Tag: Round The World Trip

Christopher Buckley: ‘I Was Deck Boy Aboard a Norwegian Tramp Freighter’

In 1970, Buckley shipped out for a year of adventure. His remembrance in the Atlantic is beautiful:

I remember standing in the crow’s nest as we entered the misty Panama Canal, and the strange sensation as the 4,000-ton ship rose higher and higher inside the lock. I remember dawn coming up over the Strait of Malacca; ragamuffin kids on the dock in Sumatra laughing as they pelted us with bananas; collecting dead flying fish off the deck and bringing them to our sweet, fat, toothless Danish cook to fry up for breakfast. I remember sailing into Hong Kong harbor and seeing my first junk; steaming upriver toward Bangkok, watching the sun rise and set fire to the gold-leafed pagoda roofs; climbing off the stern down a wriggly rope ladder into a sampan, paddling for dear life across the commerce-mad river into the jungle, where it was suddenly quiet and then suddenly loud with monkey-chatter and bird-shriek, the moonlight lambent on the palm fronds.


The No-Baggage Challenge: That’s a Wrap

A few weeks back we wrote about World Hum contributor Rolf Potts’ latest trip: a round-the-world spin with no baggage. The trip’s complete now, and he has posted some final thoughts about traveling bag-free:

Once I got into a travel rhythm, the no-baggage aspect of the trip was pretty simple. Two-a-day showers kept me as clean as I’ve ever been on the road, and daily clothes-washings (of my socks, underwear, and t-shirt) kept my wardrobe fresh and odor free. In fact, one of the reasons I started doing these weekly field reports is to have a pretext to comment on the no-baggage aspect of the trip—since it became apparent quite early that not having luggage wasn’t going to add a lot of drama or complication to my day-to-day activities (which meant, happily, that I could focus my journey on the joys of travel instead of the idiosyncrasies of packing light).

So does this mean I’ll spend the rest of my life traveling without bags? Probably not—bags do serve a purpose, they make some aspects of a journey easier, and one can still travel ultra-light while carrying a small bag. Moreover, the No Baggage Challenge was an experiment in traveling light—not an edict that luggage-free travel is a universally superior way to go. That said, I’ll probably continue to experiment with no-luggage travel—if nothing else because it’s fun and liberating and not all that hard to do.

The No Baggage Challenge site has an archive of posts and video updates for anyone who didn’t follow along.


Rolf Potts: Around the World, Baggage-Free

World Hum contributor Rolf Potts is about to embark on his latest project: a six-week ‘round-the-world tour with no bags. Check out the rules for the expedition and the thinking behind it. The project is on Twitter, too, and the trip gets started in two days.


Budget Tips from the Twitterverse

Well, the Daily Beast may have declared that Twitter jumped the shark this week, but that didn’t stop me from collecting a few good travel tips and deals from the micro-blogging site—all in 140 characters or less, of course. NewYorkology notes that the Restaurant Week that won’t die has been extended yet again. The Snow Junkies offer up 54 ways to get discounted lift tickets in March. Jaunted points out that a round-the-world ticket from Virgin Atlantic can now be had for less than $3,000 (and asks: “Who’s in?”), and finally, in more good flight news, Conde Nast Traveler’s Wendy Perrin writes: “Experts I’ve been interviewing for my May column for @CNTraveler say airfares to Europe will remain supercheap throughout the summer.”


I Have $6,000 For a Trip to Asia and the South Pacific. Any Tips?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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Matt Gross: Reflections From a ‘Round-the-World Journey

Matt Gross Photos by Matt Gross.

The New York Times told him to make the full circle in 90 days -- as a budget traveler. Upon his return, Michael Yessis spoke to him about "interactive travel" and why he's in no hurry to get back to Croatia.

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I want to go around the world in 80 days without using planes and only $1,000. What do you think?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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