Category Archives: Travel

My one month road trip extravaganza has come to a close.

I logged about 5,000 miles in the car — with a handful of airplane flights thrown in for good measure. I gave about a dozen speeches (audio clips will be posted later). I met a few dozen friends / blog readers. Listened to a couple audiobooks (Pleasure of My Company by Steven Martin and The Road by Cormac McCarthy). Visited Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin, and others for the first time.

This country is so big and diverse. Particularly for those of us who hug the interstates, it’s often hard to fully appreciate all the nooks and crannies. But I did my best. And while there still is much exploration to be done — in the South, especially — I feel good about all that I saw. Side of the road diners, big local universities, run down antique shops.

Road trips are just a lot of fun.

It’s good to be back in San Francisco, though, after four months away. I’m rooted here. It was good to hear all the Chinese being spoken on the subway to the Giants game last night. It was good to see the psycho homeless people wandering down Haight street. It was good to see the SF Bay water sparkle from atop the many hills. Most important, it was good to cheer on the Golden State Warriors at Pac Bell Park last night — thugged out G’s from the hood standing next to tech industry geeks, all united in a single, noble cause.

So long, America’s highways. You were good to me.

I spent last weekend in New Orleans where I participated in an amazing few days of intense (and off-the-record) conversations with thinkers from around the world. Humbling, to say the least.

It was all positive except for a FEMA-led tour of the re-construction effort. We drove and walked through some of the affected areas. Acres of abandoned, shrub-filled land. Loads of wreckage and empty houses. Most upright houses still have markings like the photo here, the numbers referring to the dead bodies found inside. Yellow water lines still mark the sides of houses.

My big question during the tour was, "Where is the re-construction effort?" Where are the people? Trucks? Hammers? Shovels? Where has all the money gone? I expected to hear and see stuff. Instead entire neighborhoods have simply been abandoned.

During the tour someone asked, "Will FEMA have its act together next time around?" Answer: Not really. Louisiana’s emergency preparedness plans are still in disarray. If another big hurricane were to hit New Orleans, we could bet that chaos would ensue.

It’s hard to point fingers. After all, there are a gazillion agencies and people involved — FEMA, local officials, state officials, insurers, volunteer groups, churches, civic activists, professors. True leadership seems lacking.

I don’t know much about the situation in New Orleans. But from my weekend visit I’m not optimistic. If you want to go to the French Quarter and be a tourist, life’s good. If you venture outside a few core areas, New Orleans doesn’t look much different from the photos you saw a year or two ago. And that’s really scary.

Greetings from Monticello, Utah, where I am spending the night after logging 500 miles on Day 1 of my USA Road Trip.

The "road trip" is deeply ingrained in the American psyche and my first day fit all the stereotypes: beautiful open highway surrounded (in Utah at least) by red, majestic canyons; trucks dominating the roads; side-of-the-road burger joints; and "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey blasting from the speakers.

Without even knowing it, on day one I seemed to have ticked off a number of essential road trip experiences: piss on the side of a lonely highway, accidentally look a trucker in the eye in a local diner and fear for my life — those haunted, tired eyes somehow spit fear, and miss a turnoff and therefore wait 20 miles until the next exit.

Throughout my trip I reserve the right, as always, to make broadsweeping generalizations about entire pockets of America based on small details such as the local cafe’s menu.

I’ll be on the road — or on a plane — for the next 45 days before returning to San Francisco in May.

See you on the highway!

During April I will be in the following cities (and surrounding areas). Send me an email if you want to meet up, have city advice, or if you have an extra bed and can host me. 🙂

Tucson, AZ
El Paso, TX
Austin, TX
Dallas, TX
Raleigh, N.C.
Philadelphia, PA
Boston, MA
Cincinnati, OH
Chicago, IL
Milwaukee, WI
Yellowstone, MO

Every time I finish something I always try to reflect on it — to take time to think (and write) about how it went, what the highs and lows were, what I learned, etc.

Since I returned from Asia I’ve been so consumed with my book project that I haven’t actually spent the time to reflect on all my international travel. My six weeks in Asia concluded the "international travel" segment of my gap year. In June I spent seven weeks in Europe.

Two years ago, I had never been out of America. Now, I’ve been to nearly 20 countries! Mostly solo. I have seen some of the most famous paintings in the history of art in Italy. I’ve eaten dumplings in Shanghai. I’ve wandered the back roads of Dublin and Delhi. I’ve taken a hot bath in Japan. I have walked the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, and ridden the tube in London. I have climbed the Great Wall of China and inspected the Forbidden City. I’ve seen a bullfight in Madrid, a baseball game in Tokyo, and a Bollywood film in Bombay. I’ve drunken beer in Munich, lounged in a cafe in Paris, and thrown a coin into the Trevi Fountain of Rome.

More important, though, I’ve met dozens of people in all these countries. I’ve stayed at the homes of friends and blog readers. From Dublin to Delhi, London to Lisbon, the generosity spanned the globe. From CEOs to students, sports agents to stay-at-home-moms, engineers to musicians.

To say I’ve been lucky to travel as much as I had would be an understatement. But it ain’t over. I have so many wonderful memories and I can’t wait to explore even more of the world.

Favorite Countries: Japan, Ireland, Switzerland, Hong Kong

Craziest Story: Probably the Delhi Train Station or the guy I met on a Lisbon train. Still, I had enormous good fortune. I didn’t get mugged, I didn’t sleep on a street for a night, etc.

Moments / Situations I’ll Never Forget:

• Baseball game in Tokyo with my Mom
• Being picked up by a blog reader at Dublin airport, the first overseas stop
• Re-uniting with my Swiss friends in Zurich
• Meeting my friend Austin at Barcelona youth hostel
• Seeing Michelangelo’s "David" in Florence
• Taking a cooking class in Florence
• Japanese hot bath in Hakone
• Almost dying on Hiroshima – Dalian flight because of malaria medicine
• Hunting for water in Spain
• The pollution of Beijing
• "Hello BEN!" a blog reader in Shanghai screamed after I rang his doorbell
• Riding in back of auto-rickshaw in Mumbai
• Arriving in Hong Kong from Delhi – and going straight to the Western style toilet
• Listening to "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw on my iPod outside the Eiffel Tower in Paris
• Watching politically charged Brits go at it in debate in London
• Wandering through a Tokyo park in the pouring rain
• Reading the Financial Times on Massimo’s deck in Northern Italy, and then eating home cooked pasta and bread. Mmm….

What I Learned: Hard to boil down. In general, all the cliches about travel turned out to be true for me: it was mind-expanding, perspective-broadening, culturally interesting, uncomfortable at times, etc. After traveling I’m simply more interested in the current affairs of all these countries. When I see an article datelined from Beijing, I can visualize the city in my head. Knowing a little bit about all these places makes "going deep" easier. Plus, from a business perspective, there are opportunities abound in this globalized world.

If you’d like to read all about my travels you can visit my Gap Year Travel Blog archives. The next big chunk of travel I’ll be doing is a USA Road Trip April ’07, which, as a San Franciscan whose never seen many states in his own country, will probably be equally broadening. In fact, I wonder whether visiting certain states in the midwest or south will be more of a culture shock than, say, Zurich?

We’ll see. In the meantime, if you’re thinking about traveling, do it! We regret the things we didn’t do more than the things we did do, said Mark Twain.