8 ms·
Calgary man becomes world's most travelled
- lyricalpolymath 13y agoHi 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?
- dmoy 13y agoMan I really hope this guy is a good writer.
- eksith 13y agoI was thinking the same exact thing. Also, I hope he kept detailed journals, at least, of all the time he spent dodging danger.
- brickcap 13y agoThat was my first reaction too. I would love to read about his adventures. 23 years is a very long time travelling. I am not sure of my facts but Alexander the great traveled (or was on an expedition) for about 15 years. He has far surpassed that feat.
- Cthulhu_ 13y agoWell 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.
- rafifyalda 13y agoI enjoyed reading some of his status updates on Facebook, especially about his date with a Muslim Chinese woman. https://www.facebook.com/mike.s.bown https://www.facebook.com/mike.s.bown
- auctiontheory 13y agoHe's been to more places than Tim Cahill!
- androidb 13y agoSounds 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-most-travelled-man_n_4046821.html http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/04/spencer-bown-worlds-... - the last video on page has some real photos with him during his travels, including the one in Somalia (mogadishu).
- rwmj 13y agoOr perhaps not: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239087/Graham-Hughes-British-man-person-visit-201-countries-WITHOUT-using-plane.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239087/Graham-Hughe...
- eksith 13y ago“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."
- seszett 13y agoI 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.
- fusiongyro 13y agoThat'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.
- 13y ago
- fusiongyro 13y agoIsraeli 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.
- psn 13y agoTo me, this comment is the essence of hacker news. Guy goes around the world. Guy visits tons of dangerous places and miles of border paperwork. One presumes he did a ton of research. And yet, there's a guy on the internet saying "oh, here's this thing you missed". Sorry if you take the huff.
- fusiongyro 13y agoI'm not trying to "correct" him, just want to make sure aspirational HN travellers take advantage of a tiny piece of information he may have missed. Of course, if you'd rather read too much into a trivial comment on a trivial article, knock yourself out. That's also par for the course.
- adrianb 13y agoAlso 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.
- fusiongyro 13y agoI 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.
- unreal37 13y agoChris 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.
- exo_duz 13y agoWould really love to read a journal of his trip and experiences during them.
- kfk 13y agoI wonder how he did this from a financial perspective
- cbrauchli 13y agoHe "sold his business in Indonesia." http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5im2jwahdq7x08XZEr7K_l4lkZv4w?docId=CNG.287f99cf53380cfffea81f8d5de03ae0.31 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5im2jwahdq...
- matthew-wegner 13y agoA 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 13y agoAnyone 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
- jasonkester 13y agoWorth 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.
- gngeal 13y agoTrue, but they won't let him enter the US now that he has too many passport stamps.
- eksith 13y agoI 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.
- jperras 13y agoIt depends on the circumstances, as always. My brother, who is a specialized diesel mechanic and is one of the few people on the planet qualified to operate a seismic vibrator (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismic_vibrator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismic_vibrator) used for oil exploration just got back from a month of work in Somalia. Their small team (20-50 people) were accompanied by ~450 guards armed with Kalashnikovs, 200+ of which were on duty at any given moment, and had a very direct policy of a warning at 50ft, and shoot to kill at 25ft on approach from anyone that didn't identify themselves. When he's scheduled to have a similar stint in the Democratic Republic of Congo, they have similar arrangements. It's worth noting that this level of security isn't something arbitrary, but is rather in response to the environment that they are put in. I don't think they have a single guard in Northern Canada, for example.
- sambeau 13y agoI'm pretty sure it's actually one of these guys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts#Apollo_astronauts_who_flew_to_the_Moon_without_landing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts#Apoll...
- bruceb 13y ago"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.
- bruceb 13y agohttp://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294440-i9215-k2945624-Late_night_fun-Mogadishu.html http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294440-i9215-k2945624-... in 2009 (assuming not a joke)
- LetBinding 13y agoAlways 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.
- cylinder 13y agoI'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.