Thomas World Tour
Written by Romain on Sunday, 11 of May 2008 at 17:12
Regularly, I choose to share with you my discovery of globetrotters blogs. The first focus is then dedicated to Thomas’s blog.
Why starting with it ? Simply because his world tour, from September 2006 to September 2007, is a project that is very close to mine : a solo departure, mostly by feet ( he choose the hitch-hiking solution), and also a “flash that I already experienced…He’s explaining it on his blog : “…And then the project finally became a evidence , a “flash” : this is an incontrovertible thing to do, and it’s now or never !”
But who is Thomas ?
Young graduate from the EFPG Grenoble, che’s a 23 years old man who is passionate of travels. His thirst for discovery already helps him to visit a big part of Europe for example. While he was still implicated in his studies, he choose to invest himself in the BEST (Board of European Students of Technology), which then will allow him to travel and provoke his world tour.
Thomas choose the adventure side of the travel, the backpacker atmosphere that is also interesting me. Once again, it is also a common objective : “to meet the maximum of people”. It is also due to this logical that he choose to leave alone.
About his itinerary, it’s also a journey close to mine, with some variations: Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Polynesia, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, China, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Mideast and a come-back through Turkey and Eastern Europe.
In figures, his world tour is also 335 days of travel, 34 crossed countries, 41 047 km traveled by hitch-hiking ( a figure that makes me feel interest in buying a pedometer to better evaluate my trip !)…and also “souvenirs for many lifes“.
While waiting for Thomas’s debriefing, I contacted him and asked him some questions about his trip :
- What do you think is the most important step in a world tour planning ?
I think that the most important thing is to define the objectives of such a trip. What is the goal ? What do I want to do, see, learn ? Why ? One has to write his motivations on a paper, while trying to be honest with oneself. The rest is following naturally : means of transportation for the journey, leaving alone or not, budget, accommodation, and so on…The biggest mistake would be to focus on practical constraints (such as flight tickets, visas, vaccines) that could obscure the essential part of the trip. Once the project is clearly defined in your mind, you’ll still have time to manage these organizational details.
- What is the country that pleased you the most and why ?
It’s very difficult to compare countries, and I can’t make a choice. However, here is some of my favorites : Senegal, Bolivia, China and Tibet, Malaysia, Pakistan, Romania. These are some totally subjective choices, mostly linked to the people met on my way.
- On a personal level, what did this travel bring you ?
On a personal level, I obviously win confidence, maturity and knowledge of myself (and especially limits on a moral and physical level). I also learned to force myself to see things how they really are instead of what I would like to see them. I then lost a lot of illusions on mankind. However, I still kept confidence in mankind and my enthusiasm for meetings and landscapes never failed. I also strongly changed the way I’m looking at the world. Pseudo-information treated by mass-medias about Tibet, global warming, or purchasing power are durably affecting my mental stability, and I’m now preferring to inform myself over the internet, on quality websites.
- Would you have any last advice for me ?
To simply go ahead with the project, this is the hardest part! And also to meditate on a sentence from Nicolas Bouvier that I really love: “One think that one will make a travel, but soon, it is the travel itself that makes you, or breaks you”
To learn more and see his pictures, don’t hesitate to visit his blog. Quite complete in terms of information, it will also give you more precisions about the equipment to take, about the le budget and also about the pharmacy kit to forecast !
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