THE Lowly Peon

An Addiction 
25 February 2010, 7:55am

I may not travel as much as ol' George in Up in the Air, but I travel enough that I consider it a significant part of my lifestyle. Several of my friends and colleagues make comments about how exhausting it must be, and how hard it must be to live out of a suitcase. The aforementioned movie seems to suggest that a life of travel leaves you feeling empty and alone. I feel very much different.

Consider, for a minute, the last few weeks of my life, starting when I returned to China after a trip to India, Hong Kong, Chicago, and Houston this December/January:

I took a short vacation with my best buddy hobbeseroo in Hong Kong. I was in Hangzhou, my home, for about a week, working, meeting friends, and preparing for a trip to northern China. During that week, I learned I'd have to take an unexpected trip to Vietnam. It took me about three days to get travel arrangements taken care of, including flights, hotels, and visas, and then I took off. I was in Vietnam for a busy three days, followed by a weekend at the beach, and then two days with my girlfriend (who happens to be an accountant who went to Vietnam to train the local guys). I left Vietnam and went directly to Xi'an, the world's most polluted city (from my experience), and the next day went to Dalian (near Korea, apparently China's least polluted city). There, I ate good seafood and went to the beach. It was great. I came back to Hangzhou for a week, then went to San Francisco with my wonderful girlfriend, where we saw saulemander, nellie, and hulkamaniac, among others. We took a trip down the coast, saw the wonderful blue sky and ocean, went wine tasting, and lived it up.

Sounds exhausting, right?

Well, really, it's not. In fact, it's incredibly exciting. I was hanging out with simonite a few weeks ago in Austin, discussing the possibility of quitting my job to get a degree in graphic design. He said, softly, that sounds great and all, but won't you get bored? And I'll tell you. He gets it. The whole lifestyle is addictive.

The trip to Shanghai in the winter sounds awful. And that sure is a long way to go just to get to the airport! Well, we stayed at the Park Hyatt for free, and got a free bottle of champagne to welcome us, all because of my elite status at Hyatt.

The long flight from Shanghai to San Francisco is horrible, right? Well, we got a free upgrade to business class because of my elite status with United.

All that time living out of a suitcase? Yuck. Well, actually, it makes me focus on the things I need, the things I don't, and the things I simply want sometimes.

And the best part? I've got a cool 100k miles now, with more to come. So hopefully by the time daisy & I go to benji and keri's wedding, I'll have enough miles to fly both of us there for free (assuming my company doesn't pay, which they probably will). I get free upgrades to business class, free internet at any Hyatt, free coffee delivered to my room, I have special phone lines I can call to make reservations, and the miles I earn allow me to fly to Korea to maggie33 for free (which I hope to do sometime next month), or to Tokyo to visit daisy when she does an internal audit there.

Sure, there are times when I am really tired. There are times, above all, when I long for some kind of routine, my favorite restaurants, my free WiFi, or to be able to sync my iPhone. There are times when it's annoying to lug a suitcase around, or to always be aware that you're temporary. But all in all, at this time in my life, when I have no family of my own, my own family is all over the world (as are my friends), whom I can easily communicate with using my very portable iPhone and my very paid-for-by-my-company-piece-of-poop* Blackberry, and my job is otherwise meaningless and boring?

Sign me up.