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Originally Posted by abaya
Fair 'nuff man, I understand about the wedding thing and being bored... and about the photos. Though personally I would rather not risk losing all my once-in-a-lifetime photos in one mugging incident. If I were you, I'd buy a handful of 2 GB memory cards for your camera and carry those in various safe places, rather than storing them all on a laptop... but making back-ups is also a very good idea, if you can tuck them away somewhere on your person.
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Luckily, I have a spare iPod (yet another "profitable quarter" gift from my company) that I can use as backup storage. I'll be sure to keep regular backups...
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I don't mean to offend you, I'm just saying that in a third-world country, people won't "mug you for your laptop," they'll just plain mug you... for whatever you might have (especially if they saw you on the train, or in the hostel with it, and follow you into the station or get into your bag while you're in the communal shower). Yes, it does happen, I've seen it.
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I assure you, I have taken no offense to anything that has been said in this thread, including your posts. If you think I'm likely to be mugged then I should very well be warned! I was really hoping that this would be a rare occurance, like being afraid my plane might go down.
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I guess I'm just trying to offer some advice from a lot of my own traveling experience in poor, crowded areas... I've been to quite a few of the places you want to go to, and I just don't think it's altogether wise to carry a laptop with you there.
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That's exactly what this thread is about. Tell us about your travels... What happened to you? What should I look out for? I honestly didn't think that any of the places on "the list" had significantly worse crime rates than home (literally
Waterloo but you can think of it as
Toronto) and I wouldn't think twice about walking around with a laptop, not that I'd be adventuring with it on my back. Sadly, it's a little heavy for that. I was thinking I'd just drop it off my hotel room so it can serve as my base station or my "home away from home..."
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Hostels in a group room (bunks) range from $20/person in cheap cities (Prague was the cheapest I saw in Europe), to over $60 in places like NYC. The prices are higher if you want a private room with a locked door. I have no idea about places like Japan. This is for semi-reputable hostels, not the dirt-cheap ones where they really will rob you blind the minute you turn your back. I'd say the average hostel cost is around $40 a night.
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Wow, those are some really cheap rates! It's also a scary idea... but it's cheap enough to think about...
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All that said, it's your trip, so have fun planning it  and let us know how it shapes up.
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Thanks. I'm not sure if I am going to have fun planning it, which is why I've considered hiring a travel agency. However, I am having fun talking about it on this forum!
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Originally Posted by willravel
I envy the crap out of you. Best of luck, and take a ton of pictures (for memories).
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Originally Posted by Charlatan
By the way, I think I forgot to point out that I am really jealous of this itinerary.
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I'll take all comments of jealousy as a compliment. Thank you...
The truth is, I'm kind of in a rut in my life right now and I'm hoping a trip like this will inspire me. I need to go to Vancouver, anyways, so why not take the scenic route there? Most of these are places I've always wanted to see and, as I've already mentioned, I'm in a unique position in my life to do this (it's hard to get this kind of time off) so all the planets seem to be aligned...