A bit of background for those of you that may have stumbled across this. At the end of 2002, I quit my job and bought a one-way ticket to Cape Town. I'd done a fair bit of travel before that, mostly for a couple months at a time, and it always bothered me that I didn't have the time to do it right. So I saved a bit of money and bought a ticket to one end of the world. I figured I could make it to the other end in a year or so, if I moved at a good pace.
Fast forward six months, and I'd made it as far as Istanbul, having done most of that distance by land. The only flight that gained me any real ground was from Nairobi to Cairo, since nobody really wants to be crossing the Sudan in the summer. Hitched through Jordan & Syria with no problems whatsoever, even though we were actively bombing Iraq at the time. Once I hit Europe, it was smooth sailing for a while.
But now comes the interesting part. I'm getting bored. 9 months in, my mind is crying out for stimulation, and sorting out bus tickets is just not providing it. I need to work. Now. I sent off a couple emails, and a week later I had a 3 month contract lined up in the 'States and a roundtrip ticket booked from Bangkok to Los Angeles.
So, it's the top of the year again and I'm off to Southeast Asia to pick up where I left off. This time I had the forethought to pack along a laptop and a small pile of freelance work. Spent the winter on the beach, traveled through China for a while, then hopped the Trans Siberian train to Moscow. I've been back to the US a few times since then, but never for more than a few months at a time. I'm on my third laptop now, and my clients and jobs have grown substantially from the little $1,000 gigs that paid for my beer in Thailand. Now I spend probably half my time working on my own projects, building things that will bring in revenue by themself so that eventually I can ramp down the consulting work and focus on the important things.
by
Jason Kester
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