For those of you who know me well, I’ve been dreaming about long-term ’round-the-world travel since college. I’ve done a fair bit of traveling since then, taking side trips to Mexico and Japan, but nothing remotely approaching the epic scale that I had originally envisioned. Like many, I became caught up in the typical whirlwind of life - career, mortgage, pet. All elements absolutely enriched my life, but were equally threatening in that they created complacency.

Now, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve given 4 weeks notice, made arrangements to sell my home, purchased RTW airfare and will be traveling throughout Asia, the Middle East and Southern Africa for most of 2008!

I could have taken the plunge years ago, and I very nearly did on a couple of different occasions. So why now? How are my circumstances different?

  • My girlfriend was getting frustrated at work, and was ready for a change of pace. Grad school was definitely on her horizon and we had always talked about traveling together.
  • I purchased my home in 2006. I’m pretty fortunate in that the Seattle real estate is one of the few markets that has continued to experience gains. I’ve also lived in my place long enough now that I’ll be exempt from capital gains tax.
  • I’ve been busy the past few months with a new role within Motorola, developing high end entertainment handsets. Its super exciting with plenty of visibility, but I finally realized that there is always a great opportunity just around the corner that entices you to maintain the status quo. If I wasn’t careful, I’d wake up one day in my mid-40’s being very accomplished professionally, but still not having checked off one of my lifetime to-do’s.

The current itinerary is pretty rough and takes into account my slower, more lethargic travel style. Sarah and I will start out in Beijing, working our way through Central China and end up in Lhasa in time for Losar. After spending a month or so in Tibet, we’ll head over to Yunnan to mix things up with some of China’s more interesting minority ethnic groups. From there, we’ll meander down the Mekong, passing through Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

A long, long flight connecting in Frankfurt takes us to Cairo, where we’ll spend a couple of months in Egypt and Jordan (and perhaps Israel, if I can assuage Sarah’s safety concerns). Then its off to Johannesburg, which will be our window into Southern Africa. We’ll definitely visit Mozambique, possibly Zimbabwe or Botswana, and the plan is to spend some serious time volunteering in South Africa.

At the moment, my top choices in terms of non-profits include Kiva and OLPC. If you’ve got suggestions on organizations where my tech/business background would come in handy, feel free to send them to me.