- When do you leave?
- How long do you plan to be away?
1-6 Months - How much have you saved?
I cheated – made a profit selling house - How old are you?
32 - Nationality
Ireland - Where do you live now?
Coventry, England - Occupation
programmer - 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 - Have you traveled around the world before?
No - What is the route you plan to take/places you plan to visit?
Am going to catch a train in London and hopefully end up in Singapore, then across Australia and the USA/Canada by train before catching a slow boat back across the Atlantic via Iceland. - Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
The trains in England are terrible, expensive and unreliable – I used to commute the 100 miles to London blowing 80 quid a day on the train I wanted to see how far I could get on £1600 (basically one months fares).
It started out as a bit of a joke, but the more I looked into it, the easier it was to put together a route that hit places I’d been dying to visit.
When I get back I’m off to uni to train as an architect, what better way to get a handle on how cities work than to visit 30 of ’em. 😀 - What is your biggest fear about this trip?
Two things worry me:
Trains… I never have any luck with them.
Oceans… I haven’t figured out how to cross them yet – trains only go so far.
oh, yeah! and offending people – i.e. tipping at the wrong time, wearing shoes/being barefoot in the wrong places, wearing orange, etc. - Are your family, friends, co-workers, etc., supportive of you? What is their opinion of your going around the world?
Nah! they think I’m mental, they’re writing this of as a lower-mid-life crisis of sorts. But it’ll all change when I return bearing gifts form afar. - How much planning and preparing have you done?
To the Nth Degree - What are you packing? What do you consider your most indispensable item(s)?
A camera, memory cards, battery charger, USB memory card reader, a sketchbook, pencils and some paints, spare camera, more memory..
probably the sketchbook and pencils - 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?
Are you kidding – I’ve been dying to do this for years.
This trip means a lot to me – things have been stressful recently, I’m going to have about 8 weeks to myself – complete freedom to ramble around and relax – I’m going to be so chilled out when I get back – 🙂 - If you had to sum up your thoughts/feelings about your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it be?
…a very long sentence - 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 better way to get away from it all then to go and see the rest of it. - What is the biggest myth that people have about round-the-world traveling?
That it’s difficult to plan…
Having said that I’m probably going to arrive in Cambodia in the middle of a festival as my itinerary starts to unravel – but I guess that’s why they invented ‘standby tickets’. - Why do you like to travel?
You can only get so much from reading books or websites – I’d read all about the las vegas, but that doesn’t prepare you for the 48’C afternoon blast furnace that is ‘the strip’ in July. - What is your advice for people planning their own RTW trip?
Talk to everybody – local travel agents are a great source of information – and worth the extra cost.
March 2006