This month marks 13 months since I left my job last April and the start of my 5th month of solo travel. I thought by now I’d be tired of travelling and would be on my way home.

The one year anniversary

When I left home last November, I wanted to face my fear of being travelling alone. I wondered if being alone was the same thing as being lonely, and whether our world is really as scary as I imagined it to be.

I thought after a few months of travel, I’d be on my way home, settling into a new apartment and starting a stable job again.

Instead, my last five months of travel through India and Southeast Asia has made want to explore the world more. I was suppose to stay in each country for 2-3 weeks. Instead I averaged almost four weeks per country. By travelling slow, I’ve felt like I was home in most places and travel become just living life.

These past months have been life changing. I discovered how whole I actually feel alone, rediscovered my faith in the world and reminded of how beautiful some of the simplest things are.

Going home just doesn’t feel right, yet.

‘Go-home’ vs ‘travel’ debate

Weeks ago, as my one year “unemployment” anniversary, I was in Malaysia restlessly debating and meditating between the ‘responsible’ path of going home or the more exciting path of continuing to travel.

I wanted to find enough reasons to convince myself to do follow the “responsible” path of going home, even though I knew in my heart I wanted to continue travelling. Interestingly, in entertaining the idea to continue travelling, I also found myself imagining the drama and pain involved in going home to find a new job.

Between going home versus continuing to travel, I wrecked havoc on myself with sleepless nights thinking about the pros and cons of each option.

Then, I had an epiphany.

There will be difficulties no matter what path I choose.

Going home to re-establish myself and look for a job will take energy. Even if I look in my previous field, it takes persistance and time to connect with new and old contacts, and ti find opportunities.

If I continue to travel, I’ll need to find a way to fund my travels or least reduce my expenses so I don’t continue using my personal savings.

But either way, there will be challenges ahead.

The difference is, if I choose what makes me happy, at least I will want to face the difficulties.

I’m going to continue travelling

So, I choose to continue travelling.

After 5 beautiful, life-changing, eye-opening, joyful months in India and Southeast Asia, I’m going to travel for at 7 more months until at least November 22, 2011, to reach the one year mark my travels.

In total, that means I’ll have been away from work for a year and 7 months (holy crap!)

Where to next?

I’m flying to Istanbul, Turkey in 24 hours (!) from Bangkok to start my adventure on a new continent.

The itinerary for the next few months looks like this:

• Turkey – 3 weeks
• Greece and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy) – 8 weeks
• Balkan area (Serbia, Croatia) – 4 weeks
• Western Europe (Germany, Netherlands, Spain) – 6 weeks

Before the next seven months of travel is up, I also want to visit a country in northern Africa such as Morocco, Tunisia or Egypt to technically make my trip a “round-the-world” trip by being on 3 continents (Asia, Europe and Africa).

Along the way, I want to:

• Continue blogging and writing
• Design/build at least one more website
• Begin thinking about next steps for income before my trip is finished

My sincere gratitude

My friends, it’s been a privilege sharing my journey with you. Your emails and comments on articles have encourage me to keep going on my adventure. Your retweets and Facebook Likes on my blog articles and guest articles on the Toronto Star newspaper’s personal finance website make my days.

Cheers to 7 more great months of travel!

Oh, and stay tuned for a small announcement early next week regarding my Europe travels ;)

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>> What do you have planned for the next 7 months? Have you had any pivotal points where you chose to follow your heart?

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