Starting in November of last year I set off from Minneapolis to Hyderabad, India to help co-ordinate a project for my employer. It was the first time that I learned the around-the-world fare-class ticket is often cheaper than a round-trip fare as long as you make two twenty-four hour stays: one in Europe and and one in Asia. When I was asked if I would make this "sacrifice" in order to save money for the company, I jumped at the chance.

Taking personal vacation time and counting on acquaintances, I made my way around the world via New York, Amsterdam, Cairo, several cities in India, Kuala Lumpur, and Tokyo. I've always been the type to seize an opportunity and run with it until I am out of breath and I feel I did a good job this time of running until there wasn't any more earth to cover.

I chose to introduce the trip with this photo as this was really the first time I realized, as I was sitting on a rented horse with a name I couldn't pronounce, that I really was a long way from anything I had ever seen before.

It was very strange seeing the pyramids for the first time. It was as if something ordinary, like a toy from your childhood or an icon on your desktop, suddenly grew into the size of the mountain and rumbled, "yes, I really am real...now take the bloody picture."