Six Months in Asia
Six months travelling through Asia — and what I brought back that never fitted in a suitcase.
I left Barcelona in the middle of December with a backpack, a laptop I promised not to open too often, and no return ticket. Six months later I came back with the same bag and a different sense of what a normal week looks like.
The shape of it
The trip had no itinerary, only a direction. North to Taipei, then slowly west — Osaka, Seoul, Chengdu, Chiang Mai, and finally a long, humid month in Bangkok. I stayed long enough in each place to stop being a visitor and start being a person who buys groceries.
Travel doesn’t change you as much as it makes you aware of what was already there.
What I noticed
The first thing to go was the reflex to optimise. For years I had organised my life around getting more done in less time, and travel quietly dissolved it. You cannot rush a night market or a visa office. You can only wait, eat something, and talk to whoever is next to you.
The second thing was how much of my identity lived in my work. Take away the office, the stand-ups and the roadmap, and there is a lot of Giuseppe left — but he had to be reintroduced to himself.
Coming back
I came home in late May with no grand conclusions, which I now think is the honest result. I didn’t find myself, and I didn’t reinvent my career. I just got a little more patient, a little more curious, and a lot more convinced that time is the only thing worth spending carefully.