- 2,779
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- Joined
- Jul 31, 2006
I've been a part of this forum for quite some time now so I thought it would be appropriate to let my NT fam know about my adventures!
I'M GOING AROUND THE WORLD
Yup, pretty exciting stuff. I leave tomorrow morning.
My current route is New Zealand -> Australia -> Singapore -> Thailand -> India -> Europe (various countries)
I live in Toronto, so I'll be stopping over in LA before going to New Zealand. Hopefully I'll get to see some famous people strolling through LAX for All Star Weekend.
I'll be staying in each country for about 2 months and I'll be living in hostels/motels for the most part. This will be the longest trip I've taken and the only one I've taken alone, so it should be quite the adventure. If anyone has any tips/links/family I can chill with drop me a tweet/email (jamesforlife.aroundtheworld@gmail.com) it would be much appreciated.
I'll be keeping a blog and updating my twitter as much as possible www.jamesforlife.blogspot.com and @jamesforlife
Anyone else out there have experience with long term travel?
Anyway, wish me luck NT!
Edit: Here is the FAQ I posted on my blog to answer some of your questions
FAQ
Why are you doing this? Are you out of your mind?
First of all, I'd like to express to you my deepest sympathies. Being confined in your own mind all the time must be exhausting and monotonous.
I've been trying to come up with a lengthy philosophical answer to this question, mentioning life changing experiences and learning about new cultures, but I normally just say "Why not?" or "I have nothing else to do".
I'm pretty sure traveling is just something people in my family do. There was no other option after hearing about some of the trips my cousins were taking, I had to do it too. And once I found out you could get an AROUND THE WORLD ticket I pretty much made up my mind. I think that was about two or three years ago and now here we are. After graduating Uni. I worked for about 8 months (2 separate jobs, with a 2 week trip to London + 2 weeks at home in between...not trying to work too hard) to save some money and then started planning my trip. I started in September, so it took me a while, but I got around to it.
Are you going to be working?
I don't think I'll be actively looking for any jobs or anything until I need to. I heard you can just work at hostels without visas or ANYTHING.....(lul). But if I stumble upon something cool I might be interested.
Are you anxious/nervous/scared?
Yes a little bit, mostly when I'm going to bed and thinking "I won't be able to sleep like this for a while"...if you've ever been in my bed you understand, I use 100 pillows and 100 blankets all strategically placed, its complex.
Other than that, I'm a bit apprehensive about entering a country where I don't speak the language and they don't use the Latin alphabet. But I will have to deal with that as it comes.
I came to a crossroads during my planning period where I asked myself if this was what I really wanted to do. It came down to starting my working life, moving out, and all of that or traveling until I get tired of it. It didn't take much convincing as I am an expert on my life and had all my facts and figures in order.
What are you going to do? Won't you be bored?
I'll be staying in hostels mostly, so I'll be meeting people and finding out what they are up to. Also some hostels provide information for adventure trips and things like that. But aside from that I wanted to find out what the people in the city/town were about, in terms of music, food, and enjoyment.
And if all that fails, I love people watching and just being outside, I'm sure I won't run out of either so I should be set.
Are you going to get any souvenirs from your destinations?
I decided (if I remember) that I want to collect news paper headings from all the places I go, because:
1) I enjoy information, so I'll probably be reading the paper anyway.
2) Easily stowed in an envelope in my bag
I'll pick up other cool stuff if it can fit in my bag or clip on or something. Maybe I'll get a tattoo of each countries flag as I arrive..Ha.
Are you going to miss me?
Probably at first, but I'm sure I'll get over it. We'll always have this blog and twitter (and skype if you're lucky). I fully expect a few days worth of crying though; hopefully not consecutive days.
Your blog is so boring looking, what gives? Didn't you take this in school?!
Well kids, I did have to do some web design in school so I am well aware of the things I could do. However, I'm extremely lazy and again a master of my own psyche, so it was easy to convince myself not to go any further with the design.
Also, I am trying to keep it as mobile friendly as I can, as there are some devices that don't have a mobile version of Blogger made for them. Plus, if you're at work it looks much less suspicious if you are looking at a plain white page with text as opposed to a dark background with a large banner...I'm really just looking out for the viewers interests here.
I'M GOING AROUND THE WORLD
Yup, pretty exciting stuff. I leave tomorrow morning.
My current route is New Zealand -> Australia -> Singapore -> Thailand -> India -> Europe (various countries)
I live in Toronto, so I'll be stopping over in LA before going to New Zealand. Hopefully I'll get to see some famous people strolling through LAX for All Star Weekend.
I'll be staying in each country for about 2 months and I'll be living in hostels/motels for the most part. This will be the longest trip I've taken and the only one I've taken alone, so it should be quite the adventure. If anyone has any tips/links/family I can chill with drop me a tweet/email (jamesforlife.aroundtheworld@gmail.com) it would be much appreciated.
I'll be keeping a blog and updating my twitter as much as possible www.jamesforlife.blogspot.com and @jamesforlife
Anyone else out there have experience with long term travel?
Anyway, wish me luck NT!
Edit: Here is the FAQ I posted on my blog to answer some of your questions
FAQ
Why are you doing this? Are you out of your mind?
First of all, I'd like to express to you my deepest sympathies. Being confined in your own mind all the time must be exhausting and monotonous.
I've been trying to come up with a lengthy philosophical answer to this question, mentioning life changing experiences and learning about new cultures, but I normally just say "Why not?" or "I have nothing else to do".
I'm pretty sure traveling is just something people in my family do. There was no other option after hearing about some of the trips my cousins were taking, I had to do it too. And once I found out you could get an AROUND THE WORLD ticket I pretty much made up my mind. I think that was about two or three years ago and now here we are. After graduating Uni. I worked for about 8 months (2 separate jobs, with a 2 week trip to London + 2 weeks at home in between...not trying to work too hard) to save some money and then started planning my trip. I started in September, so it took me a while, but I got around to it.
Are you going to be working?
I don't think I'll be actively looking for any jobs or anything until I need to. I heard you can just work at hostels without visas or ANYTHING.....(lul). But if I stumble upon something cool I might be interested.
Are you anxious/nervous/scared?
Yes a little bit, mostly when I'm going to bed and thinking "I won't be able to sleep like this for a while"...if you've ever been in my bed you understand, I use 100 pillows and 100 blankets all strategically placed, its complex.
Other than that, I'm a bit apprehensive about entering a country where I don't speak the language and they don't use the Latin alphabet. But I will have to deal with that as it comes.
I came to a crossroads during my planning period where I asked myself if this was what I really wanted to do. It came down to starting my working life, moving out, and all of that or traveling until I get tired of it. It didn't take much convincing as I am an expert on my life and had all my facts and figures in order.
What are you going to do? Won't you be bored?
I'll be staying in hostels mostly, so I'll be meeting people and finding out what they are up to. Also some hostels provide information for adventure trips and things like that. But aside from that I wanted to find out what the people in the city/town were about, in terms of music, food, and enjoyment.
And if all that fails, I love people watching and just being outside, I'm sure I won't run out of either so I should be set.
Are you going to get any souvenirs from your destinations?
I decided (if I remember) that I want to collect news paper headings from all the places I go, because:
1) I enjoy information, so I'll probably be reading the paper anyway.
2) Easily stowed in an envelope in my bag
I'll pick up other cool stuff if it can fit in my bag or clip on or something. Maybe I'll get a tattoo of each countries flag as I arrive..Ha.
Are you going to miss me?
Probably at first, but I'm sure I'll get over it. We'll always have this blog and twitter (and skype if you're lucky). I fully expect a few days worth of crying though; hopefully not consecutive days.
Your blog is so boring looking, what gives? Didn't you take this in school?!
Well kids, I did have to do some web design in school so I am well aware of the things I could do. However, I'm extremely lazy and again a master of my own psyche, so it was easy to convince myself not to go any further with the design.
Also, I am trying to keep it as mobile friendly as I can, as there are some devices that don't have a mobile version of Blogger made for them. Plus, if you're at work it looks much less suspicious if you are looking at a plain white page with text as opposed to a dark background with a large banner...I'm really just looking out for the viewers interests here.
