Travel Fever

What are the benefits of roughing it for two years of service as a Peace Corps volunteer in a developing country?

1. The opportunity to make a significant impact in the lives of others.
2. The opportunity for cultural exchange and understanding.
3. The opportunity to learn and become fluent in another language.
4. The opportunity for introspection, soul searching, and to truly learn about oneself.
5. The tangible benefits of deferred student loans, readjustment allowance (about $7,400), accrued vacation days during service (2 vacation days per month of service), and medical, dental, and health insurance.
6. The opportunity to travel after service.

This post concerns the last of the six. Yes, I know it's still relatively early into my service. Without a doubt, I'm going to miss waking up to the sounds of dog barks, goat cries, knocking children pleading for candy, and singing from morning mass every morning, greeting every person that I walk past with "yoga noi," being the only muzungu in my village, getting asked at least five times a day for money, and maintaining a much healthier diet than I do in the States. I'm going to miss the utterly ridiculous but comical stereotypes Ugandans maintain about Americans, the quirks of Ugandan culture that I still have yet to understand, and the opportunity to speak a language other than my native dialect "reasonably" well. But admittedly, one year into my Peace Corps service at site, I'm already salivating over the opportunity and options available to me for post-COS (completion of service) travel.

Those who know me best know my passion for traveling. For me, planning a trip and the anticipation of the trip are as fun as the trip itself. I love the challenge of immersing in another culture. I love the challenge of having to converse with locals in a language that I don't understand. I love venturing into the unknown. I love touring bustling cities, beautiful landscapes, iconic landmarks, historical monuments, and world heritage sites. For me, as confirmed on my trip last month to Zambia and Kenya, traveling is one of my biggest passions.

Even better, at each training group's COS conference, Peace Corps offers volunteers a cash in-lieu option in place of a plane ticket home (a refund of the value of the plane ticket). Peace Corps also gives volunteers 1/3 of their readjustment allowance, about $2,000, two weeks before they leave their country of service. So I could possibly have about $4,000+ that I can use for travel after service.

I've very briefly started planning my post-COS trip. It looks something like this:

Uganda to Egypt (Cairo, the Nile River, Luxor)
Egypt to Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea)
Israel to Turkey (Istanbul)
Turkey to India (Delhi, Jaipur, Agra)
India to Thailand (Bangkok)
Thailand to Cambodia (Siem Reap/Angkor)
Cambodia to U.S.A.

This itenerary is very much in the planning stages, and likely to be altered. Any travel ideas or feedback are welcome and certainly appreciated.