just as I expected the wheels to touch down. I would have probably felt better about the situation if the pilot had come on and announced that they had to try again with the landing because of the heavy tail wind we had but they waited five minutes before telling us this and so I naturally thought we had been hijacked by terrorists and were headed straight for the Taj Mahal.

Overall I felt safer abroad than I do in many parts of the United States. A big part of this has to do with the fact that there are not nearly as many guns in the countries I was visiting as there are here. Also, I think life is much more dangerous for locals in some of the places I was than it is for tourists and that I was blissfully unaware of the dangers that locals know about. There is also a certain amount of safety I enjoy as a tall man traveling alone.

How much did this all cost?

I’m a little scared to do a final and thorough accounting of everything but I think that I spent about $25,000 in the seven months I was traveling, which is not too much more than I would have spent at home. Being back in Portland without a job has been much more expensive and if you are thinking about going on a similar trip I suggest you budget some money to get you through your job search (unless you’re able to step back into the job you had before leaving).

What did you notice about the United States?

The first thing I noticed was how much space we have in the United States. Also how much choice we have. This was most evident to me when I walked into the Market of Choice, an organic food emporium in the city where I grew up. Also, Americans seem to be more stressed out than people in other places and also it seems to me that we spend more alone rather than with friends and family members. As a result, I was of the impression that people in many other parts of the world enjoy life more than we do even though we have access to all the things. This has made being home difficult in some ways, but for better or worse, this is my home.

Also, it seems to me that the US is falling behind the rest of the world. There are way more homeless people in Portland than there are in Europe and our cities have more litter and trash on the streets. I saw more high tech doohickies and infrastructure projects in Europe and some of the larger cities in Asia than we have here. This was pretty shocking for me to realize and it makes me sad. With all of the wealth that exists in the United States we should be focusing more money and energy on preparing for the future.

What did you notice about Portland when you returned?

No Portlander's blog is complete unless it has a photo of the city from Washington Park

Portland is very nice. Yes, there is traffic, lots of homeless people, it’s gotten expensive, and the weather in the winter sucks but it’s also very comfortable here. People seem less stressed out than our neighbors to the south, there are lots of good things to eat and drink, many options for entertainment, and easy access to the outdoors. I like it here.

I also realized that the city is rather provincial; a spoke in our globalized world rather than a hub. I first realized this as I walked down the concourse when landing at the Portland Airport and, after admiring the carpet, looked at the list of departure destinations. Flights were leaving for Boise, Billings, Anchorage, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. While this may have been more to do with the fact that I at the airport at the end of the day, I was struck by how each of these in the United States and within one time zone of Portland.

What was the best thing you ate? What was the worst?

Most of the things I had in SE Asia were delicious, from Vietnamese noodles to a BBQ eggplant dip in Laos. I had some delicious pizzas in Southern Italy and way more pretzels than is healthy in Germany. The worst thing I ate was probably an eel soup in Vietnam (I ordered it without knowing what it was) and the fermented mare’s milk in Kyrgyzstan, which coincidentally is the national drink.

Did you meet people that you will stay in touch with?

Yup! There are a few folks I have seen already and some others who I have plans to see this spring and summer.

What are your plans now?

I’m back in Portland and for the past five months trying to find a job. A few weeks ago I accepted an offer at a small consulting firm called Pepper Foster and am now waiting to start. It’s significantly less fun than what I was was doing for most of last year and there are days when I think I should get back on the road. But I am thoroughly looking forward to contributing to society, have a home base, and figuring out what comes next for my life. I’ve realized that Portland is my home. I’m definitely not done traveling but I think I’ve had my adventure of a lifetime and may be done with backflashpacking.