Michelle James - Round-the-World Traveler

1. When do you leave?
   August 2005

2. How long do you plan to be away?
   1-6 Months

3. How much have you saved?
   700000 yen

4. How old are you?
   26

5. Nationality
   Canada

6. Where do you live now?
   Numazu city, Japan

7. Occupation
   Teacher

8. Is this job one that you actually like, or are you only doing it to pay for the trip?
   I'll come back if they'll have me

9. Have you traveled around the world before?
   No

10. What is the route you plan to take/places you plan to visit?
    Southeast Asia for one month Thailand, Indonessia and Cambodia Canada Toronto Montreal area. England Denmark France, Belgium netherlands Spain Portugal Italy Greece Morocco Turkey then back to Japan

11. Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
    Have always travelled and finally have the cash to take a well deserved five months off.

12. What is your biggest fear about this trip?
    Not enough money and travelling the SE Asia leg of the trip solo.

13. Are your family, friends, co-workers, etc., supportive of you? What is their opinion of your going around the world?
    All very green with envy and supprtive.

14. How much planning and preparing have you done?
    Control Freak

15. What are you packing? What do you consider your most indispensable item(s)?
    Money. Am a light packer and hate shopping. My digital camera is my most valuable possession right now.

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?
    Am a pretty cool chick to start off with so I'm mostly just interested in seeing the world.

17. If you had to sum up your thoughts/feelings about your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it be?
    This might be my only chance to do this and I KNOW I can do it.

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?
    Hey man after two years of living in Japan and still barely scratching the surface of the culture, language and reality of life here you gain a whole new disdain for those little snap shot holidays where every minute is set in an itinerary and you don't really get a chance to just suck the moment dry.

19. What is the biggest myth that people have about round-the-world traveling?
    That you can just hope on a plain and go. No such thing.

20. Why do you like to travel?
    Because every minute I am gone I am absorbing a little more of the world and it makes me appreciate how amazing and precious people and the planet are and when I get back to my bed and my kitchen and my pristine bathroom, it makes those things all the sweeter.

21. What is your advice for people planning their own RTW trip?
    Read Read read as much info as you can. Talk to people about thier experiences in other countries milk all the tips advece and info you can and then just plan as you go. Trying to plan stuff-especially in Asia- is cose to impossible.