*8 YEARS* On the Lam!

(Um, yep – I sold every. blessed. thing. and bought a o.w. ticket to Vietnam)

Dumping everything I owned (that wouldn’t fit into a single rollie and small backpack) to move to Asia 8 years ago wasn’t my first foray into living abroad.  I’d already lived in France and Italy (with my 2 young daughters then aged 8 and 11 yrs. old) for nearly a year – waaay back before there was a WWW. much less the ubiquitous smartphone revolution that we all enjoy errr… love/hate today.  But 2011 marked my PERMANENT exodus from my native land – in quest of perpetually exploring as much of the world as I can.

On that long ago momentous day (29 October, 2011) when I hopped on that one-way flight to Vietnam, I set up the wee “Count Down” clock in the upper right panel of TravelnLass.  Since then, I’ve watched those digits count upward, and recently it finally hit 8 full years.  So I figured a post was in order to mark the occasion.

This (not so) little (near 500 posts and counting!) TravelnLass “diary” has served me well over the years (and many countries) – reminding me of the early days and some of the most memorable experiences I’ve enjoyed along the way.

Not surprisingly, my first year let loose in Asia was quite the flurry of travels.  Far too many memories and images to cobble into a single mosaic, so I thought I’d unearth the YouTube video I created awhile back to capture it all:

And while my diligence in reliably pecking here has slowed down considerably of late, suffice it’s not at all due to a lack of fodder and interesting tales to tell.  Nor that my insatiable lust for exploring ever new foreign lands has abated in the least.

Indeed, my life here on this beautiful mountain-top in Cuenca, Ecuador continues to be chock-full of unique and delightful surprises daily.  And my travels?

While I’ve been uncharacteristically stationary here since my wondrous romp around Japan more than a year and a half ago (goodness – a veritable RECORD of sit-tightedness for the TravelnLass!), trust that thoughts of sunrises and sunsets in far-off lands float perpetually in my head.  And I’ve merely been gathering momentum (and saving my travel pennies!) for a most epic adventure in eastern Africa (in little more than 30 days – yikes!)

So do stay tuned for more details on that.  First, a report on the myriad of prep-chores required of a month+ skip around Spain, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia.  Plus later, no doubt a boatload of tales about gawking at mountain gorillas in Uganda, tip-toeing around the “Hottest Place on Earth” (the Danakil Depression), sleeping in thatched huts and chumming with the indigenous tribes in the Omo Valley – and more

P.S. New here and curious who I am?  Check my bio to learn more!  Better yet, subscribe to my email list (so you never miss a single post) and get a pdf of my 30+ Best Travel Tips (trust me, at least one is sure to be a revelation).

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