Reflections on Long Service Leave

Looking back at my long service leave, a few thoughts:
• While Australia’s in the Asia Pacific, it’s a long ways from anywhere with the exception of New Zealand. All my flights were at least 8 hours long. It was a lot of flying and I’m not surprised I came home at the end of it with a cold. Not unlike my shopping cart theory (shopping cart handles are festering with all kinds of germs), sharing a confined space with recirculated air in an airplane with more than a hundred people you’re bound to catch something.
• It was “planes, trains and automobiles” plus much more. It was monorails (Okinawa), bullet trains (Taiwan), tuk tuks (Peru), the back of flat bed pick up trucks (Thailand), gondola à la orange crates over raging rapids (Peru), 20-hour bus rides with 180° reclining seats (Peru), jam packed mini-coopers with 6 adults plus luggage, ferry (from Koh Samui-Koh Tao), river boat (Bangkok and Peru), local bus (Okinawa) and of course one elephant ride (Thailand).
• I’m very grateful and blessed to have friends and family to travel with on my long vacation. While I’m fairly self reliant and happy to travel on my own, it’s far more fun to share the experience with someone.
o It was wonderful to see Peru from the eyes of a Peruvian, there are so many places we visited and places we ate at that I would never have had no matter how much I could have researched them in a tour guide book. While I jest that all the planning was done by Ana yet I got all the credit if the signage held up by our drivers/guides were any indications, in all seriousness, I wouldn’t have made the trek to Machu Picchu without Ana and Scott's very pragmatic, spontaneous and “just try it” approach to travelling which (and my close friends understand what I mean by this) stretches me and opens my eyes to even more new experiences. Ana’s Dad has a great talent for finding the very best places to eat!
o And it was a real honor to be welcomed into Sam and Venecia’s home and to meet his parents and be showed his hometown where he grew up and meet his parents and some of his very funny and entertaining friends. And I’m thrilled that Venecia and Sam were generous in letting me tag along on their Thailand vacation (and I tried super hard not to be a third wheel) and very happy that Venecia stayed on a few more days so we got to spend time together catching up on girl-talk without boring Sam.
o And I’m grateful that my parents are healthy and keen to explore new countries, foods and learn about other cultures. We always have a wonderful time and because Papa wakes up so early with excitement each morning we are able to pack a lot into our day and as a result we’re tired and exhausted at night and it’s no wonder journaling in my travel diary ended upon arriving in Okinawa.