Trisha Sng - Around-the-World Traveler
- When do you leave?
- How long do you plan to be away?
- How much have you saved?
- How old are you?
- Nationality
- Where do you live now?
- Occupation
- Is this job one that you actually like, or are you only doing it to pay for the trip?
- Have you traveled around the world before?
- What is the route you plan to take/places you plan to visit?
- China (mostly interior parts, travelling south-to-north with detour west to Xinjiang)
- Mongolia (shall be taking the Trans-Siberian Rail with stops at Mongolia and Lake Baikal in Russia)
- Russia (around Moscow and St. Petersburg, I suppose)
- Poland (maybe around Krakow or just passing through)
- Western Europe (just Cologne, Amsterdam and London, to meet friends)
- Brazil (mostly south of Rio de Janeiro, all the way south to Foz du Iguacu and west to Pantanal. Brazil is too big.)
- Bolivia (shall be studying Spanish there for a while and perhaps doing some sort of volunteer work before visiting the jungle, Lago Titicaca, Salar de Uyuni)
- Chile (almost the whole north-to-south route)
- Argentina (of course, the glaciers)
- United States (just San Francisco)
- Tahiti (trying to sneak this in to relax in style on an atoll in the Pacific Ocean after the months of travelling, but might not be able to afford it, haha... dream on)
- Australia (just Melbourne to meet another friend who should be back by then from her 2-year RTW trip)
- Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
- What is your biggest fear about this trip?
- Are your family, friends, co-workers, etc., supportive of you? What is their opinion of your going around the world?
- How much planning and preparing have you done?
- What are you packing? What do you consider your most indispensable item(s)?
- Sleeping bag: I expect to be sleeping quite frequently on trains.
- Camera & tripod: After my photography course, I hope to capture some good shots.
- Bicycle chain & lock: To sling across my backpack and lock up with something so that I can sleep better on trains or hostels.
- Guide-books, phrase books, journals, novel to exchange.
- Bandana: For the bad-hair month.
- Sturdy 1-litre bottle: To refill from water-dispenser at hotels; to hold hot water after boiling it at hostel kitchens, etc., so that I buy less plastic bottles.
- Most indispensable: comfy Doc Martens boots and sandals.
- 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?
- If you had to sum up your thoughts/feelings about your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it be?
- 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?
- What is the biggest myth that people have about round-the-world traveling?
- Why do you like to travel?
- What is your advice for people planning their own RTW trip?
April 2002
6-12 Months
About GBP£10,000
28
Singapore
Singapore
Technical Support Deputy Manager
One more paycheck and I'm gone
No
I have been meeting RTW-trippers in my past trips and as I got a bit more experienced in solo-travelling, I started to wonder if I could do a RTW too.
I guess what really made me set my mind to this trip was the inspiration I got from a lady I met in Mexico who was on her third world tour. She is the most unassuming person I've ever met, and she had all these amazing experiences which I had to coax out from her. She had none of those showy traits like some travellers who try to shove their world-tour itinerary down your throat the first 5 minutes of meeting you. She brought no camera and carried only a small haversack. She is very interesting. I could never pack so little!
Anyway, things didn't go quite well at work lately, so I set a challenge for myself: To quit this year and go see for myself that the world is indeed round. ;-)
When I was about 8, I used to sit in a corner and study the globe intently, memorising country names, placements relative of one another and tracing their shapes. My mom said that I could go wherever I wanted when I started earning money myself. Guess she didn't expect me to take her words literally. Travel begets travel. Once you start, you really can't stop.
Of being attacked by muggers or rapists!
Although, I reckon, my friends are not 100% certain it's the right choice for me or anyone to make, they are supportive and happy for me. My siblings were encouraging right from the start. My mom needed some convincing, but I guess she has resigned herself to her fate (of having a daughter like me).
I believe most of my friends have some sort of admiration and envy for me, that I dare to make the trip by myself and that I'm willing to quit my job and just go.
Just Enough
I'll probably have a reverse culture shock when I return and will take a long time to get used to a desk-bound job again.
I reckon I will see things in a different light, from various perspectives. I think I will be more aware of the social issues around the world and be more open-minded about various issues.
It probably will make me more streetwise, laid-back, patient, giving, humble and have more empathy.
Solo-travelling for a long trip involves a lot of flexibility, working around with limited resources and cracking your brain for alternative solutions. I think I will be trained in these areas which might be useful for future jobs, haha... I shall have to remember this when I go for job interviews.
I just wanna take a look.
I think such a trip is good for self-actualisation, when one is ready for it and has the attitude for it. One can really learn a lot from his/her travel experiences and improve on oneself as a person and maybe be a good influence in one's society in the future, using what one experienced. Travelling really does open one's eyes.
This type of travels is, however, not suited for everyone. I now no longer bother explaining about my passion to some of my friends as many do not really understand. They just grin politely. I grin back.
I've also met some travellers who went on RTW trips but ended up being so full of themselves as if "they've travelled ALL OVER the world." They tend to interrupt to put in a word of what happened to them where, or to hint to you about this secret place you can go only if you're cool, or to bluntly inform you that your experiences are peanuts compared to theirs. As they interrogate and cross-examine you on where you've been, it became a competition to them, comparing how much MORE they have suffered, that their Inca Trail was 6 km LONGER than yours, that they spent 1 MORE night at Wadi Rum, etc... It's very annoying. I think this is the wrong attitude. They've only but travelled a ribbon around the world. You don't travel to show off.
For the rest of the practical sorts, if they are comfortable taking a one- or two-week vacation or even none at all, I say, let them be.
That it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. It's not!
I'm a curious person. I like trying out new experiences. I love making conversations with strangers, locals or fellow travellers. I'm fascinated by diverse cultures, beautiful traditional costumes, the different facial features, things-that-make-you-go-HUHH???, etc... I love maps. I enjoy wildlife-watching, people-watching, trekking, photo-taking. I even like taking metros and visiting markets. I get a triumphant sense of achievement after buying something as simple as a train ticket and hopping onto the right train in a place where I can't even make out the curly chicken scratches the locals call "words".
I think one should be thrown out of one's comfort zone once a while. Instead of doing your routine pattern on auto-pilot brainlessly, one should occasionally have to face the challenges of worrying about food (how NOT to purge from the top and the bottom at the same time) and lodgings (don't sleep with bed-bugs) and mental health (is the guy sitting beside me on this 18-hour bus ride a psycho?) on a daily basis.
Start off at countries with a culture familiar to you before heading to places with cultures and languages much more different than yours.
You are going to be a traveller for months and months. After a while, certain must-see sights may not excite you much anymore. If you're from UK, say, starting off in Phnom Penh will wow you for sure. But by the time you make your way to Prague, you're probably not going to find Charles' Bridge that beautiful. On the other hand, if you visited Krakow first and found the cathedral and town square gorgeous, by the time you get to Kunming, you'll still be fascinated by the temples and villages.
Also, slip in developed countries in sections after visiting second- or third-world countries for a breather where you can organise your onward trip with a familiar language and relative efficiency.
Follow Trisha's RTW trip with her travelogue, The Year of Living Differently.
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