I am going to take some artistic license with the How entry of this blog. The literal sense of How I plan to take my trip doesn’t make a lot of sense and I have struggled a bit to define the concept. As the author I choose to define How a bit differently. I will write about how I will get from place to place and how I will live but I also want to write about my fears and set up the next blog entry which will discuss the Purposes of this trip.

I have spent so much time and effort over the last 6 to 8 months thinking about this trip and planning it and talking about it and wondering about it and being afraid of it that it has almost taken on a life of its own. This trip, this adventure, has gained a life of its own, it has its own momentum that is bringing it inexorably to reality. In order for this trip to happen and to meet its Purposes so many things had to come together and get accomplished in a relatively short time frame that, looking back on it, would seem very unlikely to occur. But, everything has so far fallen into place, so much so that it is scary. Scary though it may be, everything has happened as planned and in 4 days I’ll be on a plane to Bangkok.

How am I going to travel around the world? Planes, Trains and Automobiles!! I thought a mention of the great movie starring the late John Candy and Steve Martin was appropriate. In addition to planes, trains and automobiles I imagine other forms of transportation will include buses, taxis, tuk-tuk’s and walking.

I am most excited about the prospect of walking and hiking around all the areas I visit. I love to walk and can go long distances on my feet. I want to walk through cities and towns, hike rural areas and generally be out amongst the locals as much as possible. I would love to walk from place to place with my backpack and find lodging each night in a new town. Most of my walking will have a “home-based” approach in that I will settle into a guesthouse for a period of time and set out from there on daily or overnight adventures with just my daypack. All the walking and time outdoors will be great for my body, mind and spirit as well as great exercise. I’m hoping that a combination of healthy eating, minimal drinking, lots of walking and maybe even that travelers malady – diarrhea will result in losing a bit of weight and getting into better shape. I look forward to seeing the progress as the trip unfolds.

Transportation will be one of the big challenges. Day-to-day transportation within an area that I am staying will not too difficult, I’m confident that I can figure out the buses, taxis, tuk tuks, etc. to get where I want to go. I’m okay with getting lost and figuring it out, that’s part of the challenge and part of the fun.

Transportation between cities, towns and countries is another story. I imagine the confusion in a train or bus station with multiple departure areas and signage that I can’t read. There may be lots and lots of people around and many long queues that I will be standing in. (Queues are lines and a common term in counties outside the US. I love the word queue for some reason, I must be weird). In these cases I will depend on prior advice from fellow travelers, hope my guidebook provides concise information, and, most likely, depend on the kindness of the locals to help me if I am lost. I am sure this blog will have many transportation related entries, stories and comments.

I am hoping to avoid plane trips as much as possible. I love airplanes and the excitement of air travel but the best way to see a country is on the ground. Airfares in Asia are now so cheap that it will be a temptation to take the 2-hour flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai rather than the 13 hour bus or train ride. I hope to resist the temptation as much as possible in such circumstances. I won’t be in a hurry to get anywhere most of the time and the interactions with people, places, tastes and smells will be so much more interesting on the ground rather than in the air. Airplane trips will be necessary for longer range, intercontinental journeys such as Asia to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania or Africa to the Middle East, etc. When there are large land masses to travel over and where those land masses are difficult to travel overland on (Afghanistan, Iraq, Northern and Western Africa, etc.) air travel will be a necessity. Another thing to consider when taking short flights in some countries is aviation safety – few countries have the safety regulations that we take for granted in the US. It would still be awfully bad luck (statistically) to be in a plane crash though.

One final transportation thought, or I’ll call it a goal for the trip: I don’t plan on being a driver of a car (motorcycle – yes, car – no) during my entire trip. The last time I drive a car before returning home will be Saturday, December 19th!

A friend of mine, David Gignac, gave me some great advice in a recent e-mail “Remember – getting to a place is half the fun”. I like that attitude and look forward to the challenges of getting around and traveling in non-english speaking places.

I plan to live quite simply on this adventure. Hostels and guesthouses will be my primary lodging choices. They will be great places to meet fellow travelers, to exchange stories, get advice and make friends. I don’t plan on staying in dorm-style rooms, most of the time I’ll have my own room en-suite or with a shared toilet (a compromise to age). The relative comfort and quality of my various lodgings will vary greatly, I’m sure. But that’s okay, in fact, it’s what I want. The last thing I want to experience on the road is a series of cookie-cutter, Holiday Inn type of lodging.

Finding good places to sleep will be fun. I won’t make many advance reservations unless I am getting into a place late at night. With the help of fellow travelers, guidebooks and even touts, I’ll find good places to stay as I move from place to place. The challenge of doing this alone, in a strange city/town with a backpack is to not settle on a sketchy place for convenience sake. As with other aspects of this trip I will get more comfortable with the process of finding a place to stay as I get more experience.

I now want to discuss some of my fears. Many people have asked me if I’m scared or worried about this trip, especially now that it is so close. I’m not scared but certainly do have some anxiety. Anxiety is caused by the unknown and everything about this trip is an unknown to me. Despite all the planning, reading and thinking, I am heading way outside my comfort zone and this is bound to cause me worry and make me a bit anxious. I know this trip is the right thing for me to do at this point in my life and that keeps the fears to a minimum but here there are, nonetheless:

1. How will I hold up physically? – I have been exercising (inconsistently) over the last year and have lost some weight (from 210 to a current 185). However, my recent exercise regimen has not been good. Living in a hotel since the end of October (when I moved out of my house) and the many going-way parties has not been conducive to good physical fitness. Also, I have a bit of a bad back that really floored me almost a year go (January 2, 2004). That scared the crap out of me as I was in pain and almost immobile for 4-6 weeks. I took many months of mild exercise and chiropractic care for my back to feel normal again. I still don’t have total confidence that my back will hold up to the rigors of travel, hiking, backpacking and sleeping in strange beds but feel that I have done the best I could to get it into shape to take this journey. It’s a risk but I’m okay with that. Also, I’m 41 years old, not old but not young like most of the other independent travelers on the road.

2. Will I be lonely? – Yeah, I imagine there will be times of loneliness. But that’s okay. I plan on staying in hostels and other lower-priced lodgings where I will be more likely to meet fellow travelers. I will be older than many of them but that will be interesting as it will broaden my mind to other perspectives beyond my own – After all isn’t that what traveling is all about? My personality tends toward introversion and a big challenge for me will be to step outside this personality trait in order to engage people. This is one purpose of my trip and one that may be very difficult for me.

3. Will I Be bored? – At times, yes. On long flights, long bus and train rides and waiting in airports or terminals, I will be bored. But these times will be exciting too: If I’m on a plane/bus/train I will likely be going somewhere I’ve never been before, somewhere I’ve only dreamed of going, with many adventures ahead. If I’m stuck somewhere or bored in a place with nothing to do it will still be in a foreign (to me) country and a new experience, culture and people for me to observe and get to know. Plus, I’m a voracious reader and am always comfortable with a book, magazine or newspaper to keep me busy. Also, if I am bored in a place or don’t like where I am, I’ll just move on to somewhere else!!

4. What will I do when this trip is completed? – A big fear and cause of some anxiety because this is fraught with the unknown. Where will I live (I have no home)? Where will I work, who will hire me? Do I want to go back to the same career and lifestyle I am currently running away from? How will I know when this trip is completed? Will I want to go RTW again in the future (probably)? I don’t have answers to any of these questions but am confident that the answers will be an adventure in and of themselves. These unknowns are scary to me but they are part of the reason I am taking this trip, to get some uncertainty in my life.

There will certainly be other fears and anxieties as my travels progress, things like sickness or injury but I’m prepared to deal with them as best as possible and to be flexible in handing situations that I’ve never dealt with before.

This concludes the How portion of this blog and brings to close my Who, What, When, Where, Why and How thought process. I hope these blog entries have been somewhat interesting to you and have given those interested a glimpse into my mind and rationale for undertaking this trip. Writing these words has certainly helped me better understand myself and my motivations. Putting thoughts into words is a great way for me to express myself and a great way for me to clear and clarify my mind.

Thank you for reading this. I hope to make this blog both interesting and entertaining. Please post a comment and let me know your thoughts, observations or counsel. Hearing from readers and knowing I have an audience is a great motivator and will be a great morale booster during down times on the road. Don’t forget to bookmark this site and tell a friend! Please feel free to e-mail me at “JeffMichie at Yahoo Dot Com”