Ah, what a question. I quit my job on a buyout offer providing about a year's income with the intent to take a traveling sabbatical for about that time (though I stretched and stretched, being such a travel addict).

Anyway, lots of trips now to look back on, but I think the zenith was a monthlong trip I did some six years ago through Indonesia. Just got to Jakarta and tried to make it up as I went along. After Jakarta, flew a 2-stop red-eye to Ambon (center of the old "Spice Islands") and then took a 3-day passenger boat liner eastward, trip making two stops and landing in Jayapura (western side of New Guinea island). From there, with some fuss I got a cargo plane to the Baliem Valley - a beautiful place with native peoples known only to the outside world since 1954. Planes were the only way in/out. Very different culture, beautiful climate, biggest crawfish I've ever seen for dinner, & few outsiders.

Flew back to Ambon from Jayapura after that and took the boat to the Bandas (former nutmeg center of the world, littered with forts). Place had barely changed since the Dutch left. Again, few outsiders, but one yachtie I met said it was what Jimmy Buffett really meant by so many of his songs.

To top it off, spent six days or so in Bali, which seemed like the bigtime after all I saw.

Was incredibly lucky to get all the transit to work out, and in the years since, sadly, both Maluku (Ambon, Bandas) and Irian Jaya (Baliem Valley) have had problems and are now on the "don't go there" advisories.

Other notable trips included Sri Lanka (especially Galle), Cambodia before the crowds arrived, Vietnam, Nepal, and places in Micronesia like Yap and Pohnpei. Also Jakarta on a separate time the week the rupiah crashed and suddenly I could afford just about anything (full meals with dessert at Planet Hollywood for $6, while it lasted).


[This message has been edited by RustyC (edited 05-27-2003).]