Feed: Voyage the Earth - AggScore: 40.1

Las Vegas Neon

“We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.” – Hilaire Belloc

El Cortez, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

El Cortez, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Holiday Motel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

El Cortez, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Tokyo

Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. – Scott Cameron

Photos from my recent trip to Tokyo – January, 2012.

Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo, Japan

View from Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan

Sunshine 60 Building, Sunshine City, Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan

Prayer Cards, Meiji Shrine, Tokyo, Japan

Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan

• Tokyo, Japan from Sunshine 60 Building, Sunshine City, Ikebukuro

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, Tokyo, Japan

Kiba Park, Tokyo, Japan

Sunshine 60 Building, Sunshine City, Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan

Kitanomaru Park, Tokyo, Japan

Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, Japan

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan

Mongolia in Black and White

Travel is at its most rewarding when it ceases to be about your reaching a destination and becomes indistinguishable from living your life. ~ Paul Theroux

Being in Mongolia is like stepping back in time. This black and white series I’ve assembled tries to capture the sense of standing still in time that I felt while exploring this vast, sparse, yet beautiful country.

Motorcycle and Ger, Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert

Khongoryn Els Sand Dunes, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park

Bridge approaching Jagalant

Lake Khovsgol

Ikh Uul near Serenge River

Erdene Zuu Monastery, Karakorum

Jagalant

Jagalant

Delgerkhaan

Khongoryn Els Sand Dunes, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park

Amarbayasgalant Khiid Monastery

Khongoryn Els Sand Dunes, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park

Lake Khovsgol

Approaching White Lake

Great Wall of China

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.  ~ Seneca

Some photos I found from my visit to the Great Wall in 2008. These are taken from the Mutianyu section of the 4,000 mile long wall which is about 40 miles from Beijing.

Great Wall of China, near Beijing (Mutianyu section)

Great Wall of China, near Beijing (Mutianyu section)

Recent RTW News

• Budgeting for your Round the World Trip
• Tragic End to Stuart’s Year of Adventure
• 10 reasons . . . why everyone should experience solo travelling
• Best Backpacks for RTW Trips
• Electric vehicles complete round-the-world tour
• Somali pirates hijack American yacht on decade-long round-the-world trip
• Motorbiker’s Round-the-World Trip Runs Aground in Egypt
• Cargo ships: a low-carbon travel alternative?

More Articles

Death Valley National Park, USA

Destination: Egypt

Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

“The wanderer’s danger is to find comfort.” – William Least Heat-Moon

It may be a while before Egypt’s tourism industry recovers from the hit it took from the recent revolution. The New York Times reports that the country is losing US $1 billion a month in revenue.  The least I can do is encourage people to visit when they feel it is safe.  Sweden has already lifted their travel advisory.

I was in Egypt for about 10 days in the summer of 2008…August probably wasn’t the best month to be there, but that’s when I landed in that part of the world while on my RTW trip.  From the chaos at immigration in the Cairo airport until we left by ferry across the Gulf of Aqaba to Jordan, it was a true adventure.  I went with a tour that took us from Cairo to Amman, Jordan in a little over two weeks.  The nice thing about Egypt is that there is fascinating history to explore throughout the country as well as resorts where you can just chill out for a while. In Cairo we visited the pyramids at Giza and the Egyptian Museum where you can spend days wandering back in time.  An overnight train took us to Aswan in the south from where we visited the impressive Abu Simbel (in a bus protected by a military convoy since Abu Simbel is just on the Sudanese border) where Ramses II is carved into the mountain .  A high point of the trip for me was the overnight felucca trip down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor.  A felucca is basically a mattress and pillows on a canopy-covered wooden sailing boat.  We stopped somewhere on the shore at night, had a party on the beach with some locals and then continued to sail the next morning.  Crossing the Sinai peninsula by bus, we stopped to hike to the monastery at the top of Mt. Sinai and then relaxed for a few days with mostly Russian tourists at the resort town of Nuweiba on the Red Sea. There really is so much to see and do in Egypt and I hope it isn’t too long before people are once again visiting. Here’s a link to my blog postings from Egypt.
 

Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt

Giza, Egypt

Abu Simbel, Egypt

Nuweiba, Egypt

Travel and Adventure for a Good Cause

This summer, my friends in the UK will be making a 10,000 mile drive by car from England to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.  A fascinating trip in itself, Chris, Kerry and Paul are participating in the Mongol Rally in order to raise money for Christina Noble’s Children Foundation.  Looking at their route, I’m guessing they are in for quite an adventure.  I wish them the best of luck and am looking forward to reading the inevitable stories on their blog, www.thewongwayround.co.uk .

Click here if you’d like to make a donation to their charity.  Good luck guys!

Keeping the Cost of your RTW Trip Down: Spend More Time in Less Expensive Places

Bangkok, Thailand

“On the right track but on the wrong train.” – Unknown

One way to keep expenses down on a round the world trip is to spend more time in less expensive cities and countries.  There are huge variations in the costs of visiting different cities.  On my RTW trip, I spent less than $50 US a night at a 5-star hotel in Bangkok, Thailand while  I spent over $100 US a night for a bed in a 6 room dorm in a hostel in Oslo, Norway.  In Quito, Ecuador I spent an average of $25 US per night for a clean, comfortable private room.  I only spent a few days in each of these cities, but If I were to plan my trip again I would research and find countries and cities where I could stay longer for less money and weight my itinerary accordingly.

Below are some articles and blogs that I found which list some of the cheapest places to visit.  Latin America and South/Southeast Asia are highly represented on the lists and include some of the nicest countries I’ve visited:  Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Thailand and India.

One thing to remember is that currency exchange rates change daily.  When I was in Iceland in 2008, it was very expensive, but after their financial crisis late in 2008 the cost of traveling there dropped significantly.

• The World’s Least Expensive Cities in 2010 -  LA Times
• Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations Blog
• Most and Least Expensive Cities in the World – CBS MoneyWatch
• The 10 Cheapest Cities in the World – Matador Network
• World’s Ten cheapest Cities – The Telegraph
• 5 Countries to Visit for Under $500 – BootsnAll

The Joy of Perpetual Travel

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The greatest part of my round the world trip was knowing that there was no end to the trip in sight.  When you take a short trip, there is always that looming end-of-trip date coming up soon.  I realize that it’s not for everybody, but for those of us who choose or have chosen to take such a long journey, there is something special about knowing that every day in your immediate future will involve something new.  Whether it be a new sight to see, a new person to meet, or a new challenge to face, there will be nothing of the familiar. There are those who choose and are comforted by the familiarity and the routine of everyday life at home.  I, on the other hand, was happiest during the year I traveled non-stop.

I remember when I was flying into Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo.  I had just changed my itinerary because political problems in Tibet wouldn’t allow me to get the visa I needed to visit.  I had little time to plan and research for the time in Borneo and I really had no expectations as to what I would encounter there.  As I looked at the islands in the blue green water below as we descended into Kota Kinabalu I wondered.  It was an existential moment which is one of my fondest travel memories.

Borneo turned out to be full of surprises:  Wildlife, jungles and a two day hike to the top of a freezing Mount Kinabalu, one of the highest points in Southeast Asia at over 13,000 feet (over 4,000 meters).

Malaysia Country Profile

Kinabatang Jungle Camp, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Kinabatang Jungle Camp, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Manukan Island, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Kinabatang Jungle Camp, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Mt. Kinabalu Summit, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Destination: Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide

In the northeast of Brazil there are coastal sand dunes where emerald pools of water form between the dunes during the rainy season. This beautiful terrain is Lençóis Maranhenses National Park. The park is over 1000 square kilometers and I visited with a group taking a 4×4 from the nearby town of Barreirinhas. There are no roads into the park so taking a 4 wheel drive vehicle is the only way to enter.

Walking through the dunes I was struck by the fact that the only visible colors were the white of the sand and clouds, the blue of the sky, and the blue green hue of the lagoons formed between the sand dunes. After exploring the dunes we took a refreshing swim in the warm waters of one the lagoons. You can get a sense of how vast these dunes are by looking at the size of the people in the photo below.

You can fly over the dunes in a small chartered plane and I am sorry I didn’t take the flight. One can also arrange a tour to this natural wonder from the nearby city of São Luís.

Brazil Country Profile

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Maranhão, Brazil

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Maranhão, Brazil

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Maranhão, Brazil

Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Maranhão, Brazil