Mike Flappan - Round-the-World Traveler

1. When do you leave?
   June 2006

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

3. How much have you saved?
   18000

4. How old are you?
   23

5. Nationality
   USA

6. Where do you live now?
   Lawrence, KS, USA

7. Occupation
   Student / Sales Rep

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?
    Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Morocco Germany, Italy, England, Holland, Poland, Czech Rep., Greece, Romania, Egypt, Israel, India, SE Asia, Thailand, Japan, China, + possibly more

11. Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
    A couple of friends and I got together and started talking about how cool it would be to take a year off after college and go around the world. Then it just started to happen.

12. What is your biggest fear about this trip?
    Not quite sure. I really don't have too many fears about the trip at this point.

13. Are your family, friends, co-workers, etc., supportive of you? What is their opinion of your going around the world?
    Friends that aren't going are jealous. Family is supportive but pretty concerned

14. How much planning and preparing have you done?
    Winged it a lot

15. What are you packing? What do you consider your most indispensable item(s)?
    Haven't completely figure this out yet either. Just a couple pairs of clothes, camera, cell phone, sandals, mp3 player... stuff like that.

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 changes a lot about me. Just experiencing different cultures and meeting new people should do that. Plus I'm really looking forward to the awesome stories that I can tell people about once I get back.

17. If you had to sum up your thoughts/feelings about your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it be?
    I'm about to experience possibly the coolest thing I've ever done in my life and it's only months away.

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?
    One or two week trips are just vacations. They aren't lifestyle changes where you actually change as a person. If I was only going one week, I'd probably spend the majority of it just looking at museums and getting drunk. It's hard to learn about yourself and other cultures if you do that.

19. What is the biggest myth that people have about round-the-world traveling?
    That it has to cost a lot of money.

20. Why do you like to travel?
    It feels good to be free and it makes it easy to experience life

21. What is your advice for people planning their own RTW trip?
    try to experience the trip with no regrets.