What is brettsbatical

brettsbatical was born by bike. One of the perks of my job is that I enjoy a 4 mile bike commute to work and I find that some of my best ideas come to me there. I had always wanted to travel around Asia and wanted to see more of California's Sierras. I decided to take six months away from work. Starting in March I would spend three months in Asia and three months hiking the Pacific Crest Trail through California and as much of Oregon as I could before the rains came.

Over time my plans evolved. Organizing a through hike in the US from SE Asia seemed fraught with complication and the more I read about Eurasia the more I realized I wanted to extend my stay there. Just before Christmas I bought a ticket to Cambodia for the end of March and another flight home from Frankfurt in mid-August.

My plan for brettsbatical is to spend a few months traveling through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. From there I want to learn to surf in Indonesia and see some of Malaysian Borneo's jungles before they disappear. The next region that calling to me are The Stans, particularly Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan and/or Tajikistan. Then, there are some people in Europe I'd like to see. August and September are prime backpacking months back on the West Coast and I hope to spend some time in the Sierras (as long as there is still water and they don't go up in smoke this summer). If all goes to plan I'll be back in Portland in October looking for a job, but if I've learned one thing from working on IT projects it's that all plans are fluid.

I am keeping this blog as a place for myself to keep track of my travels and also for you to keep up with me. My hope is that this site will be equally useful for those of you who I've known for a long time who want to see what I'm up to as it will be to those who I'm meeting me for the first time and want to make sure I'm the type of person you want to share an uncomfortable bus ride with. Or maybe you just like my slightly off color humor and cell phone photos. Regardless of the reason, this is where I will be documenting the adventures and experiences of my time away from the workforce. Welcome!