One year ago today, we metaphorically “gave it all up” for six months.
A year later, we’re all back at work, back at school, back to the grind. Back to the “normal”, which for two of us is teaching.
Our five month trip was dubbed Le Grand Voyage II, and it was our second round the world adventure as a family. (That’s the “II” part – parti deux). It was a trip that took three years of planning (since the last, actually the first Le Grand Voyage). We were following a pattern of three years of work, followed by a year of play.
In truth, it was a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the purpose of this Blog series.
We look nostalgically on event past, don’t we? And so that’s my purpose here; to look back on the year that was. A year that took us to eight different countries and many thousands of kilometers of skies, roads, and oceans.
Here I was on that first day, all bright eyed and bushy tailed. At the very least, shocked a bit to be finally on our way.
And so, here is my project… over 160 days of travel blogging and story telling, in photos, words, and even the occasional video.
I am a photographer and a YouTuber, probably in that order of expertise. My aims are varied for this project. I would love to grow my YouTube Channel, and other visual portfolios. So if you haven’t already, I’ll be asking for your subscription to Where’s Teddy Now?
But mostly, I just want to remember.
I’m still developing a theme to this series of posts, but one thing I’d like to highlight are images that wouldn’t necessarily make it into a photo album, w=but which tell a story in their own right. Images like this one:
It’s a potentially jarring image; prayer rooms at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taipei City.
With my German heritage, swastikas are a sensitive thing for me. But it’s worth knowing, and noting, that before the Nazis misappropriated the symbol, it belonged to the Buddhists. And to the Greeks. I’ve seen it carved into ancient temples in five countries, and glazed onto three thousand year old pottery.
But for me, the take home message with this photo, snapped in an out of the way corner of an airport, is that what’s normal (or not) for us, is… different elsewhere. I think we could all benefit from understanding and remembering that.
Sixteen hours of flying, and a world away, a symbol of spirituality isn’t what you think it is. And nor should it be.
This is why I travel, to learn and be reminded of these things.
What do you need to be reminded of?
This is a 163 part Blog series, chronicling my family’s Le Grand Voyage II, through Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, Jordan, Cyprus, and Greece. A 163 post reflection on our trip, highlighting some touristy and distinctly no-touristy photography, a sampling of the 20 000 photos I snapped on three cameras.
- Where’s Teddy now? is my YouTube Vlog – www.youtube.com/wheresteddynow
- Teddy can also be found on Twitter – https://twitter.com/wheresteddynow
- Instagram? Absolutely! – https://www.instagram.com/wheresteddynow/
- FaceBook? Uh-huh.– https://www.facebook.com/wheresteddynow/
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