Saira Raza – Around-the-World Traveler

1. When do you leave?
   June 2003

2. How long do you plan to be away?
   6-12 Months

3. How much have you saved?
   £4000

4. How old are you?
   24

5. Nationality
   England

6. Where do you live now?
   London, England

7. Occupation
   Junior Mechanical Engineer

8. Is this job one that you actually like, or are you only doing it to pay for the trip?
   One more paycheck and I’m gone

9. Have you traveled around the world before?
   No

10. What is the route you plan to take/places you plan to visit?
    London, Hawaii (on WWOOF scheme), Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Sydney (to work), Bangkok, overland to Laos, Cambodia and back, Bhutan if possible/legal, Nepal, Tibet, London.

11. Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
    Want to
    • find out if people around the world have as much in common as I suspect they have
    • feel how the world physically changes (want to experience ocean, island, mountain, desert, jungle),
    • understand how colonialsm affects how cultures evolve,
    • find somewhere peaceful and warm,
    • run away from my family!

    This (wandering) type of travel seemed right when I realised that there’s so much I don’t know that I can’t decide where to start.

12. What is your biggest fear about this trip?
    Many fears.
    People not wanting me there wherever I go.
    People resenting the fact that I can choose to bum around.
    U.S. politics.
    Racism, sexism.

13. Are your family, friends, co-workers, etc., supportive of you? What is their opinion of your going around the world?
    Friends yes. Family no. Family think it’s a selfish waste of money. Friends think I’ll go mad if I don’t!

14. How much planning and preparing have you done?
    Just Enough

15. What are you packing? What do you consider your most indispensable item(s)?
    Haven’t started but i imagine:
    • catton clothes: 4 trousers, 1 skirt, 5 tops, two jumpers, 1 jacket
    • many tampons
    • many painkillers
    • many antihistamines
    • guidebook
    • camera
    • sketchbook
    • passport, ticket, wallet
    • dental floss (apparantly a very useful thing)
    • contact lense stuff? Is that ridiculous? Glasses are so expensive here.

16. How do you think your round-the-world trip will change your life? How do you think it will affect and change you as a person?
    I hope it will make me bolder. I hope it will encourage me to make drastic decisions whenever I know I need to make them. Especially in my career.

    I hope it will give me the skills to commit myself to a sustained learning project, like a masters, and do it cos I want to and to do it well.

    I hope I learn more about my weeknesses and learn to accept them and not punish myself for them.

17. If you had to sum up your thoughts/feelings about your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it be?
    Too many things to learn, not enough time, start somewhere.

18. Why do you think people should go on round-the-world trips? Why not just take a regular old one- or two-week vacation instead?
    I think everyone should be aware of the diversity of the conditions under which people live around the world, before they can really understand themselves.

19. What is the biggest myth that people have about round-the-world traveling?
    That they are rich kids who do it to come back as smug know-alls.

20. Why do you like to travel?
    I love the sense it gives that a day is a day, wherever in the world you are. It gives you a sense of belonging to the whole world not just Ealing, West London.

    I love sensing the physical differences around the world, like whether or not the air is moist or dry, how the light reacts to its surroundings, the smells. I guess I mean novelty really.

    I get immense mental clarity when I’m travelling, it’s the only time I really know what I’m doing!

21. What is your advice for people planning their own RTW trip?
    Iif you’re squeezing it in before some deadline, then I guess you have to do whatever’s easiest/cheapest. If you don’t really have a deadline, don’t invent one (I did – it was a stupid added stress!)

    For UK people:
    Research “Great World Journey fare” from KLM and friends (Jetair, Alaska Airlines, Copa, Continental, Emirates, Air Pacific, Transavia, Kenya Airways, Malaysian, North West, SAA). Covers some amazing places, lots of South America as well as Asia (which is rare) and really cheap like £790 or something!

    Also try westernair.co.uk travel agents, lots of obscure deals with them.

    aircourier.co.uk for cheap flights to Sydney, then get your RTW from there because they’re cheaper. I think it works out cheaper.

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