Halfway Around the World[and back]

London - Ireland - Thailand

First and foremost I would like to express my gratitude to the Wallenberg Foundation, Taubman College, and everyone that made this trip possible. I was fortunate to have a wonderful traveling companion; a fellow graduate of Taubman College, Erika. She also happens to be my girlfriend and had planned on traveling after graduation. This worked out perfectly because the trip was much better with someone to experience it with. Together we wanted to see the world, meet new people, and experience different cultures. Instead of planning each destination and every arrangement, we decided to buy a one way ticket to London, a place we could use as home base to go as far as we wanted.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. -George Washington

Included on these pages are my favorite quotes from my U.S. Passport. I feel that they are a strong connection to the life, work, and heroism of Raul Wallenberg.

Introduction

LondonLondon was our home for 8 weeks. A small studio apartment located just outside the west-end in Bayswater proved to be an excellent location to explore the city. Being the unofficial Lebanese capital of the city, the culinary variety alone would bring me back. London has so much to offer from the best of museums, theater, restaurants, and everything you could want to do.

Public transportation made it a breeze to move through the city. The tube is the oldest underground rail system in the world, and is fun and efficient. Each station has its own style and experience. One of my favorite things to do was choose a tube line and get off at a random stop and see what was around.

Being that Erika and I spent so much time in London, we were able to get a taste of the London lifestyle: fast paced, driven, and hectic. However, it was almost as if we didn’t fit in, even though we spoke the same language (mostly). Our intention was to learn and explore, while everyone around us had there own motives. So we moved through the city unnoticed, but that is all part of living in one of the largest cities in the world.

From the castle at Windsor, to taking Turkish coffee down the road, the time I spent in London with Erika was absolutely fantastic. But we knew that this would be one of very few chances to go wherever we wanted, and the western world was just not enough.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

IrelandGoing to Ireland was a great personal experience for me. My grandfather was the first in his family to immigrate to the U.S. from Ireland, and we have a strong Irish tradition. We started in Dublin, full of amazing people. All along the streets, and in the pubs everyone gives you a smile, or will help with directions when you look lost. The Architecture of Dublin is fantastic, but the culture is where the city excels. Located in the Dublin Castle was my favorite museum of the entire trip, The Chester Beatty Library. It is an amazing collection of artifacts, books, paintings, manuscripts and much more. The second floor is dedicated to Sacred Traditions. It is an exhibition of the great religions of the world, specifically Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. It was amazing to walk past Biblical Papyri, books of the Qur’an, and scrolls of Buddhist thought all in the same room. Never before had I been able to appreciate the similarities and differences of the most practiced religions of the world. It is easy to misunderstand other religions and cultures, especially when they are often associated with negative images in our country. But after visiting this collection I see it is more a misunderstanding, and now it is time for me to learn more about how these schools of thought work.

After Dublin, we headed north out of the Republic, and into the capital of Northern Ireland, Belfast. At the time we went there were riots outside the capital building and police were reported injured almost every night. Thankfully during our stay there was no violence. Belfast is a beautiful city, and the capital building is absolutely gorgeous. But the reason we went north was to see Giant’s Causeway, a natural volcanic foundation on the north coast of the Island. Getting to the rocks proved to be a bit of a challenge however. Ireland would best be explored by car, however that was not an option for us, so we were at the mercy of public transit. After 2 trains, a bus, and one poorly timed connection by the time we actually got to the causeway the sun had set and we only had thirty minutes until the last bus for the night would pick us up. But after all of that, standing on the cliffs overlooking the ocean with the breeze in our face, it was one of the best experiences of the trip.

The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class - it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.

-Anna Julia Cooper

ThailandAfter a long winter in the UK, it was time to really get out of our comfort zone, so we planned our trip to Thailand. For three weeks we backpacked to four cities all across the country. Transportation through Thailand required a great deal of trust, in a system that didn’t make any sense, in a place that was unfamiliar. But that was half of the fun. Our first destination was Koh Samui, an island in the gulf of Thailand. Now the island has an airport, but we wanted a more authentic Thai experience so we decided to take a bus and ferry. After purchasing the tickets, our driver placed different color stickers which correspond to different destinations.

Koh Samui is a beautiful place, and being on the ocean can’t be beat. But island life lacked something, it was designed around tourists. That’s fine for a little while, but we traveled halfway around the world to be uncomfortable and learn more. It was nice, however, to transition into the language, which I don’t think I will ever understand, and ease into the food. The food is delicious, but be careful because when someone asks you if you want a dish spicy, you might burn your entire head off.

From island we traveled just north of Bangkok to the ancient city of Ayutthaya. Here Erika and I met a much more authentic Thai people. Walking around the food markets and exploring the ruins of the past. The city is surrounded by a river, with only one very busy bridge. So the fastest way across is by shuttle boat. My favorite part of our time in Ayutthaya was a boat tour around most of the city. We traveled to different ruins sites and saw the massive temples of the past.

Every generation has the obligation to free men’s minds for a look at new worlds... to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.

-Ellison S. Onizuka

One last bus trip brought us to Chiang Mai, often referred to as the capital of the north. This was my favorite stop in Thailand, and in no small part to 2 specific days. First we took a cooking class where we each prepared seven authentic Thai dishes with the help of our expert instructor. For me food is the heart and soul of any culture, so taking the time to learn how some of the classic dishes are prepared was a great insight into everyday life. Later in the week one of the greatest experiences I can even imagine happened. Erika and I each owned an elephant for a day. We fed them, bathed them, and checked their health (which is mostly going through there poop.) After that we learned how to get on there heads and ride them bareback through the forest. Elephants are incredibly smart and the things they know how to do is unbelievable. We rode them to a river where we could swim with them and clean them. I never thought I would be jumping from one elephant to another in a river.

After that experience, everything else was going to have a hard time comparing. So finally we made it back to Bangkok. The shear amount of people and congestion is intimidating at first, but it is incredible. Fighting the mass of people and the stifling heat is all part of the Bangkok lifestyle. The city shines at night though, just after the sun sets the vendors come out and the streets come alive.

...AND THAT GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH. -Abraham Lincoln