Calgary man becomes world's most travelled

[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.

[jperras]

It 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) 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.

[gngeal]

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

[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)

It's worth tracking down. Some clips for a quick idea: 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

[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.

[nl]

I'm pretty sure he knew this, but wanted to get the stamps in his actual passport:

after a pint of Guinness in Ireland to celebrate landing his final passport stamp this week

After that trip I don't think anyone would suggest he was wrong to make sure he had it stamped.

[VolatileVoid]

Israeli border control also no longer stamps passports. They give you a little slip of paper with your picture on it. This piece of paper is your "temporary visa."

Or at least that's how it was a few months ago.

[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.

[psn]

To 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.

[anonymfus]

Or use the most universal way: get multiple passports. Just lie to police that you dropped your old passport in some rural Russian toilet. This is a way Russian traveller and designer Artemiy Lebedev (http://tema.ru/travel/ ) uses.

[mikle]

Some places are more cunning. I've read reports of countries looking for stamps from the Taba border pass (a border between Israel and Egypt) and not letting someone in base on that (since if he passed through Taba he was either from Israel or going to Israel, even if the Israeli stamp was not in his passport).

[sambeau]

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_astronauts#Apoll...

[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.

[bruceb]

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294440-i9215-k2945624-...

in 2009 (assuming not a joke)

[dmoy]

Man I really hope this guy is a good writer.

[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.

[brickcap]

That 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.

[eksith]

I was thinking the same exact thing. Also, I hope he kept detailed journals, at least, of all the time he spent dodging danger.

[rafifyalda]

I 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

[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-... - the last video on page has some real photos with him during his travels, including the one in Somalia (mogadishu).

[lyricalpolymath]

Hi everyone. We are developing (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?

[kfk]

I wonder how he did this from a financial perspective

[cbrauchli]

He "sold his business in Indonesia."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5im2jwahdq...

[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.

[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.

[rwmj]

Or perhaps not: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239087/Graham-Hughe...

[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."

[exo_duz]

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

[auctiontheory]

He's been to more places than Tim Cahill!