- When did you go on your RTW trip?
- How old were you when you took this trip?
- Including your air ticket and other expenses (from accommodation to souvenir-buying), about how much did your trip cost?
- Nationality
- Where do you live now?
- Occupation
- Before your trip: IT Test Analyst
- Now: IT Test Analyst
- How did your travels affect your career when you got back?
- What is the route you took/places you visited?
- Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
- Out of all your experiences traveling around the world, what was the:
- Best Moment
- Worst Moment
- Biggest Hurdle, Obstacle or Difficulty?
- Biggest surprise?
- Who is the most memorable person you met on your trip and why?
- How much planning and preparing did you do?
- What was your favorite piece of gear?
- What did you bring, that in hindsight you could’ve left at home?
- How did your round-the-world trip change your life? How did it affect and change you as a person?
- If you had to sum up your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it be?
- Are you planning more trips and travels for the future? Are you planning another round-the-world trip?
- 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 most valuable thing you learned?
- 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 2004-October 2005
28
6000 (UK)
England
Sydney, Australia
Well in theory I have never gone back because I decided to stay in OZ ! Currently I have a 4 year visa and am thinking about applying for residency. It’s a wonderful country !
India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Borneo (Sarawak), Singapore, Australia, Japan, Australia.
A travelling uncle, a father who works for British Airways, watching “Raiders of the lost Ark” too many times and reading national geographic since I was a child (when I was younger i looked at the pictures!).
Meeting wild Orag-utans in the jungle
Realising I had been robbed in Saigon
Finding a decent job in Oz
Falling in Love !
There are actually 2!!! Chad was the dude who helped me to chill out in India because he is soooo shanti…. and the other is Motoko my girlfriend, I don’t need to go into details 
Planning is for tourists
My trusty Swiss Army Knife, and my cameras
sleeping bag liner – no need…
I feel a lot more relaxed about myself. I also realise that once you break that social bind you are brought up believing is a normality, the world becomes your oyster. Staying in your hometown, working a 9-5 until you retire then wondering when it will all end is NOT the way I wanted to live my life.
It is the key to the life you want !
Yes I am, currently I am trying to sort out my application for residency in Australia as I would like it as a base. After that a trip from cairo to Capetown is in the making, as is a trip from Mexico to Patagonia down the west coast of the Americas and then up the other side to Venezuala… I want to learn Spanish next. (I am currently learning Japanese)
You cannot see anything in 2 weeks, blasting through a checklist of attractions is no different to reading a book on them. You have to go there, absorb the atmosphere and take your time… you need to get back from a place and still see the grime under your nails for a month, then you have been there !
Just go with the flow and don’t get uptight if things do not go as planned !
That you can organise everything to the finist detail and expect to stick to your plan… NO WAY !
It allows me to meet people that I have only read about, appreciate what this planet has to offer both good and bad, and appreciate what I have.
Just go for it, get a ticket pack some stuff and see what happens… don;t expect to come back as the same person… if you do then you never really went !