In late 2019, I embarked on a four month journey around the world.
I returned to the United States in late January just as the pandemic was taking hold. This is a chronicle of that trip. It is a collection of thirty photo essays. Except for the last two, they were all compiled, written, and edited on the road, and reflect my immediate impressions of my experience as I was living it.
My journey began in San Francisco.
In Vietnam, I experienced a country in transition. Along with the prosperity that comes with a growing economy, Vietnam and its people are facing challenges related to economic and environmental justice that are familiar to people in the United States (because we have faced them before) and other countries around the world.
America’s legacy in Vietnam is not confined to Vietnam. The American War, as it is known in southeast Asia, also had lasting impacts in Cambodia and Laos.
Thailand was one of the few countries I visited that did not feel as if it were in the throes of social upheaval, but a year later, young people were taking to the streets, risking arrest, and insisting on reform.
Settling into the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu was a challenge, but by the time I left the country, I was in love with its beauty and its people.
In India, I visited eight different cities in four distinct regions. From a cultural perspective, it was the most challenging country I visited, and by the time I left, I was ready for a return to something closer to the norms of my daily life. But I would encourage anyone to visit and there is no doubt any challenge I faced was worth the effort.
The experience will stay with me forever.
I did not plan the trip this way on paper, but my decision to use Spain as a respite between Asia and South America, turned out to be just what I needed to press on. It gave me a place to recover from the trials of India and prepared me for immersion into the Spanish cultures of Peru, Chile and Argentina.
Peru, Chile and Argentina.
Upon my return home, in January of 2020, I wrote the following two essays to try to capture the major political issues I took note of during my trip, to assemble some of the more memorable moments I experienced in locations familiar to most tourists, and to sum up the lessons I learned along the way.
