Randy's Travel Page

-- At the Same Address Since 1995 --

Welcome to Randy Johnson's Travel Page, home of the "Backpacker's World Travel Handbook". Glad you made it! My focus is on World Travel -- mainly of the rough, Third World variety -- but you armchair travelers will find many useful travel tips, notes, and photos to whet your travel appetites. There's some fun travel stuff in here! So come on in to share my personal stories, images, and info gathered from six years spent traveling around the Third World with a rucksack. Updated October, 2006

This Traveler's Tales include:

Best of the Road -- lists of the 'World's Best' travel destinations; also the worst!
My Backpacker's Third World Travel Guide and How-To book
Dozens of narrative Travel Articles and Travel Anecdotes from 6 years On the Road
A brief list of useful Travel Tips from my site.
My Foreign Paper Money Collection and
A Travel Photo Gallery New photos of Kashgar, China! Added Jan, 2004
My Japan Travel Guide!
Plus, a few special Travel Links

Hey! No banners, No Pop-ups, No Java, No Ads. Yeah! This is a non-commercial site

GreatEscape Adventures -- Global Scavenger Hunt

Selected in the '101 Best Travel Websites' 2000-08 (9th year in a row!) by GreatEscape Adventures, Inc

Selected in Top 10 Travel Websites 2001 & 2002 by HoboTraveler.com

Selected one of the 1000 best web sites (1998), by Branchez-Vous E-zine

Best of the Road
And also the worst. No big deal, okay? About 25 lists of the finest World Class travel destinations, countries, cities, getaways, travel-adventure books, gardens, markets, museums, etc., etc. (And a few places to avoid) Not that you should believe me -- better you go out and make your own lists.

Travel Like a Vagabond!

"Footloose and Fancy-Free in the Third World -- A Backpacker's World Travel Handbook". My Travel Tips from the Edge: free travel advice -- from 6 years On the Road -- on all aspects of mounting an individual travel odyssey onto the backroads of the world. Ten chapters cover Planning, Preparing, What to Take, Transport, Bureaucracy, Bargaining, Safety and Security, People, Daily Life, and Feeling At Home on the Road. Updated September, 2006. Also available as a down-loadable MS-WORD document.

Thumbnail and link to artwork featuring a Quetzalcoatl

Brief Travel Tips

Learn How To: Add Adventure to your Trip, Hang a Hammock, Bargain in the Third World, and Wash Up out of a Canteen... Here's a brief page with links to various Travel Tips for Third World Travelers, sprinkled around my other larger works on this site... Enjoy!

Randy's Travel Articles
Here are twenty-four of my true travel stories and articles (and one piece of fiction) reported from the midst of my travels around the world -- Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia and more... Including: Slumming in Kyoto, The Old Road to Luang Prabang, Coincidence of Travel in Yucatan, San Cristobal, Heart of Chiapas, Tzintzuntzan, and Hitching the Petén. A dozen have been previously published -- yes, in real magazines! Updated Dec. 2003

Seated Mayan Lord; burial 116, Tikal, 700 AD

Glimpses of the Road

A whole rucksack full of short travel anecdotes, tirades, reflections, and campfire ramblings -- epitomizing my 6 years of Life on the Road in the Third World -- gleaned from my tattered travel notebooks. Including: Tales from the Back of the Bus, theEgg Stories, Going Home!, Where would you most like to go back to?, and The Worst Toilet in the World? New stories, November 2003.

Travelin' Money

So I gave up collecting all those foreign coins and started collecting the Paper Money! Here are samples of some of the most beautiful currency notes I've found around the world. (Syrian at left) Updated June '03

'La Cascada de Plata' waterfall, outside Nebaj, Guatemala

Randy's Travel Photo Gallery

My personal photo galleries of: San Cristobal, Copper Canyon, the Lacondon Jungle, Quirigua, Pakistan, and Kashgar, China Added Jan. 2004
Updated December, 2008

Traveling to Japan?

In addition to world travel, I also spent four years living in Japan. You'll find a whole boatload of Japan travel info on Randy's Japan Page
Including my "Favorite Getaways in Rural Japan" travel guide book
And some great Japan Travel and Culture Links

This Traveler's Biography ... a brief travel bio page.

Travel Connections

Links to interesting sites for travelers:

Lonely Planet online ...the Travel Survival Kit folks..
Web Surfer Travel Journal ...good U.S. and foreign travel tales.
Moon Publications ...the Handbook folks, plus other travel links..
AirTreks.com ... for Round-The-World air ticket packages...
Time Out Magazine on line, from London.
Travelmag - Independent Travel Magazine ...from WEXAS in the UK.
Backpack Europe ...good resources and advice.
Want to be a homestay guest or host? Visit SERVAS International; 50 years of non-profit coordination of international home visits. Annual membership.
Reality Tours, from the folks at Global Exchange, advocates of fair trade, human rights, world peace, global awareness.
"Reality Tours educate people about how we contribute to global problems, and to suggest ways in which we can contribute to positive change." ... 10-30-day educational trips to places like India, Haiti, South Africa, Costa Rica, Afghanistan! Cuba!

Here's a converter for Islamic Calendar Dates to/from Western (Gregorian) Calendar Dates
And a few Mayan Links.
Japan Links on Randy's Japan Page.
Other Links on Randy's Home Page.
Happy Trails! -rj

Visit Randy Johnson's Place, my home page, or...

last updated October, 2006