Here is an excerpt from the first post, the beginning:
If I am to be truly honest, my journey began long before the conventional notion of travel to a foreign land in a hunk of flying metal descended upon me that summer afternoon. Yes, if I am really honest, it began months, perhaps even years earlier, between the heart-breaking end of a marriage and the turmoil of a disastrous affair—of an aching need for one hell of a change of scene. That was way back then, when this advertisement first appeared.
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SEEKING: 32 years-old, freshly-divorced, corporate researcher
TO UNDERTAKE: A five year journey spanning a dozen nations and four continents.
It started out as a travel journal, and evolved into this full blown "book thing". The first draft was stolen out of my shoulder bag while I was working in Vietnam. That caused months of indecision and tears: To rewrite from scratch or not?
I had thrown away several notebooks by then, gems of journeys I didn't think I'd have to write all over again. Here's my advice to budding travel writers: Don't discard your notes! You never know when a thief might come and swipe them. It was a few months after this incident that I read that Pico Iyer's house burnt down taking a lifetime of writing in the flames. I felt less bitter about the experience after that.
I did, however, lose the excitement of my first trip to Mole, to name a few of the stories that disappeared in Vietnam.
As you can see, I decided to rewrite and here we are...5 years since leaving home, almost to the day. Check out "To Journey in Africa" and subscribe for the serialised version of "The Book", scene by scene.
