- When do you leave?
March 2006
- 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. :D
- 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.