@cyberdyne Have you considered changing your twitter icon as you travel to represent where you are ?
I made a conscious decision to keep my avatar the same. In fact, I use the exact same photo on every network I belong. People recognize images before they read names. The Easter Island photo I think is representative of what I’m doing and was taken early in my trip. For better or worse, I’m now the Easter Island guy. If I change it, people may not recognize me. I know that happens when people I follow change their avatar. I do however, change my location in Twitter every time I change cities. It is a great way to find other people on Twitter near where you are. I suppose I might change it in the future, but I don’t recommend constantly changing your image.
@urpisdream Any advice for people trying to figure out how they can start up their own ‘everywhere trip’?
Don’t put too much effort into planning. Reading and researching about where you want to go is fun, but trying not to set an extremely rigid schedule. The biggest trick is unwinding all the stuff in your life which will prevent you from going. Cars, jobs, mortgages, etc are all reasons people have for not traveling. The actual act of traveling is pretty simple. Conquering all the reasons for not going is the real accomplishment.
@kalpeshk What was your main motivation for the trip and the most significant realization from your travel so far?
The motivation was that I enjoyed traveling and I didn’t want to wait until I was facing death to go do the things I wanted to do. At this point in my life I could do it and enjoy it.
As for the realizations…well, there are a lot and it would be hard to summarize it in a few sentences. Without any explanation behind it here are a few: culture matters, everyone is proud of where they are from, most people are good, and nothing is as simple as it appears.
For a more detailed explanation, you will have to buy the book :)
@rjhintz Where, if anywhere, do you take prophylactic medication for malaria? Have you had to pay bribes at borders?
I have been carrying around a bottle of Doxycycline since I started my trip. I took it in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands but haven’t bothered taking it otherwise. It think it would be more important to use in Africa than the places I’ve been.
As for bribes, I haven’t had to pay any border bribes. If you look at the list of places I’ve been, a lot of the countries are Islands. Oddly enough, I’ve only had to make a few land crossings: Brunei to Malaysia, Singapore to Malaysia, Cambodia to Vietnam, Laos to Thailand, UAE to Oman. I also entered South Korea and Macau by boat. I think border bribes would be a bigger deal in Sub-Saharan Africa or Central Asia, which I haven’t visited yet.
@d_rjoseph alright, what kind of camera, memory card(s), and batteries do you use?
I have a Nikon D200 with 2 rechargeable batteries. I have a 4gb compact flash card as my main memory card and a cheap 2gb compact flash card in my camera bag in case I need more space. I always keep a fully charged battery in my camera bag.
@susandeane Where on your travels have you encountered the friendliest folk? Which of all those countries is the friendliest?
Some people are more outgoing than other. Many Arabs I’ve met will give you the shirt off their back in the name of hospitality, but might not go out of their way to say “hello” on the street.
Off the top of my head, I’d say Samoans or Fijians. They are really, really nice people who will go out of their way to say “Bula!” or “Talofa!”. Just don’t mess with them on the rugby field!
@JustNomadic How do you research your next location – guides, web, people, tourist boards etc?
I never use guidebooks. They are expensive, heavy and usually out of date. I might page through one if a free one is a hostel, otherwise, I primarily use the internet and talking to locals. You can also find a ton of free information in most hotels. There is an entire industry anywhere you go built upon providing you services to go see things. The larger the city and more popular the attraction you are visiting, the less you need a guidebook.