Chapter One Recap: New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam & Japan

Written By Molly Brown

And just like that, Chapter One of the world's second hottest tour has come to a close. As we look forward to Chapter Two (Europe), I want to reflect on the first leg of our journey.  

Over the past 109 days, we’ve traveled 24,958 miles, dealt in 8 different languages, slept in 34 beds, and taken 7 planes, 16 boats, 15 trains, and 8 buses. My ears have bled trying to get into J-Pop, my heart has melted falling in love with BTS (forever grateful to the TikTok algorithm!!!!), and I will forever be indebted to VietJet airlines for showing me just how chic a neck scarf can be. 

To play a Sally Family favorite, I give you my rose, bud, and thorn of the trip thus far.

  • The rose from Chapter One of the Radical Sabbatical ™ is simply reflecting back on how many new experiences we’ve had and how many good memories we’ve made. It’s a lifetimes worth. More specifically, I loved having my eyes opened to the fact that there are an infinite number of things, people, places, and experiences to fall in love with. I admit that before this trip I knew very little about East/South East Asia, and the images that dominated my mind were of obnoxious, drunken backpackers droning on and on about how cheap things are. What we found instead were unbelievably warm hosts, a proud display of culture that is an inexplicable mix of tradition, history and modernity, unmatched natural beauty, sharp senses of humor, and inspiring fashion.

  • The bud is that we planned our visit to Japan just 2 weeks before arriving and given Japan’s popularity as a tourist destination, there were a few rural areas I was keen to visit that simply weren't available on such a short timeline. What we were able to see and do we loved, but we ended up spending about half the time we anticipated in the country. Japan is my bud because I look forward to returning and exploring different parts of the country.

  • The thorn is that I got my first hangover since the year 2020 and I have to say….debilitating. We had to order Domino's delivery. I watched 6 hours of Queer Eye. The silver lining is I absolutely crushed karaoke the night before and that is NOT the alcohol talking, I am a karaoke queen.

After 3.5 months on the road many of you have started to ask how we’re feeling, how’s it really going and whether it’s living up to expectations. Here are some reflections…

  • First, we’ve totally changed our approach to how we’re traveling. When we were at home planning for New Zealand and Thailand, our itinerary was meticulously researched and executed. We knew exactly what hikes we wanted to do, exactly which temples we wanted to visit, and we spent ages evaluating our accommodation options. As we’ve gotten further into the trip, I’ve realized that if we want to be outside enjoying where we are, we simply cannot plan to that extent or we’ll spend all of our time inside planning and none of our time outside exploring where we actually, physically are. We’re investing a lot less time in the small details, knowing that so long as we get ourselves to where we want to be, things will fall into place.

  • Second, people always want to know the biggest challenge and frankly the biggest and most persistent challenge thus far has been outfits. Everyday I’m forced to look merely passable.  The weight of not receiving a single compliment for months on end is messing with my psyche. I joke but for those of you who know me well, you know I’m deathly serious. I haven’t accessorized in 109 days and counting. Dressing for “practicality” is soul crushing. I have no accessories, 3 pairs of shoes and one pair is hiking shoes and the other?! TEVAS. I’m weeping seeing the reality of this situation on paper. Having to CONSTANTLY finagle things into a tiny suitcase rather than having the space to properly take care of my items also sends me to another ether.

  • And then finally, whenever either of us gets agitated or worn down by the lack of compliments grind of traveling it’s so SO easy to course correct by remembering that whatever it is we’re agitated by is infinitely better than the alternative. In every trying situation we’ve encountered, I’d rather be there than in my home office behind the computer screen. At least once per destination I’ve teared up from the sheer awe of where we are or what we’re doing. Bet that I never cried from happiness selling accounting software or planning any of y’alls vacations so I can deal with my hiking shoes and no earrings (...BUT FOR HOW LONG…?!?)

Before we officially wrap Chapter One of the Radical Sabbatical ™ I wanted to share a few fun statistics from the road!

Otherwise, we’ve been reading and listening to some content that you might find interesting! Below for playlists, podcasts and books!

PLAYLISTS: In each country we visit, I download the Spotify Top 50 for that country and listen to it when we’re packing or in transit! I love comparing them across countries, and comparing them to the US Top 50 and Global Top 50! Miley Cyrus, The Weekend and BTS are the only artists that have shown up on all 6 thus far! 

PODCASTS:

BOOKS:

  • New Zealand

    • Come on Shore and We Will Kill & Eat You All

    • The Whale Rider

    • Parable of the Sower

    • Bangkok Wakes to Rain

  • Thailand:

    • Sightseeing

    • Private Dancer

    • Tomorrow Tomorrow & Tomorrow

  • Vietnam:

    • Lessons in Chemistry

    • Things We Lost to the Water

    • Last Night I Dreamed of Peace

  • Japan:

    • Convenience Store Woman: A Novel

    • I Am A Cat (could not finish….sry!)

    • Tokyo Decadence: 15 Stories

Looking FORWARD, we’ve made some major changes to our itinerary. After suffering a “historic heat wave” in both Thailand and Vietnam we did some rethinking on our route to avoid some other potential death traps (read: Morocco in August). 

Here is how we’ll spend the summer (May 22 - August 26).

  • Southern Spain: relaxing at the beach, exploring the white villages of Andalusia, hiking the mountains of Andalusia

  • Germany/Austria: a few days driving the romantic road, hiking in the alps, picturesque European cities

  • Slovenia: hiking in the Julian Alps, mostly.

  • Montenegro: all we know for sure, is that we’ll be here.

  • Albania: all we know for sure, is that we’ll be here.

  • Turkey: all we know for sure is we will fly from Istanbul to Antananarivo on August 26 so we’ll spend a week in Istanbul before that! 

If you're traveling this summer and will be near us, let us know! If you have connections anywhere we’re going, let us know! If you’re not traveling but could be, let us know! Come meet up with us! 

Molly Brown
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