I worked in advertising for more than I would ever do again, and when I quit I had enough money for a down payment on a home, but it was during the housing bubble so I decided to travel instead. I went to my motherland, China. To break free from the protective grips of my parents I negotiated a deal with my mother, I would take her for two weeks (all expenses paid) if she lied to my father about how I knew tons of people in China and would be coming back to the US in two months. She did, and we had an adventure. Once she had taken photos in front of every Buddha we saw, I began to really travel. Since I had to leave the country every two months to appease the terms of my one-year visa, my Mandarin was awful but I managed. Hong Kong, Thailand, Mongolia, Japan...pretty much every place I didn't need an extra visa (accept Tibet). I have so many stories I wouldn't be able to remember them all, but the best is helping my father reunite and find our long-lost family. I was in Hainan and decided to call my dad who had a number of an uncle who he had found (magically) two years prior, since I didn't speak Hainanese, I had the phone store owner call my uncle for me, then talk to my dad, then my dad told me in English. I was to wait at the public phone store for my uncle to pick me up. Since he couldn't speak English and his daughter was not yet home for the Lunar New Year holidays, he called his niece. She came over and we instantly bonded, it was like I knew her already. It was amazing. After getting my backpack from the hostel (they were disgusted, they thought it was a brothel...Hainan is famous for its hookers), I met my great grand uncle and aunt and all their children and all my cousins. It was amazing. I stayed with them for two weeks, they remember meeting my grandpa when he was young (and before the whole Pol Pot madness). As I got to know them, they told me I had more family in Thailand. After a trip to Japan, then another trip to Hainan, I found out my father was going to Cambodia for business by way of Thailand (he usually flies into Thailand then takes the bus over the border). I told him I would meet him in Thailand, as I would be there to meet our Thai family. He came over the day his flight arrived, and my Thai grandaunt and all her children and grandchildren came over, my dad had dinner with the whole family and simultaneously spoke Hainanese, Thai, and English as he told the story of his family, the war in Cambodia, and how he got America. Even though I lied to my father to get to China, and briefly strained my relationship with him, by taking a risk and traveling the world I helped my father fulfill a promise he made to my grandpa before he died, to reconnect with our distant family, my dutiful daughter deed was fulfilled. Plus I got to climb the Great Wall and drink yak butter tea in Tibet.