

Calgary man becomes world's most travelled - victoro
http://www.canoe.ca/Travel/TipsTrends/Trends/2013/10/02/21168846.html

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jasonkester
Worth taking on board: Many of the "dangerous" places that you're warned away
from visiting aren't anywhere near as dangerous as you'd expect. That's also
been my experience traveling in places on the State Department's "holy shit!
get out now!!!" list. Most people you meet are just people. The tiny handful
of people interested in killing Americans tend to head to places where they
might actually find some Americans to kill.

I bet that beach in Somalia was pretty nice.

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gngeal
True, but they won't let him enter the US now that he has too many passport
stamps.

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eksith
I presume he's already been to the U.S. by now. There are a number of people I
know who have kept a new passport just to travel to places like Israel because
of the restriction on allowing travelers from many Arab countries.

Of course, if he wanted to start all over again, he can simply get a new
passport now that he'll be home soon.

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matthew-wegner
A traveling friend recommended Departures to me a few years ago. It's an
excellent travel documentary show with just three people in the crew, and
amazingly beautiful footage:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departures_(TV_series)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departures_\(TV_series\))

It's worth tracking down. Some clips for a quick idea:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WULrGX23vD4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WULrGX23vD4)

~~~
hemanpatel
Anyone interested in the documentary can purchase the DVDs via their official
site (found it on the wikipedia entry) -
[http://www.departuresentertainment.com/shopping.html](http://www.departuresentertainment.com/shopping.html)

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fusiongyro
Israeli border control will give you temporary insert pages if you're worried
about it affecting your travel to other countries. You just have to ask.

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adrianb
Also my country can issue you a temporary passport if you're planning to
travel in country A and you have a visa of country B in your passport, when
countries A and B are at war.

I expect more countries do the same.

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fusiongyro
I was under the impression we did that for exactly this case in America but
when I searched I found a page saying we only issue two passports in
extraordinary circumstances. This might count though.

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unreal37
Chris Guillebeau had two American passports for precisely this purpose. Also,
you have to send your actual passport to get some visas and that leaves you
without a passport for weeks at a time. So having two helps there too.

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sambeau
I'm pretty sure it's actually one of these guys:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts#Apoll...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts#Apollo_astronauts_who_flew_to_the_Moon_without_landing)

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bruceb
"Two years ago, BBC World Service and Time Magazine were among the outlets
buzzing over the unexpected appearance of a tourist in war-torn Mogadishu,
Somalia — the first recreational visitor in more than two decades."

Quite the claim with no way to verify this. I am sure there were other
tourists in two decades. There are plenty of people who seek extreme
adventures. Seems impossible no other non Somalis went to check it out.

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bruceb
[http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294440-i9215-k2945624-...](http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294440-i9215-k2945624-Late_night_fun-
Mogadishu.html)

in 2009 (assuming not a joke)

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dmoy
Man I really hope this guy is a good writer.

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Cthulhu_
Well tbh, I'd say it's more important he has a good memory; even if he's shit
at writing, as long as he can either tell his stories for a biographer to
write down, or write them down half-arsedly for a good editor to polish. In
this case, I don't care about whether he's a good writer, but whether his
stories are good; the rest can be fixed by others.

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androidb
Sounds like a great adventure, too bad there aren't any photos in there. The
only source I found was this [http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/04/spencer-
bown-worlds-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/04/spencer-bown-worlds-
most-travelled-man_n_4046821.html) \- the last video on page has some real
photos with him during his travels, including the one in Somalia (mogadishu).

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lyricalpolymath
Hi everyone. We are developing ([http://eyevel.com](http://eyevel.com)) an app
that allows you to "travel without moving" :) Although you can't compare it
with the real experience, imagine if he had been wearing google glasses, would
you have liked to at least see / live /experience through the web some of the
key moments of his journey?

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kfk
I wonder how he did this from a financial perspective

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cbrauchli
He "sold his business in Indonesia."

[http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5im2jwahdq...](http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5im2jwahdq7x08XZEr7K_l4lkZv4w?docId=CNG.287f99cf53380cfffea81f8d5de03ae0.31)

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LetBinding
Always wanted to do this. But my inferior passport makes it infeasible.

To even spend a weekend in most countries, I would have to document every
detail of my life, and every detail of what I intend to do in the country,
before some bureaucrat might decide if I am worthy enough for a visa stamp.
Traveling spontaneously, and changing plans during a trip are almost
impossible.

Everyone who has a good passport should take advantage of it and see the
world. Its one of the best things you can do.

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cylinder
I'm really curious how his re-settlement back in Calgary will go. The
Travelers Curse is that one can't feel at home anywhere after a long period of
traveling. You're never quite at home in the foreign culture but you also feel
alienated from your hometown too.

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rwmj
Or perhaps not: [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239087/Graham-
Hughe...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239087/Graham-Hughes-
British-man-person-visit-201-countries-WITHOUT-using-plane.html)

~~~
eksith

      “Some of the least travelled people I’ve ever met have been to 100 countries, 
      or even as high as 170 countries — what they do is fly between major cities 
      and especially capital cities, stop off in the airport or take a hotel for the 
      night, and then say that they’ve ‘done’ such and such country,” said Bown, 
      speaking with the Sun via Facebook.
    
      “To my view, such people are passengers, not travellers.”
    

For the record, this guy spent 23 _years_ travelling; basically most of his
adult life. The British guy: "Hughes used buses, taxis, trains and his own two
feet to travel 160,000 miles in exactly 1,426 days - all on a shoestring of
just $100 a week."

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seszett
I have seen people come to Kerguelen island, which involves a four-week trip
by ship in rough waters (and seven thousand euros or so) and not even set foot
on the island once there, because all they wanted was the stamp on their
passport. Or disembark but not leave their room once on the base, to at least
say they had set foot on the island. These people usually had no idea and
didn't care about learning anything about the place they had come to.

People like this are some of the least interesting persons I have met, and
they clearly aren't "well travelled" indeed.

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fusiongyro
That's an especially sad and wasteful example. What a beautiful place and what
a privilege to get to see it, to squander by not even going out and touching
it is such a travesty. I hope someday to have the kind of free time, money and
connections that might afford a trip there, but it doesn't look likely. What a
sad waste.

~~~
seszett
If you have the free time but don't have the money (connections aren't really
that useful unless maybe you are a scientist), a few people have learned how
to sail in order to go back there on their own (like Antarctica, people often
become obsessed with the place once they have stayed there for a while)...
that would be quite an adventure. (The mooring tax is cheap and a visa or
authorization can't be refused once there).

I'd like to go back there this way, one day.

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fusiongyro
Take me with you. :)

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exo_duz
Would really love to read a journal of his trip and experiences during them.

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auctiontheory
He's been to more places than Tim Cahill!

