Today is the last day of my long journey. Everything comes to a remarkably quiet end. The sights of Bangkok remain unvisited, I’ve seen enough. Working, chatting, emailing. Going through old stories on the blog. I’m neither sad that my trip is over, nor am I particularly looking forward to going home. I’m somewhere in an empty and quiet centre.
The big realisations have failed to materialise. Friends say I can only recognise them when I get home. The same goes for change. I have become stronger. My bones ache in some places and I’m still chronically tired. But it was all worth it. There are 100,000 beautiful images and moments inside me.
My journey: 60,000 kilometres by plane. 35.000km by car. 11.000km by bus. 3.000km by motorbike. 1.000km by train. And certainly another 1,000km on foot while travelling. The destinations were mostly unimportant, the routes always beautiful. The smaller, the better.
The costs: My ticket cost 2200€. Insurance €500. I bought two cars for 4000€ and lost them. I lost a laptop for €1000. Update 9 June: new passport including additional costs €180, new flight ticket Bangkok Munich €400.
Apart from that, I spent an average of around €2000 per month. All in all, the trip probably cost around €26,500.
The dangers: I got through quite a lot. A budding case of blood poisoning in Fiji. A fall into the coral reef. Torn kite lines in almost 40 knots of wind. 155km/h by car on 90-Mile-Beach. Sandboarding. Climbing two volcanoes in New Zealand. Hellish parties. Lost without a car in the smallest, most miserable town in Australia. Diving with sharks with a lack of air. An infusion in Thailand.
The good and the bad and enough of everything:
USA Canada Changing money in New York, La Boème in the park, Buying a car in the USA, Niagara Falls, Road trip Northwest USA, Nebraska and the end of the world, Rocky Mountains, Running on empty, Yellowstone, Ghost Town & Glacier National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Redwood Forest, San Francsico, Death Valley & Las Vegas, Arches National Park
Hawaii Springbreak Central, Kitesurfing in Hawaii
Fiji Jungle Trip 1 and Jungle Trip 2, Father Christmas, Rafting, Falling into the Reef, Kitesurfing in Fiji, Mega Downwinder, Kitesurfing on Mana, Diving with Sharks, Sodom and Gonorrhoea in Paradise
New Zealand A night in Auckland, hanging out, Tongariro Crossing, rafting in Rotorua, Cape Reinga, 90 Mile Beach, Waitomo Caves & a wild party, Mount Taranaki, Wellington, Abel Tasman Coastal Track, helirafting, Fox Glacier, kitesurfing on the Southern Lakes, kitesurfing in Milford Sound, Catlins, a goodnight story in Christchurch
Australia Blue Mountains, engine failure, part 2, total loss, Nomads laying battery, 12 Apostles & Grampians, Kings Canyon, Ayers Rock, Jervis Bay, Kings Cross
Thailand 700km through the Golden Triangle, Rafting & Elephants in Northern Thailand, Ko Phi Phi, Ko Lanta, Ko Rok, Laptop Funeral, The Fuckers of Pattaya
Vietnam Motorbike Tour to Da Lat – Part 2 – Part 3, Kitesurfing Vietnam – Part 2, War Zone, Bach Ma
Cambodia Phnom Penh, Child prostitution
As of today, all reports have been completely edited for spelling. So that you have nothing more to complain about, Seb :-)
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.