On 22.08.2025, I boarded a plane in Budapest to start a new chapter in my life.
I have been living in Asia since then.
This post is part one of a three-part series summarizing my past year.
The full series is:
A year around the world
A year within myself
A year with her
A year around the world
I’ll start the summary with a few numbers.
During this one year, I wrote 221 posts here on my blog. 150 of them deal with the world.
During this one year, I lived in 5 countries. I crossed national borders 13 times.
I lived in 36 settlements, slept in 48 different beds.
I could only estimate the number of kilometers and hours traveled. I think a lot is an appropriate adjective. As the crow flies, it means about 12,000 km, which was relatively easy to calculate afterwards.
During this one year, I didn’t drive a car. On the other hand, I traveled more kilometers on a motorbike. Every time illegally. There were times when three of us sat on the motorbike I was driving.
I used many vehicles for my travels. Airplane, boat, train, sleeper train, bus, sleeper bus, minibus. Taxi, motorbike taxi. I hitchhiked once.
I walked 2,300 km. The average distance per day is 6.5 km. The longest distance I walked in one day was 60 km.
The total distance I traveled in a year – whether by car or on foot – could theoretically be between 14,000–15,000 km. In reality, it was much more.
My body
I was 103 kg when I left Hungary. Today I weigh 79 kg.
I lost 20 kg in the first two months. I consider it a great achievement that I not only lost weight, but that I have also maintained my weight for a long time.
My weight loss was the result of several things.
My previous regular, but not everyday, walking certainly plays a role in it.
My diet immediately changed. For almost a year now, I have been eating rice and rice noodles, with lots of vegetables. Fruit is also not uncommon on my menu. I have hardly eaten bread during this time, nor have I eaten classic fast food. My consumption of sugary drinks has decreased to a fraction. And last but not least, I eat much less. The portions I consume are smaller. And I eat a maximum of three times a day. Most often, it occurs twice a day.
During this one year, I also tried fasting. I started for 6 days. I only drank water and coffee for 6 days.
My weight loss had serious consequences.
I threw away the medication I had been taking for high blood pressure for 3 years 2 months after my arrival. I haven’t taken any medication for 10 months.
According to the people who sleep in the same room with me, I don’t snore. I didn’t even bring my breathing machine that I used to use for my sleep apnea out of Asia.
Two weeks ago someone talked about reflux. I had a very strange realization at that time. I had problems with it too, I was about to start taking medication. But it was so long ago that when they said the word, I had to think for a moment what it meant. Then came the forgotten memory.
My inner journey is another entry in this series. However, in the following changes, not only weight loss but also inner work plays a role.
I struggled with sleep problems for 15 years. These difficulties were doubled by sleep apnea.
Today I no longer have sleep problems.
Sometimes I have a harder time falling asleep before a day that promises to be more exciting. But if I do fall asleep, I don’t wake up at night anymore.
I’m back to the point where 5-6 hours of sleep a day is completely satisfactory. There is no fatigue during the day. The schoolboy who rolls over from his chair is gone.
There has been a war in my bed since I was a teenager. My sheets were never in place in the morning. The blanket and pillow were wrinkled and thrown around every morning. I tossed and turned all night. I often woke up to find myself tossing and turning from side to side.
That’s gone too. For months now I’ve been sleeping with almost everything in my bed intact. I’ve calmed down. And it’s not just the bedclothes that are safe next to me. My two backpacks are daily guests in my bed. And my things unpacked against the wall. I often sleep with my laptop next to me on the edge of the bed. My glasses and my phone. And I wasn’t afraid of them at all. I know that we won’t be in any trouble, I won’t lie on them.
I thought a lot about the following thought. Should I write it, should I?
I share everything honestly on my blog. That’s why I decided that since this is also an important part of summarizing my year, here is its place among the facts.
While evaluating the changes, we are increasingly moving towards the effects caused by psychological changes.
A few weeks ago I was talking to someone about health matters. The person said that he had stored only one thing as an indicator of his body as a man. A doctor told him that as long as a man has a morning erection, his body is fine.
I don’t necessarily accept this as truth. But the fact is that in January I discovered that this phenomenon had returned to my life without me even noticing its departure.
The next change is the strangest for me. I have struggled with motion sickness my whole life. I would get sick in the back seat of a car. I couldn’t read or use my phone on a train, bus, or in a moving vehicle. If I had to look at the map on my phone for half a minute to help the driver, I had to roll down the window. Traveling with my back to the direction of travel is a minor death sentence for me.
I had to miss an entire evening on board the Nomad Cruise because I was seasick.
3 months ago I told myself “no!” to the nausea that started on a cruise to Cat Ba.
I don’t take any medication for this phenomenon. Since then, I have repeatedly faced the fact that I can overcome this thing.
Now I am sitting on a train. With my back to the direction of travel. And I’ve been writing this post on my phone for an hour.
My age is regularly underestimated, and when I hear the truth, they are incredulous. I’m aware that this is also a matter of constitution. But I’m also sure that the changes have done me good.
I’m aware that my body will also signal its problems sooner or later.
But until then, I’m very happy with my current state.
I haven’t worn long pants for a year. My skin gets a lot of sunlight.
Tropical life has brought many external changes to me.
In the next post, I’ll describe what I see inside.
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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