Hey Again Steemitizens!
I'm here today to announce a secret plan I've been hatching to take over the world, one country at a time! It's evil, nefarious and soon the entire planet will be MINE!
or you know, maybe not so much take over the world, but I am going to get to meet some of you and come home really tired after 16 days of circumnavigating the entire planet and landing in five countries to visit and explore and meet Steemitizens!
It all started when one of my employees and good friends invited me to his wedding in Kolkata last fall. I thought it would be impossible for me to save the money and take the time to go to India for that event and yet, I didn't completely rule it out.
I set to planning and saving some STEEM income and personal job income and then I got a small inheritance that sort of made everything click into place and become possible back in late December. My mother passed away just over a year ago and when the very modest small estate was settled, there was just enough for me to take care of some personal debt and make this trip happen!
The delay in a year of getting the estate settled was super frustrating to wait for all year, caused by laws and nonsense about dispensing such things. In the end, though, it turned out to be an amazing timing miracle really, because if I had received the inheritance much earlier before the trip invitation, it would surely have been spent on total crap, and fun toys like drones and junk like that.
Having the small inheritance be delayed for nearly a year to be finalized and delivered was a boon in the end, as it left me ready to plan this trip JUST in time to get it done affordably to fly out in February with the couple thousand dollars I need to make this trip happen. It's a very tightly budgeted trip and not nearly as expensive as it might sound which really surprised me and makes me wish I had done it long ago. No time like now, though right, for a once in a lifetime trip?
So, where am I going to meet YOU?
I will be leaving the United States on Feb 24th at night.
First stop will be Amsterdam on the morning of the 25th, where I am already confirmed to be picked up by none other than @PoeticSnake who will be my lovely and gracious hostess for the first 24 hours of my trip! She lives about an hour from the city, so I will get to go out into the real Netherlands and stay in her town/village/city to experience local life away from the tourism of the Dam's coffee shops and red light, to truly experience the real Netherlands. Yay!
So if you are in Amsterdam, Rotterdam or nearby and want to be part of the meetup, I am thinking we could arrange a coffee/brunch/lunch thing near the airport that we can stop by when I land, before we make the hour drive out to the SnekkyFarm.
Leaving Amsterdam in the evening of the 26th will have me landing in Abu Dhabi U.A.E for just 8 hours, but even THEN I will be meeting a fellow steemitizen Witness, @nnnavarez in what turns out to be a CRAZY twist. Nathan is a Venezuelan, who lives in France, and we have become good buddies here over the past months. As it happens he has business in Abu Dhabi coinciding with my dates of passing through and we've arranged for him to come get me at the airport where we will hustle into the city, share a meal and some laughs in person then get me back to the airport to continue on to India later that evening!
Leaving Abu Dhabi U.A.E. at 8pm will land me in India yet again the next day, and as such I will land in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) for my longest stop, on Feb 27th and will stay there through the evening of March 9th, for nearly 12 days on the ground in India.
In India, I will have lots of freedom to move around to reasonable distances around Kolkata for day trips. I am staying in the region of Kolkata called "Salt Lake Sector" of the city, so if you are anywhere near there, and want to plan a steemitizen meetup with me, SirCork, please do let me know ASAP so I can plan my "tourism" around it!
Then from Kolkata on the 9th, I fly to Hong Kong, where I will touch down and enter into Hong Kong on foot, bound for the train to the Jet Ferry piers in central east HK to go on over to Macau where I've reserved a beautiful room on the beach in the very southern-eastern corner of Macau on the sands of the North Pacific ocean. From there, I pretty much plan to be playing poker in the Rio (the alleged "seedy" local's low budget poker room on the island, which is my favorite kind of poker room) but will obviously be stopping by the Cathedral ruins and some of the other 38 casinos of "The Las Vegas of the East" as well.
Let's play a few hands of cards, or have a drink in Macau! Who's with me, fellow Steemitizens? I know at least ONE of you lives on that lovely island!
At least one pirate radio broadcast will happen on the SteemStar Network while I am out on the "road" with various steemitizens along the way, so keep that dial tuned into the 24/7 stream to make sure you don't miss the fun as I meet people around the world and hop on the air to introduce them in person! @Poeticsnake and I might just do a whole show from her place in the Netherlands too but you know how rapid travel can change your plans rapidly so this will all be totally random, I am totally randomly sure of it!!!
The basic itinerary:
Feb 25: Leave Richmond Va, 90 min in Philadelphia with no time to meet here.
Feb 25/26: Amsterdam, Netherlands - 24 hours meeting @poeticsnake
Feb 27: Abu Dhabi UAE - 8 hours, meeting @nnnavarez
Feb 28-Mar 9: Kolkata, India - meeting you?
Mar 10/11: Hong Kong & Macau - meeting you?
March 11: Chicago - Have plans here for my 4 hour stop already to have lunch with an old High School buddy.
So.. come and catch up with me somewhere on the way! The timings will be tight sometimes, but let's grab this chance to make beautiful selfies together!
See you... somewhere, and if not there, I'll see you all back here on the SteemStar Network on YOUR show, every Sunday!
Yours in Service,
@SirCork
Founder: @YouAreHOPE Foundation
Founder: @SteemStar Network
Steem Witness #75
How harmonious it is to set goals and that despite the obstacles that may appear to carry them out, it is admirable the way you found to do it always with the help of our superior being we achieved everything that we propose, you have my admiration so is a friend, successes
Thank you and thank you for what YOU have done on the ground in Venezuela where it matters most right now as well! You have ALL OF OUR admiration and mine most of all! <3
I can't wait to hear about/read about these adventures. I already know a few of the plans from listening on SoS. If you swing through the burgh at any point - I can show you a bit of the pinball scene. Have fun travelling!
I'm going to make a trip North I think in the warmer weather later. If I recover from the world tour, I want to head up to meet you, play some p-ball, then on to the Boston/R.I. area to meet @r0nd0n at some point and perhaps even up to Ca-nay-dee-uh to meet @shadowspub and @thebugiq, who knows? I am my own man, and my job operates from my phone, more or less. It's harder to maintain my steem life and projects remotely than it is to run my software company lol. One is all delegation by email and phone meetings, the other is 29 hours per 24 hour day of actual work, guess which is which? lol
Hey! We are starting to put a PNW steemit campout together this summer... just sayin'!
Can you be a tad more specific fish? :) When and where? :)
@arbitrarykitten and I JUST started talking about it. I have suggested Wallowa Lake, OR but that is literally the first suggestion tossed out. I was going to do a list of possible locations today, feel free to make a suggestion! Oregon or Washington, somewhere we can play in the water, and I prefer trees but am OK with desert too.
also "oregon or washington... play in coldest friggin water ever" and "trees but desert is cool" - you are cracking me up right about now, lol.
Oh yeah, might want to look for a spot with some hot springs too... but bring your wetsuit too... lol!
I lived in Glenwood Springs Co in the 90s and my mom was from Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee. Hot springs are in my blood. I am quintessentially, hot blooded.
Check it and see? LOL!
They are all over near here, we lived at a place where the house was plumbed with hot water as heat for a while. Steamy warm throne - a beautiful thing lol!
There are no hot springs in red boiling springs tn :(
There are tobacco fields and chickens and pigs and stuff.. oh yeah, tweakers :p
make it a weed legal state please. and i love @arbitrarykitten, but she don't talk to me enough :P
I live in Idaho, I LOVE Idaho. I already said it needs to be in Washington or Oregon... ;)
Well, I've been to both. Pick Washington, maybe close to seattle please. I have my reasons. Including our nearby Snow State neighbors like @crimsonclad and others up in Vancouver.
Duly noted! We were hoping for something more centrally located though... Idahoans helping throw this... Seattle is a LONG, brutal drive for us.
wow... I Bet it's going to an awesome experience for you..
Im super excited! I've been to some other countries before, this trip will bring my total to 12, but those were Canada and Mexico, so more like just going to "weird" american states more or less, given the proximity, and I flew to Iceland and the UK to see Wales, England and Scotland in the 90s when I was married, but again, not really all that "foreign" to me, because English speaking, staying with family I already had met and knew in the states when they came here and all, as I was married to a Welsh girl then and it was all pretty expectable for me as a result.
But this? U.A.E., Western Europe, India, Asia? Wow, this will be a "trip" of a trip! For sure!
yea and when you are done visiting all these places, do take out time to come to Nigeria... It will be fun.
Nigeria is at the TOP of my list actually, and Ghana and the Philippines and Venezuela of course. But Nigeria is very dear to me as its one of the first countries we did work in after founding YouAreHOPE, via the lovely and wonderful @MisterAkpan there in Lagos, as well as my friend @Samest in lagos as well.
The Nigerians have been big supporters of SirCork as witness and community and charity founder, and Ive really enjoyed getting to know you all, and learning so much about your country to fix all the wrong crap I learned growing up here in the USA.
Wow, thank God that you and as well as other people have realised that we are not as bad as other countries believe us to be. And although i just got to know about YouAreHOPE, i'm glad at how you've gone and i'm looking forward to working with you sometime.
Come see us in our chat discord. The link is at the top of the @YouAreHOPE blog profile header :)
Next year you’ll have to hit Colorado 😄
I lived in Glenwood Springs in 1990 and worked at Aspen Highlands Resort as a lift operator for a season, in addition, I was on FM radio on KDNK Carbondale, Redstone, Aspen rocking up and down the alleys in the valleys.
But I'd come back. I love me some rocky mountain highs ;)
Hehehe! great buddy!
I hope you mean February though :P
Can't wait to make that happen! (hope the old pump don't play games on me... I had another scare last night)
Oh shit, yep, editing FAST now :)
any chance you pass by in London UK, just whistle!
I've been to London before, so it's not at the TOP of my "haven't done it yet" list, but it is likely that if I pursue more travel, i will connect through there at some point. If I ever do, I'll certainly set myself to stay a few days so I can meet my pals there like @pennsif in Wales and @Gmuxx in some random alley in northern England.
I'll be sure to toot out the Venalbe attention alert as well! :D
That definitely sounds like a lot of fun !! I'm sure @PoeticSnake will take great care of you!
I'm pretty close in the Middle East, yet you're staying very short in Abu Dhabi, a flight from Lebanon would be difficult!
Hopefully next time you could plan Lebanon to be among your stops :D
Sure, I think this will be definitely happening again, as long as STEEM goes North, I'll go Out! :)
This whole trip, without really holding back is less than 5K and if I had been REALLY careful, I could have done it for less than 3K for the 16 days, flights and board included! I thought it would be triple this to do these things but I've been moderately frugal, allowing some luxuries, such as the macau casino stop, just because, well, once in a lifetime and stuff.
Wow - excellent! I'm sure you will have a lot of exciting experiences along the way. :)
I was thinking about going to Amsterdam soon, so maybe we can connect there.
That would be super cool. I land in Amsterdam at 10:35am on Sunday Feb 25th. Is that any where near your time plans? I will be leaving Monday evening, but PoeticSnake lives about an hour from Amsterdam so the idea is to have her come into the city to meet me at the airport, have a meetup planned in town for that morning/afternoon then go out to her place for the night after that till I have to come back on monday and fly out in the evening, so a second option is when i come back into amsterdam to leave, we could come back into town early on Mon the 27th for a meetup too.
i was planning to take a friend there who wants to go who has never been - but that's not going to happen any time soon now - however, i'm always up for a trip so i'll see what i can do. :)
I'll show up if you will, of course, I will anyway, but also if you will :)
haha - that's convenient, thanks. :)
I am a man of many conveniences :D
I am afraid I am not on your flight plan :{ I live in Nicaragua...Not many Steemians here that I know of, just me and my two sons...
Well get busy spreading the word! We can't have you getting all the steem in all of Nicaragua can we? :D
I do want to come to the south, another trip.
My belated condolences
Have a safe and fun travel, hope you get to meet tons of awesome Steemians!
Thank you!
Bon Voyage
Merci' :)
You should put steempark on your to do list this Summer. Lots of steemers in the area. See what the community put together.
It's a possibility. I'm well aware of the project.
I am with you in the future; not sure I would choose the same destinations; who is to say, it's very subjective.
We can do some trips in the future bro.
Hah, well I chose amsterdam, and i was heading to india for a wedding. the rest were strictly chosen by cheap flights and convenient layovers in interesting places :)
Next up, i need to go to several African countries, south american countries and the Philippines. All in good time, this shit aint cheap, Mr Tesla!
I just stumbled oy your post now. It's so amazing to read about your tour and am so glad you'd be coming to UAE. Am in UAE and would be glad to meet you if you don't mind