It's all Ace's fault...

This whole thing, really, is Ace's fault. A couple of years ago he and I were having a beer somewhere in San Francisco, catching up on things. I let him know I would have a little bit of free time between b-school and the next job, and he got serious all of a sudden.

For Ace, serious is a big deal. In the decade I've known him, he's been all smiles all the time. But when he put his beer down, he gazed across the table at me and stopped smiling. "You need to circumnavigate the globe," he said, and then broke back into his usual smile. Ace was a world traveller himself, a man who took his passion for trekking the unbeaten paths and turned it into a wonderful book ("The Worldwide Guide to Cheap Airfare" is one of the best books EVER and everyone should have a copy on their shelf) that's all about cheap travel.

After reading through his book and thinking about it some more, I thought a trip around the world might be nice. But where to go? What to do? How to do it? These were all questions I would answer over the next 2 1/2 years while I worked and went to grad school, but now that it's all over, I guess I should spill some beans about the plans....



(This was probably the coolest site I have ever seen - Taj Mahal shrouded in mist)