(This introductory entry will remain on top for newcomers to this Blog. New dispatches from the road have been announced in "The Blog Continues..."

GREETINGS AND WELCOME to the Blog of The Global Trip 2004: Sixteen Months Around The World, one of PC Magazine's "Top 100 Sites You Didn't Know You Couldn't Live Without," written by freelance travel writer Erik R. Trinidad, and hosted by BootsnAll.com. Sometimes funny, sometimes shocking -- but always an entertaining distraction from office work -- this Blog retells the accounts of my sixteen-month journey around the world (October 2003 to March 2005), which took me over 95,000 miles across thirty-seven countries on five continents. This trip is sadly already over, but don't you worry you desktop travelers out there looking for a virtual escape from your mundane desk jobs; the day-to-day stories of the 503-day affair have been immortalized here on the internet, joining the ranks of the other immortal things on-line, like animated dancing hamsters and porn!

If at any time you feel that your boss is lurking, you can simply CLICK HERE to spawn a screenshot of an important-looking Excel spreadsheet to cover the fact that you are reading this and not doing any work. (It can also help cover any porn you may be surfing on the side.)

IT IS EXACTLY ONE YEAR LATER since the much hyped-up DAY 503, and the Blog continues! Since I'd like to keep this here TGT2 Blog self-contained with a beginning, middle, and end, the ALL NEW adventures can be found by clicking HERE. Whether or not this is to be the final location of future TGT dispatches I haven't yet determined (since I don't get design and branding control of it), but for now, read along and get your juices flowing -- The Global Trip Blog is back in action!

In the tradition of motivational speaker Tony Robbins and many countless evangelists, The Global Trip is coming to you LIVE!*

*provided you're in Greenville, NC, USA on September 16th

Greetings, true believers! It has been brought to my attention that there is a minor Marvel comic book character very loosely based on... me! Seriously! This means your favorite real life mild-mannered travel blogwriter is now a part of the Marvel universe with the likes of Wolverine and Spiderman -- and I mean the ficticious one, not the dress up guy wandering around the streets of Manila on New Year's Eve.

Who would have thought that when I sported a hot pink bra in Montreal, it would get me a mention in travel guru Rick Steves' website?

Thanks to Blogreader Udda's comment, I now know that this here blog has been recommended by the travel writers at USATODAY.com, in a blurb in the special Bonus Section, "Smart Travel." This recommendation, like the PC Magazine award, is a great honor, as my blog has now officially made national news -- international too, since USA Today is distributed worldwide. It's not nearly as big as most world news -- tsunamis or the selection of a new Pope, for example -- but at least it's something. (By the way, did anyone else win a bet on Pope Benedict XVI? Booyah!)

"WHAT'S UP?" my mother asked me that rainy Saturday morning. Yes, I was still living under her and my father's roof, working my way through some small debts -- an inevitable post-trip curse -- while saving up for new opportunities in travel and/or real estate.

"I'm going out to deliver these postcards," I told her.

"Why don't you just mail them?"

"That's not the point."

Not surprisingly, the most frequently asked question I get is, "So, what's the best place you've been?" This of course is a loaded question, and rather than go into a tiff about how it is in fact a loaded and unfair question, my automatic quick answer is "Bolivia." I then continue briefly about how jungles, villages, and cities begin to look the same across continents, but it was unique sight of Bolivia's reflective salt pans of Uyuni that I have not seen anywhere else.

It has been brought to my attention that this little Blog here has caught the attention of the editors of PC Magazine, purveyors of great technological wisdom, who have just awarded this website with inclusion in their annual list, the Spring 2005 "Top 100 Sites You Didn't Know You Couldn't Live Without" (in the travel category). Isn't that great? I feel truly honored; this means that my travel Blog now joins the ranks of other things the editors at PC Magazine have deemed as "Editors' Choice," like the EPSON Stylus Photo RX620 printer, the Motorola V551 mobile phone, and the Canon PowerShot SD500 Digital Elph camera. Let's compare:

(Click here to skip the drivel below and jump right to the new slideshow.)

I often joke and say that I'm the stereotypical Japanese tourist, because when I'm out traveling, I sure do take a hell of a lot of pictures. Anyone who's joined me on the road on my 503-day journey knows that I've snapped pictures left and right with my little Sony DSC-U30 digital spy camera like there's no tomorrow, sometimes not of anything photogenic at all, just so I can remember things instead of jotting them down in a memo pad.