I usually call home once a month when I’m traveling. My parents wanted to hear from me more often, but with email and expensive international phone connections anything more often seemed a bit silly. When I called home from Bangkok in February my parents gave me the horrible news that my dad had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. They wanted me to keep traveling for a while and keep in touch until they had a better idea of what the treatment options were. I proceeded on to Myanmar for a month, knowing I needed to go home soon. I was torn between coming home right away to help out (my mom had also broken her shoulder) and traveling further, which my dad wanted. In fact, he was upset that my mom insisted I know about his diagnosis at all–he didn’t want to spoil my trip.
Thankfully, I was able to spend a lot of time with him when I got home–making fun of president Bush and selling his antique cars. He passed away on Monday, much earlier than anticipated. He fought it hard to the end and was excited for the next phase of my trip. I wish he was around to hear about the crazy cows in India I’m sure to see or the African safari I plan to take.
At the moment I’m helping my mom with the transition, not only going through papers but preparing our house for sale. Two acres of land is a bit much for one person. I will eventually carry on to phase 2 of my trip, either continuing where I left off or starting in a different direction. That depends on the seasons and weather. I imagine I will continue buying one-way tickets as I did before. Slowly traveling overland has been a rewarding experience so far. I am still interested in the same countries as before–Tibet, India, Jordan, Egypt, Tanzania and Madagascar–although my route is bound to differ from my plan as I travel. My cousin has recently moved from Sri Lanka to Uganda so now there’s incentive to head in that direction.
Of course, most of my friends and family are aware of what has been going on, but I wanted to keep my casual readers who only know me through this site in the loop. Check back in periodically, I still plan to write about my experiences in Myanmar and will let you know the plan as soon as I do. Thanks for reading.
3 responses to “A New Beginning”
Hi Megan, do take care.
Hi Megan,
I just featured one of your articles on my site. and yes, I also link to your site. If you like it, you can feel free to submit more article about your thailand experiences on my site. Anyway, my site is http://www.travelify.com.
Good luck for your trip and take care.
Keng
I’m so sorry to hear about your Dad. He’ll be watching your trips from now on I’m sure.
I love your site. I am going to Japan in October for a couple of weeks and will be on my own for most of it (best friend on business trip for a month…free hotel in Tokyo, how could I say no)…thanks for the spread sheet info…all I’ve been getting is ‘it’s expensive’…that doesn’t help much…$80 bucks a day…that I understand…I don’t have it but I understand…
Thanks again…
Best wishes to you and your family,
Amber