My wife and I recently finished a 3+ month trip to Asia, where we visited (greater) China, Nepal and Thailand. We were incredibly fortunate to have employers that let us take (unpaid) time off work for so long.

This post could be a novel, but in summary, we saw so many things, ate so much good food, and generally had a rejuvenating time away from work and our daily routines.

We spent about half of the trip in China, visiting megacities, remote villages and everything in between, zipping around primarily by train. While aiming to include down time, much of this part of the trip was focused on experiences — visiting rice terraces, climbing the Great Wall, etc.

Before continuing to Nepal, we visited Tibet, where we took an overland tour from Lhasa to Kathmandu. We then spent almost two weeks hiking around the majestic Manaslu peak on the Manaslu Circuit, bringing us from massive gorges up over a 5,100m pass. We spent the rest of the time off relaxing in Thailand, visiting three islands in the south and fully enjoying the tropical weather.

Some takeaways:

1. Taking extended time off is just wonderful. If you're able to take some time off, you should.

2. Leaving daily routines of home, helps put many things into perspective. Traveling helps build sympathy by comparing (similarities or differences) our ways of life, values, goals, opportunities and customs with others.

3. Three months, for us, was an optimal amount of time away. Both of us felt ready (in a positive way) to return to our daily routines and are excited about work and seeing friends, after fully disconnecting from routines and stress.

4. Fitness was difficult to maintain. I primarily run outside, which wasn't always so enticing in Asian megacities. I want to get back into a cardio, and ideally strength-training, routine.

5. I want to continue learning how to code, and am toying with a self-imposed coding challenge. (hopefully) more details to come.

6. China is a very interesting place. I lived there from 2016-2019, and (surprisingly) still spoke Chinese well-enough on this trip to converse with people and navigate their system. The country changed a lot since I lived there. It felt less chaotic, quieter (EVs everywhere!), and frankly easier to travel. I'd like to post more in-depth about this.

7. I took over 1 million steps on the trip!

8. I only read two books while on the trip, which I'll take to mean that I was more fully in-the-moment.