Hello everyone, this is my diary of my travels around the world. I set off on my RTW trip on July 20th 2003, six months ago, and so this diary is the continuation of my first travelogue, the now somewhat inaptly titled, "A Year and a Day". I decided to start a new section of my travel writings because after six months away, my perception of what this trip meant to me had changed a lot, my "A Year and a Day" travelogue was getting really long, and there was a nice break between finishing my travels in Central America and arriving in South East Asia.

My travels so far: In July last year I quit my job and flew to New York to start my RTW trip. I had been working for the past three years in a London bank, and had spent the last year of that saving and trying to convince myself to throw this less than ideal life in and go travelling. See my mini guide to London on why I wanted to leave. After annoying my friends and endless travel agents with my dithering, I decided that I would start in the US, travel south overland through Mexico, Central and then South America, flying on to work in Australia for a while and then, who knows, perhaps to Asia. As I wanted to travel for more than a year, I couldn't buy a RTW ticket, and so set off with no committments other than that my Australian work visa expired in May 2004.

Despite a nervous night in Ohio, I made it to a friend's wedding in Detroit and then flew to the West Coast. From Vancouver, I travelled down through the US and Baja California, stopping in the central Mexican city of Guanajuato to take Spanish lessons.
I crossed into Guatemala, and had an amazing time in the mountain town of Todosantos, witnessing some fantastic and tragic events. If you only read one of my earlier articles, this is probably the one to read.

Leaving Todosantos, planning to return there and work in February (04), I continued through Central America. I had a great if at times testing week diving off the island of Utila, spent Christmas in Nicaragua and arrived in Costa Rica for new year's eve.
By this point, I had been told that I hadn't got the job in Todosantos, so a new plan was needed. After almost five months in Latin America, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to South America next. Plus, after South America, I would have to go to Australia and work in order to make some money back, and just didn't feel like that was something I wanted to do at this stage of my travelling. One night in Nicaragua, I wrote down the ten countries I most wanted to visit, and half of them were in Asia. I decided that I wanted a complete change from my travels so far, and wanted to see SE Asia and India while I still had most of my money left. So, after some dithering and long conversations with the travel agents of San Jose, I bought a one way ticket from Costa Rica to Hong Kong.

Why "No Place as Home": One of the reasons for starting a new travelogue was that when I started "A Year and a Day", I had this idea that my year and a half of travelling would a time away from consquences, a time away from time, where I would have no responsibilities. Six months later, I feel like doing this kind of trip does have a lot of consquences for me, both in terms of changing me as a person and making it harder and harder for me to imagine going back "home".

I wrote this during my last days in Costa Rica:

"Something that has been coming home to me over the last few weeks is how far away I feel from England. Although my accent and English mannerisms are quite intact, my emotional tie to the mother country itself is looking somewhat tattered. Six months travelling might not seem like that long a time, but for me, it feels like I've been away far longer. The way I am feeling now, going back would be very unappealing, I can't think of many lifestyles in London that I could be happy living now. I feel as though I have stepped away from London from a moment and the illusion has slipped - there are so many negative things for me about living in England that I don't think I would be happy returning.

But not only feeling distant from my old home; I have no idea where my next home is going to be. I have no idea where or when these travels are going to end, no idea of what I want my life to consist of when I stop carrying a rucksack. I would like these travels to end with me having worked out somewhere or wheres in the world that I feel myself more suited to, and this is probably going to be one of the themes of my travel diary over the next year".

I also feel quite different from the person who left England. It's hard to pin these kind of things down, but I do feel like the rigours of all this solo travelling are reshaping me a bit. The thing I'm most proud of is how at ease I've become in my own company. The rigour of all this travelling does feel like it has made me more self sufficient, less concerned with what others think of me. My friend Gari came to travel with me through December, and the thing he noticed immediately was how I seemed more distant now, not in a cold, withdrawn way, but in the sense of not particularly giving as much of a shit about things. I do feel more relaxed in myself nowadays, I've noticed my speech pattern has slowed down, I think I'm better able to listen to people.

So, the plan for the coming year: to travel slowly through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, aiming to arrive in India in the Autumn. Make more of an effort to get to know local people - and try and travel without a guidebook as much as possible. Beyond that, I just want to travel without deadlines and itineries, look around for opportunities to stop and work in a place for a while, learn some new skills and see what comes along the road.

Hope you enjoy reading my travel diary, and please email me with any comments,

best wishes, Daniel