Around the World in 53 Days

my taking too much vacation time…

Anyway, this ‘around-the-world’ trip was something I was definitely not going to change, job offer or not, and it was incredible!  With such a heavily-Western European trip in 1999, it was now time to hit the wonders of Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Starting off across the Pacific, I landed in Singapore where I spent a few fun days before heading to see the world’s tallest buildings (at the time) in Kuala Lumpur.  Continuing on through Malaysia to Thailand, I spent 3 days eating the best pad thai on earth from Bangkok’s street vendors before catching a flight over the Bay of Bengal to Delhi.  10 days in India were enough, as it can feel quite overwhelming traveling through it for the first time, alone – but it was beautiful… with crazy Delhi, Agra’s Taj Mahal, the joy and color of Holi in Jaipur, and Mumbai’s stately architecture topping the list of highlights.

A three-hour flight over the Arabian Sea took me to Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman, my first stop in the Middle East.  After a long bus ride, I was in Dubai, already dazzling with development in 2001.  From Dubai to Abu Dhabi, to Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait – the Gulf states were all beautiful, rich with oil, and full of new shimmering glass towers.  Crossing the peninsula west to the Mediterranean, I explored Beirut and Lebanon, before taking a break for a week with family in Jordan and Syria, and then continued on to the threshold of Europe, Istanbul.

My final ten days found me in the five beautiful European capital cities of Zagreb, Ljubljana, Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest, each with its own character and distinctive architecture.   My final flight from Frankfurt, Germany across the Atlantic to San Francisco closed the loop, finishing off my first, and certainly not last, journey around the world!