There is a start

For the past year I was fantasizing: ‘How would it be to quit my job and travel around for a while?’, be free, not having any obligation to show up at your boss every morning, see the world, meet new people and experience new things. Basically I never did such a thing when I was in my early twenties. After graduating on my Bachelor I immediately enrolled in my first job. During that job interview I did request to start a month later so I would have time to travel. My destination was Taiwan that time. The manager in front of me then showed me a chart representing workload for my new job, and of course the peek of workload was in that one month I wanted to be in Taiwan. With a lot of things you do daydream about and plan to do it somewhere, sometime in the future it never happens anymore. You either are too scared to take the risk or you are just stuck in your situation. That first job did start with a one-year contract, which became a permanent one. I bought a house. Got a new job. Bought a car and after 6 years I was pretty much settled with my life. I never did dare anymore to take the step making such a drastic decision of getting out of my comfort zone and do something completely different. Not that it wasn’t possible or affordable for me to do, but more because I’m totally locked up in this comfortable situation that you are too afraid to take any risks.

Last year when I was visiting Cambodia I started to think about my life. ‘Is this it?’, ‘Is this what I will do till I retire?’, I mean, I love my job, but then again I start thinking how short life is and how much things there are to do and see. I was considering and ready to take a risk and go to Cambodia to see how that story would enrich my life. In the end it didn’t work out and I was thrown back to reality but still having that dream to travel. I started to think again. I do like to travel, but the longest time I’ve been away from home was a 3 weeks holiday. At the end of last year I made my decision with all the guts, I quit my job! No sabbatical, no working abroad, just be jobless and see what happens next.

I was considering to plan this whole half year in advance. Reading travel blogs and Lonely Planets to the max, making notes, set out a route, knowing where to go, what do do, who to meet, but then soon after stopped myself from doing that. I wanted to be flexible and would see what leads me to where. When I left Holland I knew my first destination would be Hanoi and roughly travel south, spending maximum 30 days in Vietnam, but other than that I had no plans. On a rainy day I left Holland with just one backpack with max 45 litter. While I was walking to the departure gate in Schiphol I realized I was all by myself making this big adventure.

The Airplane i flew with China Southern AMS-HAN