Virtual Ambassador to the Nations™

Total distance traveled: 356,146+ km
Last Location: Yangon (Rangoon), Yangon, Myanmar

Thanks for your patience. Globetrotter has amassed a cross-section of photos, maps, and souvenirs on his global journey, as well as had many adventures and gained many friendships along the way, moving from nation to nation and spreading goodwill. This has earned him the moniker: "Virtual Ambassador to the Nations™" I have finally caught up on nearly a year's worth of travel and so would like to divide up some of Trotter's highlights and website additions into the sections below: Trotter had an extended stay (he was "stuck") in Yangon, Myanmar aka Burma, but had many adventures and took photos with host Matt Lippart. But when Cyclone Nargis came ashore on May 2nd, 2008, it tore through the Irrawaddy Division and Yangon before it dissipated near the Burma/Thailand border. Fortunately, Trotter (and Matt) were safe, but Matt's apartment and camera with Trotter photos was damaged in the storm.

Chaos ensued for a few days and our friends in the Burmese government were resistant at first to accept aid from other nations who were ready to help. Since then, they have let in more help, but much damage and loss of lives were left by this force of nature. Trotter's heart-circuit goes out to his Burmese friends and did what he could to help the recovery process.

Trotter is now headed back to the USA, but not before Matt was able to take a few new photos showing some of the damage near his apartment(off the balcony) and downtown Yangon. You can see the photos starting here. The Burmese government is friendly, but can be superstitious and didn't like photos to be taken so soon after the storm, so Trotter kept himself low-key in the photos he appears in. As mentioned here in an earlier blog entry, Trotter was invited on a unique journey to visit North Korea from November to December 2007. A former Canadian host( #35 ) and supporter of Trotter's journey, Charles F. Gray a.k.a. Atari Charles spearheaded the efforts to get Trotter welcomed into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Charles got in contact with Alejandro Cao de Benos, a special delegate for the DPRK, involved in Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. After hearing about Trotter's mission of spreading goodwill across the globe, Alejandro agreed to take Trotter with him on his next trip to Korea. Charles kept me informed of his progress until I could also chat with Alejandro via e-mail and set up the final details.

Trotter was given the VIP treatment while there. I have set up a special page in the Events section that includes larger photos and anecdotes shared during his visit. Trotter made friends with another traveller in early May 2008. BJ Hill, originally from Leicester, Massachusetts, is walking across America! That's right- walking!

I heard about BJ's journey on my local nighttime radio show and contacted BJ through his online blog at: Walk America 2008. He had passed by Orem, so Trotter and I caught up with him while he was still in Salt Lake City, and we shared some lunch at the local Burger King ( Last year, IIRC, they had those cool Activision handhelds in the kids' meal). Then he posed for some photos with the Silver Trotter and me (Weston). Trotter gave him a T-shirt to wear on his journey to protect against the elements.

Why you ask, is BJ going cross-country? Well, he is carrying with him a journal of sorts, with blank pages. He started in San Francisco on March 1st and has been walking eastward, collecting notes and wishes written into the pages, addressed to the next president of the United States. Each town or city he passes through, he has attracted people wanting to have their voice heard by writing in his journal. Back in Massachusetts in 2007, BJ made a similar trek across the state collecting messages, then presented it to the newly-elected governor. Likewise, at the end of his current journey, he intends to deliver this journal to the next president.

Got a couch BJ can sleep on when he passes through your town? Check out his site mentioned above to see where he is headed next. As of this writing, he is in Northwest Nebraska. He is a friendly, down-to-earth guy. He even mentions Globetrotter in a recent blog entry entitled Salt Lake City Pt. 02. On April 1st, 2008, Trotter was surprised to find this website had been hacked! Somebody calling themselves "Vaporware" left scathing remarks about Trotter, suggesting he should be replaced with a new traveller, presumably this "Vaporware" person, or thing. Not sure why "it" seems to have so much contempt for Trotter and his global tour. Probably just jealous.

It took me a few days to clear out the hacked elements. I managed to save an image of this "Vaporware" character. My gut says we haven't heard the last from him, her, or it. As seen above, Trotter has touched down and/or visited for several days in: 5 of the 7 Continents, 29 Nations and 25 US States(including DC) up to this point. I plan to make a page in the future with similar stats to this + Europe, etc. I used maps from http://douweosinga.com/

Finally, now that the bulk of the website is updated, I will be focusing on the smaller details such as: Updating the orders in the Store, fixing the distance info of how far Trotter has actually travelled since I have neglected that for a while, and fixing some of the map pages for each state/region, etc. I would like to have each state, etc. have its own map, with flags for hosts waiting and whatnot, but the priority has been for the maps where Trotter has already been, so I will do those first to try to find consistency.

In Trotter's near future: He should be in New Mexico now(Santa Fe). If anybody from Albuquerque or nearby wants to host, now would be the time to sign up. Otherwise, Trotter will move eastward until August, when Trotter's plans will take him to South Korea and possibly a return to Indonesia! Meanwhile, South America is still on the radar, and plans for Antarctica are being looked into...

Have a VCS day™!

---

---

 

---

 

Minor Update...will have another hopefully before Christmas. Above is a neat map showing the nations Trotter has stopped in so far. I want to include this and maps of the US states and Europe on a new webpage next update to show Trotter's progress.

Yes, Trotter has ventured into a place not accessible by just any game cart...he has set down in the DPRK!


                                 

                                 

Here are two teaser photos for now. More to be added next update. Thanks to Charles Gray and Alejandro Cao de Benos for their help in setting up this rare opportunity!

The first photo shows Trotter in front of the Arc Of Triumph in Pyongyang, the largest of its kind in the world!

The second photo is Trotter overlooking, from the city of Namp'o, the West Sea Barrage. This Dam construction was a major accomplishment for the North Koreans.

I have also updated the reserve list for the remaining Silver Trotter carts in the "Store" section, and added some T-shirts to the inventory. If you reserved in the past, I am now catching up and will try to get these shipped out in time for Christmas. I will be sending out e-mails while finishing up classes for the semester this week. Check the "Store" page for more info and contact me if you have questions. I also have about 3 unclaimed Silver Trotter letters available from the 26 total.

Also, I have added a few new people to the host list whom have signed up recently. More soon! Happy Holidays!

---

Note: Best viewed in IE 6 at 1280 x 1024 resolution. I am exploring more web language knowledge to improve the format in other browsers, but the page designs I want to keep simple to cater to Trotter's global audience, not all having fast Internet connections.

©2008 Trotter and the Globetrotter World Tour were created and started by Weston D. Hilton and is co-sponsored by Packrat Video Games.