The twentieth year of this journey has begun. What have these years done to me?

Well, to be honest, I really wasn't expecting this: an email from an old friend I haven't been in touch with for ages landed in my inbox. You know how it is, distance usually doesn't help friendships.

This guy used to be known for preferring to party the night away rather than take responsibility and do his chores. A real bad apple, which is probably why we got along so well back then. And now he suddenly gets in touch, all nice and proper, and tells me that his daughter graduated from high school this year and is starting university.

Let me think for a moment… since when does he have a daughter?

Very slowly my sun-dried brain cells start working again and I remember: When I set sail in August 2007, his girlfriend was heavily pregnant.

Hmmm...apparently she's had the baby now...a girl. How lovely.

Imagine that. In my memory, I see the girl, the expectant mother, with a big belly – and now the contents of that belly are going to university.

Have I really been traveling for that long?

Of course I know the year. I write a little story here on the blog every year. But holy crap, you only really grasp what 19 years actually mean when you suddenly realize that an unborn baby has become a budding academic, while you yourself have been drifting around the world, seemingly losing all sense of time in the process.

That makes me think for a moment.

And it occurs to me that this year – presumably due to the chaos of Thai bureaucracy – I even forgot my obligatory entry on August 17th.

19 years on the road and now the 20th has begun.

For me, it was a journey. An adventure. A rather long series of experiences.

For the former round belly, however, it's his entire previous life.

Baby, kindergarten, school, teenage problems, heartbreak… and now university.

Nineteen wonderful, eventful years lie behind me, and suddenly it dawns on me: Time doesn't actually stand still. It just sometimes travels along so subtly that you don't even notice it on board.

I'm looking at some pictures from the past 19 years. One for each year.

Sun and salt have tanned me thoroughly during this time, but I don't feel a day older.

On the contrary.

I can hardly imagine any other life that would keep me as fit as this one on board.

Perhaps that's the real secret: if you're on the road long enough, you don't even notice how you're getting older – so you're quite surprised when you find that the children who weren't even born when you started this journey are now studying.