I have been working in consulting for the past two and a half years, but will stop working on March 22. I plan to attend the Graduate Business School at Stanford next fall to earn my MBA. The time in between I intend to spend traveling around through the Middle East, South East Asia, China, and Europe.
Why now:
The main reason I wan to take this trip is because I love traveling. I did a similar style trip through Italy in 2006 after graduating from the University of Maryland. It was one of the best experiences in my life, and I look forward to having many similar experiences on this trip. Secondly, I think this is one of the few opportunities I will have in my life to travel for this length of time. Once I'm out of business school, it will be unlikely that whatever job I have will let me leave for 5 months to travel. Even if I was between jobs, I assume/hope that eventually I'll find a woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with, and getting our schedules to match or potentially traveling with children will be impossible. So that leaves the present.
Why These Countries:
I wanted to travel to countries that I've never been to before. I have already been lucky enough to spend time in Ghana, study abroad for a semester in Japan, spend three weeks in Italy after graduating, and two weeks in France a few months ago. I've also visited Singapore, Canada, and the Dominican Republic. Except for potentially Singapore, I wanted to experience new places and cultures.
I first got the idea to travel to Egypt when I took an Arabic class. From there, I began thinking about traveling all around the Middle East. I soon got more ambitious and wanted to plan a longer trip where I'd travel to other countries I have always wanted to visit. My options at first were Africa, Pakistan and India, or Southeast Asia. There are too many disease concerns and war-torn areas in Africa to make it a very viable option, and I learned quickly that to travel through the Pakistan/India region, including Iran, there were going to be multiple visa issues (especially after visiting Israel). Southeast Asia made the most sense. I found out that to visit Myanmar, I would have to fly in and fly out of the country. Cost is obviously a factor for this trip, and I want to choose cheaper transportation when available. To avoid two extra flights, I decided to enter Southeast Asia through Bangkok.
I've been interested in seeing China for a long time. First, China is the most populous country in the world, and its economy is still growing. China is similar to the United States in that different regions have their own unique identities and cultures. It would be really interesting to see how each region is different from the next. I wanted to but was unable to go visit Hong Kong while I was in Japan, so I definitely plan on checking it out. After a month in China, I'll fly out of Hong Kong to London.
One of the few good things with the economy right now is that travel has gotten much cheaper. I will be able to see more of Europe than I already have. I really enjoy museums and other cultural things, so I can definitely see and do a lot of that while I'm there. I will then fly to Morocco, where I have a friend I will stay with while I travel to the major cities there. After five months, I think I will be ready to travel home and get ready to start my Stanford MBA program.
