The end of the journey
Here I am, last day in Turkey – ready to wrap up our long-term travel journey. In over a year, we’ve travelled to 20 countries and 54 cities, countless hours on the bus, train, boats, scooters and flights.
When we were planning for our trip 2 years ago, Turkey was supposed to the the first destination, followed by Eastern Europe and SEAsia. That didn’t happen, we went to Bali first and a series of fateful events started to unfold, like everything was written in the stars. Looking back, I’ve had the best time of my life.
We climbed the tallest mountain in Bali. We hiked in the Tatras in Poland where the border meets Slovakia and drank the glacier water at the mountain top in Slovakia. We paddled along the channels in the Giethoorn, Netherland. We swam in the ocean of Koh Rong and the river of Kampot. We hiked to 7 different waterfalls in Laos hidden away in the jungle.
We chased the sunrise in Cameron Highland of Malaysia and chased the sunset in Prague. A chicken night bus dropped us off in the middle of nowhere in northern Cambodia at 4am one day in October 2022. At 4am some day one year later, we showed up at the airport in Rome to fly to Amsterdam. Totally exhausted in both occasion but the travelling spirit was all time high.
We spent 2 full days visited the Angkor Wat in Cambodia. We met the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. We prayed at temples across Asia and meditated in churches around Europe. We chanted and danced at countless ceremonies in Bali where pure cacao was served. We sang kirtan in India and yoga becomes part of our religions ever since. We prayed in the holy water at Titur Temple in Bali, everything we asked for have come true, and we’re still counting our blessing.
We crashed a wedding in Bali and were invited to a funeral in Dondet. Who invited stranger foreigners to these kinds of events? But they did and they made us feel welcomed. We stayed with an 88-year-old grandma in Zakopane Poland, she didn’t speak one word of English but we communicated just fine. We also stayed with Captain Hook at a tribal village in Laos, we cooked dinner with them and ate with their whole extended family in their humble bamboo house. How tender is the human’s heart?
We slept overnight at a jjimjilbang in Seoul. We were not the. first ones to show up at the medival Thermal bath house in Budapest and we were definitely the last ones to leave at the Thermal bath in Bucharest. We screamed our lungs out at Disneyland Paris. But also we laughed so hard as we went down the longest water slide in the world in Penang. Either way, we promise ourselves not to go to another theme park anytime soon or to participate in another roller coaster ride.
We learned about the tragic world history caused by the Nazi in Auschwitz and by the Khmer Rouge in PhnomPenh. We were left speechless at the cruelty of power and greed. Many hours we spent talking about the state of the world today, what’s happening with Ukraine and Russia, with Israel and Palestines. Where is the world heading to?
We visited so many castles in the Transylvania, the labyrinth in Budapest, but in my heart, the coolest place on Earth is the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul. We travelled back in time at the Gyeongbokgung palace in Seoul, the Lourve in Paris, the Vatican in Italy, and the villages of Brugge. History is written on the cobblestones on the street of Europe.
We said that Taipei is our favourite city to live at until we visited Aachen in Germany. We said that Prague is our favorite place to travel to until we get to Istanbul. Ask us about our craziest travel experience, and it’s gotta be the day we spent in Sapa with our new friends, eating freshly caught salmon in the bamboo forest until almost midnight.
I will forever remember the joy I felt that night at the bar in Penang where the singer sang my favorite song without me requesting it. And at another bar, also in Penang, I sang along to all the Chinese songs they played live that I’ve learned by heart. When in Seoul, our friend took us to a bar in Hongdae, the musical district where talents are discovered and souls soaring. high on the sound of guitar, bass, keyboard and drums. We kept saying that we want to see a Jazz performance and it finally happened in Istanbul, there was no saxophone but traditional Turkish instruments were at play.
We cooked ramyeon at the Han river late at night and ate them under the stars with banana milk. We ate freshly caught crabs that were cooked in front of our eyes in Kep. We had the best street food in Seoul’s market and haggled for wild honey at the central market in Budapest. We had waffles in Belgium, chocolate in Switzerland, sausages in Germany, foi gras in France, tiramisu in Italy, pierogies in Poland and still decided that Vietnamese food is the best, please just give me that $2 bowl of pho and I’ll be happy forever. The best meals were cooked by my mother in Aachen, comes second is our Polish grandma’s 5-course meals in Zakopane, comes third is Captain Hook’s family dinner on Bolaven Plateau loop.
Get Alex Owlie’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
We stayed at a resort in Pisa next to the Mediterranean Sea, and we also stayed at a $6/night home in Dharamsala where the power went out everytime it rains. Most of the time we rolled around from one hostel to the next. We tried so hard not to be scammed in New Delhi and part of me is still healing from that experience. As we rode the gondola in Venice, we wish that the water rising won’t be happening so our grandchildren can one day visit the place.
We ran our ass off to catch the train in Paris just like in an action movie, but not a single train was on time for us in Germany. We felt asleep at an opera in Frankfurt but we felt most alive learning Scottish dance in Budapest. In Istanbul, we participated a Sufi prayer and watched the Whirling Dervish dance while reciting in our head Rumi’s poems. We celebrated the Celtic Halloween in Budapest, and a beautiful firework explodes in front of our eyes for no reason in Prague.
Someone kind bought us our first meal in Prague, someone else paid for our last coffee in Krakow. We never paid for anyone’s meal but we when we see someone poor and kind on the street, we buy the little stuff they sell even though we don’t need them. We gave more money to beggars in New Delhi more than anywhere else in the world and wish their lives one day will bloom.
We drank more mead and mulled wine in Eastern Europe more than the all alcohol we’ve consumed our entire life.
We had a one-meal policy in Prague to save money on food, and we splurged at the most popular (and expensive) restaurant in Bucharest that looks like a castle on the inside.
Transportation in Laos is always fashionably late and in nowhere else in the world do people drive faster than in Romania. Our motorbike ran out of gas in the middle of the mountain in Laos where we were lost with no phone reception. And other than the fact that we got caught by a traffic policeman in Phuket for driving without a license, everytime we’re on a scooter, it was smooth sailing.
Until today, the hardest country I’ve travelled to is India. I cried more in India than everywhere else, but what remains after all is friendship, happy memories and growth, not tears. The country that I vow I will come back in this lifetime include: Taiwan, Korea, Laos, Turkey. For my next reincarnation, please God, let me be born in Switzerland.
Jimmy and I, we fought in Frankfurt and made up in Prague, but most certainly we kiss and hold hands going through each and every city on our route. We fall in love with each other more deeply than before we started the trip. We travelled with our family, and have strangers becoming friends from all around the world. Gosh, We’ve really had the time of our life.
My very first ambulance ride in my whole life happens to be in Indonesia. The dengue fever caught me at my worst, the days of high fever and the stubbornness of “my body can heal itself” led to the emergency evacuation from Nusa Peninda back to Bali. The day I was discharged from the hospital in Bali, in Saigon, Jimmy started to come down with a high fever and sore throat that lasted for days. 6 months after, in India, Jimmy had a cab waiting to take him to emergency room at the Tibetan Hospital in McLeod Ganj. Here and there, we were sick but we learned to take care of our health so much more than before.
Other than travelling, in the past 16 months, we’ve dived deep in the arts of ancient healing. We become Reiki, Aromatherapy, TCM energy medicine practitioner. I became a Yin Yoga Teacher, soon-to-become Cranio sacral therapist. Jimmy started practicing Qi Gong and Internal Alchemy. We treated people wherever we go, whenever we can. And we cannot wait to learn and practice more.
…
After just 2 weeks in Eastern Europe, we told ourselves that we cannot have another meal with meat, polenta and potatoes. After 20 train rides if not more, if you put me in another train or bus ride, I swear I would break into pieces in front of you.
In July 2022, a fortune teller in Vietnam said that we would travel the world for two years. In November 2022, our teacher in Chiangmai said we might be allergic to travelling. In May 2023, our Ayurveda doctor in India said we’ve travelled way too much. In November 2023 in Romania, we said we’ve had enough, let’s settle down now. The world is grand and beautiful, but the comfort of home is what I miss. In my Thai elephant pants, Indian yoga top and Bali sarong, I’ve seen enough. Now it’s time to start the next era of our life and give the community the knowledge we’ve received.
And that’s how Turkey became the last destination of our long-term travel trip that lasts over 16 months, instead of the first one. Thank you, world, for giving us the time of our lives.
